Lectio Divina: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

on 26 May, 2022
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Province of Medellín (Colombia), Sr. H. Ana Cecilia González Montoya, May 29, 2022.- MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

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Lectio Divina - 29-05-2022 eng Download

Acts. 1:1-11 Eph. 1:17-23, Lk. 24:46-53

TWe take for the lectio the text of Acts, and the Gospel and to pray, the text of Ephesians:

"Men of Galilee, what are you doing looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven,
Will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven." Acts 1, 11
 

Invocation to the Holy Spirit: Lord send us your Spirit and everything will be created and the face of the earth will be renewed.

READING

 Let us read Acts. 1,1-11. Let us place the text in context.

  • Its author is Luke, the same of the third Gospel, who seems to dedicate his work of the Gospel and The Acts to his friend Theophilus, perhaps a Roman patrician, already a Christian, although his name Theophilus, which means "Friend of God", in this case, could well be us, the recipients, as friends of God.
  • In the prologue he makes it clear that Acts is a continuation of the Gospel, "All that Jesus did and taught." And in Acts what the disciples did and taught in the nascent Church.
  • The story, unique of Luke, takes place in Jerusalem, on the Mount of Olives.
  • He speaks of "forty days. More than a real time, it would be symbolic time, very significant in the Bible, as a time of trial and growth in faith; pedagogical time for his disciples to make the experience of the new life of the risen one and learn to discover his presence in the community of brothers, non-chronological time, but theological.
  • Jerusalem occupies a central place in Luke's work; it is the point of arrival of the Risen One and the starting point of the Church: "He charged them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father..."
  • "Is it now Lord that you are going to restore Israel's sovereignty? They still think of a nationalist messianism...
 

MEDITATION 

  • "John baptized you with water, but you will soon be baptized with the Holy Spirit... You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit and be my witnesses. The verbs in future leave the time open, for them and for us now.
  • "Two people dressed in white, angels?" told them: Men of Galilee, what are you doing there looking up at heaven? That Jesus, who has been taken from you and raised to heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen him depart." He will come because he is the favorite Son of the Father, Yhwh, the God who comes down, always comes down. As in the bush of Moses, because he sees, hears and knows the groans of his people, his bowels are of mercy and a God who comes down, is a God who commits and commits us.
  • We are facing a sacramental liturgy: baptized, clothed with grace, confirmed as witnesses of all confidence of the Risen One, to live the prophecy of the Hope of new life, already made a reality in Jesus and in each one of us as St. Paul explains to the Ephesians: "Going up to heaven, he took with him a multitude of captives and gave his gifts to men."

Eph. 4:8, Jesus has fulfilled his mission and we go up with him to the Father.

We have already inherited beatitude, the guarantee of the promise. We are now children in the Son, because the Risen One has washed and regenerated us with his blood and although we have not yet reached the fullness of knowledge and faith, we are the children of Easter.

To celebrate this solemnity is to celebrate the promise fulfilled and the first fruit of our resurrection, therefore: If we have risen with Christ, let us seek the goods of heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Cf. Col. 3:1, is to reaffirm our commitment as witnesses of his permanent Presence among us. The Holy Spirit will open our understanding to know the Truth and sustain us in our daily effort "to find in Jesus the strength as we prepare the pilgrimage and walk from height to height, until we see God in Zion" cf. Ps 83.

LET'S PRAY

Let us make ours the prayer of Ephesians on this solemnity:

May our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, grant us the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, may He enlighten our hearts, to value the hope to which we have been called and the richness of the inheritance, promised to the consecrated, (baptized). Amen.

LET'S CONTEMPLATE...

In deep silence the glory of the Risen One, with the certainty that, as He ascends, he takes us with him, and while our pilgrimage lasts in the today of the synodal Church, let us live in communion, making together the way back to the Father.