{"id":765,"date":"2019-05-28T14:27:53","date_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:27:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=765"},"modified":"2019-05-28T14:27:53","modified_gmt":"2019-05-28T14:27:53","slug":"2-june-2019-c-the-ascension-of-the-lord-reflection-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/?p=765","title":{"rendered":"2 June 2019 (C) The Ascension of the Lord Reflection & Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reflection & Dialogue<\/em><\/strong>:<\/em> The Ascension of\nChrist. God is with us in strength. Dialogue on how to express ourselves about\nGod and the divine<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reflection on this feast of Christ\u2019s ascension into heaven,\nto the right hand of the Father, presents an opportunity to satisfy our minds\nand our hearts on questions we may have with regard to the meaning of this\nascension historically considered, and its significance for the Christian\nmystery of salvation. The ascension of Christ in the New Testament texts can be\nconsidered in two ways: as, so to speak, \u2018historical\u2019 and theological.  In the historical sense it is presented as an\nevent visible to human sight. This is how it is presented in the first reading\ntoday and in the Gospel of Luke \u2013 both from St Luke. While the Gospel text\nwould give the impression that the ascension occurred on Easter Sunday itself,\nthe first reading from the Acts of the Apostles says it occurred after forty\ndays. The text of Acts is really describing the last visible encounter of Jesus\nwith his disciples after his resurrection. Various Gospel texts speak of Jesus\nappearing to his followers after his resurrection and St Paul (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) lists six such\nappearances, without specifying any time period. Luke in today\u2019s reading from\nthe Acts of the Apostles gives this as forty days. So much for the ascension\n\u2018historically\u2019 considered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            In all the\nother New Testament texts, as in today\u2019s Alternative Second Reading, the\nascension of Christ is considered theologically. The ascension is another\naspect of Christ\u2019s resurrection, of his glorification, as partly expressed in\ntoday\u2019s second reading: Christ entered heaven itself so that he could appear in\nthe actual presence of God on our behalf. He ascended on high to plead on our\nbehalf as a compassionate high priest. \nSeated at God\u2019s right hand he gives gifts to his church, all the\ncharisms that are required for its mission on earth. Through his ascension and\nglorification he is also directing the minds of his followers towards their true\nhome which is heaven, and calling on them to avoid sinful ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Language\nsuch as \u201cascension\u201d, implying a \u201cGod up there\u201d can be off-putting for many\ntoday, and some seek ways of avoiding it. But it is well to recall that such\nexpressions are offset by the Christian belief in God as a spiritual not\nmaterial, Being. But given the weakness of human language in speaking of the\nmystery, of the infinite, we can hardly avoid such terms, while recognizing\ntheir limitations. Monotheism, whether Jewish or Christian, was from the\nbeginning and will always remain the worship of an unseen God, but nonetheless\nof a person, a personal God who has revealed his will, his love and his plan\nfor salvation to humanity. We as mortals must conceive and speak of the mystery\nof this divine Being in frail human speech. This is all variance with certain\nmodern views, which reject the idea of a \u201cGod up there\u201d, and invoke newer theological\nconcepts such as God as \u201cground of our being\u201d, or call for a secular theology,\nwith situational ethics. While earlier \u201cmythical\u201d language in the expression of\nbelief is rightly objected to or rejected and while newer approaches to the\nexpression of our Christian faith are always welcome, the central truths can\nnever be forgotten or set aside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A final\nmatter for reflection is that the ascension of Christ, which we celebrate, and\nall that it signifies can only be grasped through prayer for Christian\nenlightenment. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reflection & Dialogue: The Ascension of Christ. God is with us in strength. Dialogue on how to express ourselves about God and the divine. Reflection on this feast of Christ\u2019s … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reflections"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":766,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundayscriptureonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}