Category Archives: Scripture

The Ascension in Acts

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24. Yesterday we considered a detailed account of the first part of the reading from Acts. Today, we continue our detailed look.

But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Verse 1:8 provides a “table of contents” for Acts. The witness “in Jerusalem” is Acts 2 to 7. “Throughout Judea and Samaria” is from chapters 8 to 12, and to “the ends of the earth” from Acts 13 to 28. “The ends of the earth” is an echo of Isa 49:6 (“I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” – quoted explicitly in Acts 13:47)) Both Acts and the Psalms of Solomon, a slightly earlier non-Biblical Jewish writing, apply the phrase “the ends of the earth” to Rome. Acts ends in Rome. And Pss Sol 8:15 calls the Roman general Pompey “him that is from the end of the earth.” Of course, it can simply mean the whole of the world, even beyond Rome.

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Ascension Account Compared

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24. Previously we considered the Acts of the Apostles as a whole, Today we take a high-level view of the unity of the two works of scripture.

Luke begins Acts as he begins his Gospel, with a foreword to his patron Theophilus, reminding him that the “first book” covered the time until Jesus was taken up by God to heaven. The Gospel ends with a brief reference to this incident (Luke 24:51), which was preceded by important teaching given by Jesus to his disciples. So important was this teaching that we have three accounts of it. Luke records it in the Gospel (Luke 24, especially vv. 44–49); he then summarizes it briefly in this introductory part of Acts, and then he covers certain aspects of it once again in the story of the ascension which is the first incident in the main narrative in Acts (1:6–11). The repetition is partly for emphasis, and at the same time it indicates that the period from Easter Sunday to the Ascension is both the conclusion of the earthly ministry of Jesus and the beginning of the work of the church. This period had two important characteristics. It provided evidence that Jesus was alive (1:3), having risen from the dead, and it was the time when Jesus gave his mission orders to the apostles (1:4f.; cf. 1:7f.).

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After the Ascension

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This coming Sunday we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension. The readings are taken from St. Luke’s Gospel and his Acts of the Apostles. Both the first reading and the gospel are accounts of the Ascension, making this event the lynchpin between the two works of St. Luke. Yesterday was an introductory post. Today’s post takes a bird’s eye view of the mission to the world after the Ascension.

Peter was the leading member of the Twelve (Acts 1:13, 15), and after the Resurrection and Ascension was gifted by the Holy Spirit to perform miracles in the name of Jesus (see Acts 3:1-10; 5:1-11, 15; 9:32-35, 36-42) and was the spokesman for the Christian community. In the early days of the Christian Church, it was Peter who was largely responsible for the growth of the community among the Gentile people of Israel, along with Philip. Paul eventually joined the community at Antioch, which subsequently commissioned him and Barnabas to undertake the spread of the gospel to Asia Minor. This missionary venture generally had mixed results among the Jews outside of Israel (the diaspora) but enjoyed success among the Gentiles in cities across Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Greece.

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The Journeys

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This coming Sunday is the 7th Sunday of Ordinary Time, but in almost all of the dioceses of the United States, as allowed, the Solemnity of the Ascension is transferred from its traditional Thursday celebration to the following Sunday, replacing 7th Easter. The celebration of the Ascension offers an interesting combination of readings – each by the same author, St. Luke.  The first reading for Sunday is taken from the first chapter of Acts of the Apostles. The gospel reading is taken from Luke 24. In a way the accounts of the Ascension serve as the lynchpin between the two works of St. Luke. I will attempt to cover both during the course of the week.

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What does it all mean?

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

The “Farewell Discourse” stretches over several chapters, seems to curl back on itself with repeated messages and promises – and to some extent it does exactly that. You have to remember that the disciples are in shock. Their trip to Jerusalem, the triumphal entry to the city, was not the prelude to the King Messiah creating the New Jerusalem, the New Israel.  He is leaving them. They are stunned and Jesus knows that the worst is yet to come. Within hours He will be arrested and the Passion will begin leading to death on the cross. What Jesus has told them now is not solace for the immediacy of Good Friday and Easter, it is for the “long haul” of mission to the world. When they will look back and remember why He spoke to them: “And now I have told you this before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe.”

As Gail O’Day notes: “One way to think about Jesus’ words in John 14 (and the rest of the Farewell Discourse) is as Jesus’ preaching to his gathered followers. Jesus offers his disciples the good news of the love of God and of the abiding presence of God with them, even when the circumstances of their lives would indicate otherwise.  In the face of the evidence that says that the battle is lost, that death will claim Jesus, and that the hope JEsus offered them is thereby nullified, Jesus speaks words of renewed hope and assurance, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.” (14:27)… In the preaching of Jesus in the Farewell Discourse, that refrain thus summons the disciples to believe in a life shaped not by Jesus’ absence but by the enduring presence of God.”

Image credit: Christ’s Final Address to the Apostles | Bona Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1380 | from the Maesta Altar | Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo | PD-US

The Promise of the Paraclete

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

“The Advocate, the holy Spirit that the Father will send in my name—he will teach you everything and remind you of all that (I) told you.” Perhaps it best not to translate the Greek word paraclete because there are too many possibilities. While the literal meaning of the related verb (parakaleo) means “to call to one’s side,” usually asking the other for help, the noun took on a legal meaning as “helper in court”. Thus we have translations like “counselor,” “advocate,” or “one who speaks for another” as well as the too general translation of “helper”.

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More questions but now answers

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

Verse 23 begins with, “Jesus answered and said to him.” Jesus is answering the question raised in v. 22 by Judas (not Iscariot): “Lord, how is it that you will reveal (emphanizo) yourself to us, and not to the world?” This question comes because Jesus has just said that he would love and reveal himself to those who have and keep his commandments — those who love him (v. 21: Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me. And whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and reveal myself to him.”).

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Questions and more Questions

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

“I will be with you only a little while longer…Where I go you cannot come. And now the questions come:

Peter (13:36–14:4): “Master, where are you going?” (13:36). Peter has sworn he will follow Jesus anywhere, yet his denials lay just ahead and in vv.37-38 Jesus predicts just that but also predicts that Peter would follow him in death: “though you will follow later” (v.36)

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An Ongoing Conversation

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter comes from a section of the “Farewell Discourse” that focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.

Our gospel drops us onto the end of an ongoing conversation. We need to “catch up” on the conversation that occurred  before the events of Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas the traitor has left the Last Supper, or as St. John describes it: has left the light (13:1). Jesus then turns to his closest disciples, those who have followed him for about three years. Various disciples — Peter, Thomas, Philip, Judas (not Iscariot, possibly Thaddeus) — carry the discussion forward by the questions they pose. This enables us to break down the whole conversation, hopefully to see it in content and more clearly, by dividing it according to the characters who ask the leading questions. (Neal Flannigan, John, The Collegeville Bible Commentary)

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Setting the Context

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Our gospel text for the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year C, is a portion of the much longer “Farewell Discourse” in the Gospel of John (chapters 13 thru 17).  In other words, we have but a few verses which are an integral part of a much larger passage. The setting for this gospel falls between the account of the Last Supper and the events that will unfold later resulting in the arrest of Jesus. Lets provide some context: the larger Discourse can be outlined in a number of ways, though three main parts are fairly clear:

  • The first part (13:31-14:31) focuses on Jesus’ departure and discusses the disciples’ relation to Jesus and their conflict with the world. Our gospel pericope falls at the end of this section.
  • The second part (15:1-16:33) develops these same themes, moving from the relationship of Jesus to the disciples, using the figure of the vine and the branches (15:1-17), to the conflict between the disciples and the world (15:18-16:15), and on to a promise to the disciples of joy in the future after the sorrow of this time of separation (16:16-33). 
  • In the third major part Jesus prays to his Father (17:1-26). 

Throughout, the overall theme is the Father’s presence with the disciples and the Son’s and Spirit’s roles in mediating his presence. As a way of establishing a context lets first consider a wider view of at least a portion of our passage by considering the text surrounding Jesus’ departure (13:31-14:31).

Image credit: Christ’s Final Address to the Apostles | Bona Duccio di Buoninsegna, 1380 | from the Maesta Altar | Siena, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo | PD-US