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APRIL 27
122
LIFTED UP
“So when they had come together, they asked him, ‘Lord, will you at this
time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ He said to them, ‘It is not for you to
know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But
you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you
shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the
end of the earth.’ And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he
was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were
gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white
robes, and said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?
This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same
way as you saw him go into heaven.’” (Acts 1: 6-11)
At the time when the Lord ascends in His resurrected body, having spent
forty days among us, the “men of Galilee,” the disciples, still lack the grace
of understanding His divine Kingship. Because they still cling to their old
hopes, that Christ will “restore the kingdom to Israel.” So here, just before
His Ascension, He once again reminds us of the promise of the Spirit; of
the “power” not political, but from above: “But you shall receive power
when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.”
And He further confuses them, by being lifted from their sight, so they’re
left standing there, bedazzled and “looking into heaven.” But as the
two men in white robes assure them, He has not finished His work for
us, no. He “will come” again. And as St. Paul notes, Christ lifted up our
renewed, human body in glory, having taken “captive” our darkness and
tormentors, in order to make way for Another Comforter and His gifts.
Christ is making way for the Holy Spirit, Whose time is coming, in the
time of the Church, with her abundant gifts to each of us: “But grace was
given to each of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore it
is said, ‘When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave
gifts to men.” (Eph 4: 7-8, cf. Ps 67/68:18)
Let me be open to His gifts today, as I stare up in awe, not quite
understanding the bedazzling mystery of His plan. Glory be to our Triune
God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Who continues to work tirelessly to lift
me up, toward His kind of Kingship.