This weekend the church celebrates the feast of the Ascension of Jesus. It’s celebrated 40 days after Easter to mark when our Lord returned to heaven and we are given the advocate of the Holy Spirit as Jesus promise to be with us until the end of time. It’s interesting to read the different narratives about the Ascension in the Gospels and how they don’t agree on some of the details. For example, in the accounts narrated in Luke and Acts, the Ascension took place in Jerusalem. In Matthew and Mark, on the other hand, the event occurred in Galilee. All accounts, however, agree that the Ascension took place on a mountain. In Luke and Acts, the Ascension happened forty days after the Resurrection, a period during which Jesus appeared repeatedly to his followers. In Matthew and Mark there is no indication of the time period between the Resurrection and the Ascension. The Gospel writers apparently were not aiming at accuracy of historical detail but were more concerned with transmitting Our Lord’s message – Christ’s Ascension or going up to heaven completes his Incarnation coming down to earth. Christ is with us now in the form of the Holy Spirit who will never leave us no matter what, even when we are not always faithful. Details are important to us today. Our expectation of the evening news, broadcasts, podcasts etc. are to quickly and succinctly give us the facts! This is not always the case in the Sacred Scriptures. One Scripture professor I had in college told us that when we say the Bible is the inspired word of God it means that “it’s the message and not the envelope that is the inspired word of God.” In other words, the Bible was written by individuals chosen by God and each was allowed to write about their experiences and how God changed their lives. So does that mean in Luke and Acts since the account of the Ascension took place in Jerusalem whereas in Matthew and Mark it happens in Galilee that there were two Ascensions or one was more true than the other? ABSOLUTELY NOT! The message is the same – ‘Go into the world I love you and will be with you forever until the end of time! Fr. Roach
