ASCENSION

Year A

Readings

First Reading
Acts 1:1–11

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 47:2–3, 6–7, 8–9

Second Reading
Eph 1:17–23

Gospel
Mt 28:16–20

Meditation on Today’s Readings

Taken from the Vatican II Sunday and Weekday Missal
Written by Celia Sirois

On the feast of the Ascension we remember how Jesus was “taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” Although the event of the ascension is only depicted in Luke-Acts, each Gospel in its own way describes the exaltation of the risen Jesus and what it meant for his disciples. Today’s Gospel is Matthew’s account.

Matthew’s Gospel concludes with what is often called the Great Commission. Appearing to the eleven on the mountain, the usual site of divine revelation in the Bible, Jesus reveals his new status and universal authority as risen Lord. “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me,” he declares. He will exercise this power on earth by sharing it with his disciples. So he authorizes them to make disciples of all nations. This is the vision of Ephesians too when it says that the power God put to work in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand, “far above every principality, authority, power and dominion,” is now at work in the Church which is his body.

The copyright for the Sunday Missal Introductions is:
Copyright (c) 2001, Daughters of St. Paul
The copyright for the Weekday Missal Introduction is:
Copyright (c) 2002, Daughters of St. Paul