{"id":2158,"date":"2017-05-25T10:01:44","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T14:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2158"},"modified":"2017-05-25T10:01:44","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T14:01:44","slug":"why-do-we-celebrate-the-ascension-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/why-do-we-celebrate-the-ascension-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Do We Celebrate the Ascension ‘Today’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve titled this article “Why Do We Celebrate the Ascension ‘Today’? but even the title needs a short explanation. \u00a0I put “today” in single quote marks because not everyone is celebrating the Ascension today. \u00a0Some dioceses move it to the following Sunday. \u00a0I’ll explain why it falls on today later in the article. \u00a0In the northeast, we celebrate the Ascension today and that is the perspective I write from.<\/p>\n

The Ascension is a holy day of obligation. \u00a0One might ask why? \u00a0What makes it so important? \u00a0Why celebrate it at all, let alone on Sunday or especially Thursday?<\/p>\n

We can turn to today’s first reading<\/a>\u00a0(Acts 1:1-11) for the answer. \u00a0The first line begins “In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught until the day he was taken up<\/em>.” \u00a0The writer of the\u00a0Acts of the Apostles\u00a0<\/em>is Luke, the same Luke that wrote the Gospel of Luke. \u00a0It is this gospel that he refers to as “the first book<\/em>” as he begins the book of The\u00a0<\/em>Acts of the Apostles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We can take a further step back in time to see Old Testament as everything that happened up to the time just before Jesus’ birth. \u00a0Then, the gospels tell everything that happened while Jesus walked on Earth including right after his resurrection. \u00a0It is important to note that the Gospels do not end at the Crucifixion or Resurrection. \u00a0They end just as Jesus returns to his place in Heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father. \u00a0This is the Ascension.<\/p>\n

So, the Ascension is a pivotal point in our history. \u00a0The Acts of the Apostles\u00a0<\/em>begin the story of everything that happened after the Ascension but the first eleven verses focus on the Ascension itself. \u00a0Jesus did not simply disappear. \u00a0He “ascended” with his disciples watching so that they (and we) would know where he went. \u00a0They saw him ascend as the “cloud took him from their sight.<\/em>” \u00a0It is important to know that Jesus returned to where he came from.<\/p>\n

So back to the question why today? \u00a0Why celebrate this day on a Thursday when it is easier for people to get to church on Sunday? \u00a0The answer is found in Acts 1:3 when it sets the stage for Jesus’ Ascension, “He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, appearing to them during\u00a0FORTY DAYS<\/strong><\/em>.” \u00a0It makes it clear that Jesus ascended forty\u00a0days after he first appeared on Easter morning. \u00a0Forty days was no a random time interval. \u00a0Jesus spent forty days in the desert after his baptism and was tempted by the devil. \u00a0It rained for forty days and nights in the great flood (Genesis chapters 6-9).<\/p>\n

Today is forty days from Easter and so today we celebrate the Ascension.<\/p>\n

Peace,<\/p>\n

Fr. Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve titled this article “Why Do We Celebrate the Ascension ‘Today’? but even the title needs a short explanation. \u00a0I put “today” in single quote marks because not everyone is celebrating the Ascension today. \u00a0Some dioceses move it to the following Sunday. \u00a0I’ll explain why it falls on today later in the article. \u00a0In the …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Why Do We Celebrate the Ascension ‘Today’?’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[29,82],"tags":[295,39],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-yO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2159,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2158\/revisions\/2159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}