Ascension Day no longer inaugurates a new season, nor does it have an octave.
The new name for the Sunday is yet another expression of what we have noted several times already, namely, that the fifty days are a continuous celebration of the Easter events, with different accentuations at different times.
But this Sunday still continues the theme of Ascension Day itself: the enthronement of Christ at the right hand of the Father.
At the moment of his death, Stephen is granted a vision of heaven, with the Son of man “standing at the right hand of God.”
There are two unusual features here: (1) the use of the title “Son of man”—the only time it is used by anyone other than the earthly Jesus himself (Jn 12:34 is only a partial exception, for here the Jews are merely repeating Jesus’ own words. (2) Christ is described as standing rather than sitting at God’s right hand.
There is no universally accepted explanation of either of these features.
Perhaps the title “Son of man” is used here because it suggests that the exalted Christ is pleading the cause of his first martyr, in anticipation of his function as Son of man at the last judgment (Lk 12:8-9; Mk 8:38), and is standing in order to welcome his martyr to heaven.
In any case, Stephen’s martyrdom is an appropriate gospel for this day, as it gives a vision of the ascended Lord.
Responsorial Psalm: 97:1-2, 6-7, 9
This is another of the enthronement psalms. It is noteworthy that the earlier parts of the Old Testament do not deny the existence of other gods but assert that Yhwh is above them all (henotheism rather than monotheism).
Similarly, in the New Testament, Christ at his ascension triumphs over the demonic forces of evil (Phil 2:10). Demythologizing the language, we might say that God in Christ is above all false absolutes that people choose for themselves.
Reading II: Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20
This reading might seem more appropriate for Advent, and indeed this particular Sunday has always had about it something of an Advent character (see the old epistle, 1 Peter 4:7-11, with its exhortation to watchfulness in view of the impending end).
As we noted earlier, the fifty days originally included the Advent hope—it is because Christ has been exalted that we can hope for his coming again: “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor 2:9).
The experience of Easter is of such a quality that believers know that there is more to come: the kingship of Christ, now inaugurated but hidden, must finally triumph universally. The final words, “Come, Lord Jesus” (Marana tha) are from the earliest liturgy of the Church.
In the Eucharist the ascended Christ comes in anticipation of his final coming, and here he offers the thirsty the water of life without price.
Traditionally the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper has been called “the high priestly prayer.” It represents not only what, according to the Fourth Gospel, was the substance of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper, but also the prayer he continues to offer as the ascended high priest in heaven. It is a prayer “that all may be one.”
The unity for which he prays is not grounded on ecclesiastical joinery, for “it must not be supposed that the unity of the Church is to be attained by a long history of human endeavor” (EC Hoskyns). Rather, the unity of the Church is a unity based on the common sharing of word and sacraments, in which the act of God in Christ, the foundation of the Church’s unity, is made ever present.
The first half of this Sunday’s Gospel concerns the life of the Church on earth. Its unity is a unity for mission, a unity whose aim is that the world may believe “that thou hast sent me.”
The second half of the Gospel turns to the final destiny of the Church—what we traditionally call the Church Triumphant, but what John would rather call the Church Glorified.
Even if Bultmann were right in assigning all the passages in John that express a future eschatology to the hand of an ecclesiastical redactor (for example, Jn 5:28-29; 6:40), it is clear from this passage that John has not entirely eliminated the future consummation in favor of a realized eschatology.
There is a future destiny for the Church: “That they may be with me where I am, to behold my glory.”
This future element chimes in perfectly with the future hope of the second reading, written, according to tradition, by the same hand as this gospel, but in any case the product of a mind from the same theological school.
| Preaching the Lectionary: The Word of God for the Church Today Reginald H. Fuller and Daniel Westberg. Liturgical Press. 1984 (Revised Edition), pp. 88-90, 366-367, 436-438. |
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from Religious Clip Art for the Liturgical Year (A, B, and C).
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