The Ascension of Our Lord

The Ascension of Our Lord

- 40 days after

Easter/The Resurrection

It is in the basilica of St. Peter, dedicated to one of the chief witnesses of our Lord’s ascension, that this mystery which marks the end of our Lord’s earthly life, is “this day” (Collect) kept.

In the forty days which followed His resurrection, our Redeemer laid the foundations of His Church on which He was soon to send the Holy Ghost.

The Epistle and Gospel describe the scene of the ascension and summarize its teaching. All the chants of the Mass (Introit, Alleluia, Offertory, Communion) celebrate the glory of the Man-God who ascends to the right hand of His Father, while the Preface and the Prayers mention the share in this great mystery that, henceforward, is ours until one day it is finally granted to us to dwell with Him. Throughout the octave the Credo is said so that the Church may express her belief in our Lord’s ascension: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God... He ascended into heaven... He sitteth at the right hand of the Father”. The Gloria speaks in the same sense: “O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son... who sitteth at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.” Throughout the octave the Communicants proper to the feast is said.

Every day the prayers of the Ordinary of the Mass remind us at the Offertory and the Canon (Suscipe sancta Trinitas-Unde et memores) that the holy sacrifice is offered in memory of the passion, resurrection, and the glorious ascension into heaven of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the ascension is one of the essential mysteries of our redemption, one of those which all the chosen people of God are called to share in order to be saved: “through Thy death and burial, through Thy holy resurrection, through Thy wonderful ascension, deliver us, O Lord” sings the Church in the Litany of the Saints. We should offer to God the holy sacrifice in memory of the glorious ascension of His Son and cultivate in our souls a burning desire for heaven so that henceforth “we may ever live in mind of heavenly things”.