Posts Tagged ‘Luke 24:44-53’
Ascended Glory – Br. Jack Crowley
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Br. Jack Crowley
Ascension Day
Back in my twenties, I taught English as a second language. I had the pleasure of meeting thousands of people from around the world. There was one particular summer when I had a group of students all from Germany, and I think they spoke English better than I did. Frequently, they would show up early to class and we would get to talking before class started.
One morning, out of the blue, one of the German men asked me if my grandfather had been in World War Two. I could see the other students stiffen up a bit. I smiled and said yes. I told him I had one grandfather who was a Marine and served in the Pacific, and my other grandfather was in the Air Force and served in Europe. I asked the student about his family’s experience in the war, and he nodded and inhaled and proceeded to tell me that in World War Two his grandfather was in the Air Force as well. There was a long, awkward silence as our eyes met, and then we both kind of nodded at each other with a knowing smile and looked upward, as if to say: here we are – our two grandfathers flew against each other in a world war, and their grandsons are in a classroom together speaking a common language. Now certainly, we did not achieve world peace in that classroom that morning, but some progress was made. Read More
Human in Heaven – Br. Luke Ditewig
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Br. Luke Ditewig
Ascension Day
Gathered together, the disciples and friends are amazed Jesus had appeared to Peter. The two who walked to Emmaus just returned and told of meeting Jesus in breaking bread. As they speak, Jesus stands among the gathering. “Peace be with you,” Jesus says. “Look, it’s me. Look at my hands and my feet. Remember my wounds. Watch me eat. I’m alive. Everything written about me must be fulfilled. Good news is to be proclaimed to everyone. You are witnesses of all of this.” Then Jesus leads them out to nearby Bethany and is carried up to heaven.
Jesus ascending into heaven is part of the resurrection story. Risen and ascended go together. The Word became flesh and lived among us as a human infant who grew into an adult, living, loving, losing, dying, rising, and ascending. God with us.
Ascension Day – God’s Waiting On Us – Br. Curtis Almquist
Br. Curtis Almquist
Ascension Day follows the high drama of Holy Week and Easter, days that are full of interpretation and significance. But Ascension Day is rather vacuous in meaning. Jesus says to his followers: Stay here. Wait. Wait until you have been clothed with power. Why the wait? Because of fear. They were still afraid.
Sixty years ago the great Secretary General of the United Nations, Dag Hammarskjöld, wrote in his diary in Ascensiontide 1961: “…at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”1 As for Jesus’ disciples, just as for us: God is waiting for us to say Yes, to keep saying Yes to our own lives, which will open up this channel for God’s work within us and through us. Read More
Up, Down, and All Around – Br. Keith Nelson
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Acts 1:1-11; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53
Before I entered monastic life, I experienced the Ascension in both its scriptural telling and its liturgical observance a bit the same way I experienced a lay-over between flights. Why this seemingly unnecessary stop on the journey from Easter to Pentecost – and so close to our final destination? Jesus had risen. Why did he now need to go up still farther – to a Heaven I certainly believe in but did not (and do not) regard to be “up” at all? In the monastery, where scripture rains from above and seeps up from below until it gets inside you, it was clear that the Ascension meant more – much, much more than I had assumed. But it still felt like an irritant – a grain of sand that might produce a pearl – one day.
My relationship with the Ascension is now very different. I now delight to get off the Easter-to-Ascension plane, stretch my legs, and take in the breath-taking view before climbing aboard for the Ascension-to-Pentecost leg of the journey. I understand why lay-overs and way-stations are necessary on long journeys – and what they can do to shift the perspective of the traveler toward the terrain. I understand that “direct flights” in the spiritual life are available only to angels. I do not understand the Ascension, anymore than I can levitate – or fly. But I love the Ascension because I love the Ascended Christ and I sense now more than ever what his Ascension means for us here below.
God’s Waiting for Our Availability – Br. Curtis Almquist
Acts 1:1-11;
Ephesians 1:15-23;
Luke 24:44-53
Ascension Day follows the high drama of Holy Week: the palm-waving crowds, the last supper among friends, the betrayals, the scourging, the crucifixion and resurrection. All of those days are full of interpretation and meaning. But Ascension Day is rather vacuous of meaning. Jesus says to his followers,“Stay here. Wait. Wait until you have been clothed with power.”Why the wait? I think God is waiting for us, for you and for me, to say Yes with our own lives: our readiness or at least our willingness to co-operate with God for what God has in mind for our own lives.Dag Hammarskjöld, the great Secretary General of the United Nations, wrote in his diary just before Pentecost in 1961: “…at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone – or Something – and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”1 Say Yes to your own life. God is waiting for us to say Yes to our own lives, which will open up this channel of God’s power at work within us and through us. Read More