CAPG's Blog 

"The Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven." MARK XVI. 19.

1. Reconstruction of the event.

2. He had been the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

3. He ascended to claim the Kingdom for Himself and all who believe in Him.

4. Remembrance of this day, the hope and strength of His disciples.

"THE Ascension is the grand finale of the drama of Christ's life on earth. Short as are the accounts of it in the gospels and Acts of the Apostles, we can reconstruct devoutly the events of this blessed day. St. Luke tells us that "He led them out as far as Bethania." What tender condescension of our Blessed Lord! For the last time He wended His way along the lower slopes of Mount Olivet, accompanied by the disciples and His holy Mother. He loved His friends to the end; and we are told in the gospel that Jesus loved Martha and Mary. So He passed by their home in Bethania with a last, loving look; and at the grave of Lazarus and the house of Simon the leper where He had supped, and mounted the gentle rise to Olivet. There He had spent many a night in prayer; from there He had looked down upon Jerusalem and begun His humble triumph on Palm Sunday, and lower down He had commenced His sacred Passion six weeks before. Now that all things had been accomplished by the Son of Man, how befitting to rise hence and to enter into His glory. Picture the touching scene of His last farewell. Each of those favoured ones received a look of ineffable love; words of encouragement, to be treasured all life long; they were permitted to kiss His sacred feet, and the hand of blessing was laid upon their heads bowed down in adoration. It is beyond us to realize the farewell of the Mother and the Son! The Mother's heart would yearn never to be parted, but, according to His Will, that Mother gave up her divine Son to become the Mother of the infant Church. Her presence was needed to encourage the Apostles: to be a model to them, and to be a living proof that the Saviour, though departed to enter into His glory, had been a real Man born of the Virgin Mary; Who had lived for us; died for us on the Cross; and had risen again, immortal and glorified, to prove that He was not only Man, but God!

"And the Lord Jesus was taken up to heaven.” He had declared Himself thus: "I am the way, the truth, and the life" (John xiv. 6). The way of salvation He had shown to men by His obedience to His heavenly Father; by doing good to all; by being meek and humble of heart; by forgiving His enemies; by dying on the Cross for our salvation.

The truth He had taught them. He had renewed the commandments of old and explained and amplified them. He had taught them that the blessedness of life was to be found in poverty, in suffering, in peace, in cleanliness of heart, in suffering persecution for justice' sake.

The life! For from whence could man draw the power to obey the truth, to follow the way, but from that loving God made man, Who made us partakers of His own strength, endurance, and immortality; Who crowns our endeavours in this short life on earth with a never-ending life of glory?

And thus, when our Lord ascended into heaven, the Apostles did not lose Him, He only went before themtheir Leader, the Victor-to claim that heaven which He had won for us. On ascending, He had lifted up His hands and bestowed such a blessing upon them that their faith rose superior to His departure, and their hearts rejoiced. They had not lost Him! He had associated them with Himself in His triumph, as the Church sings this day, "Ascendo ad Patrem Meum" (I ascend to My Father and to your Father; to My God and to your God).

What a divine encouragement this vision of their beloved Master ascending to His Kingdom was to the Apostles! They had now to return, wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit, and then commence their labours. Yes, their labours, their persecutions, their martyrdom before their glory. As their Master, so they themselves. And He had said to them before His departure, "Thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead" (Luke xxiv. 46).

How the remembrance of the Ascension has been the source of the heroism of the saints! Not only to the Apostles, a vivid, lifelong remembrance; but to the martyrs amidst their tortures; to the hermits and fathers of the desert amidst trials and temptations; to the inmates of cloisters, during the slow martyrdom of obedience and unchanging monotony of life. It was heavenly sunshine to them, that lifted up their souls, and made them hopefully and bravely cling to their King and Master, Christ. Aye, and amongst the poor, unknown faithful, amidst their daily trials and labour and sorrows, the memory that Christ, their Lord, has won the Kingdom for them, has prepared a home for them, is waiting with the welcome on His lips, till they have fought the good fight and been faithful. Oh, how many have persevered through this blessed remembrance !

He was kindness itself to His friends that morning ere He ascended, and He is the same to us-only we have to behold Him in faith. He is here in our churches, on our altars, always in the tabernacle to comfort us day after day. He has not left us orphans, to struggle through life all alone and helpless. We can always come to Him here for solace and for strength. I have sanctified this house, and put My name there for ever. And My eyes and My heart shall be there always," He says to us; and "If thou wilt walk before Me, in simplicity of heart and uprightness, and wilt do all that I have commanded thee . . . I will establish the throne of thy kingdom for ever" (3 Kings ix. 3, 4). His glorious Ascension, then, is a pledge of ours! "Be thou faithful until death, and I will give thee the crown of life" (Apoc. ii. 10)." Short Sermons on the Epistles & Gospels of the Sundays of the Year By Francis Paulinus Hickey Ascension