We are celebrating Mother’s Day and the Ascension today. These two “feast days,” if you will, fit nicely together, especially if you imagine Jesus returning home to the Source of life—his own Divine Mother. Readings for Ascension also offer a rare opportunity to hear the end of volume one and the beginning of volume 2 of Luke’s writings all in one liturgy. This may not seem like a big deal but this two-volume set has an important role in understanding who we are and what we are about as a people.
In Acts Luke has given us a sequel to the Gospel. He shows how Jesus passed his ministry to the disciples and how they were infused with the Spirit so they could carry on his work of loving and healing God’s people. Without Luke the link between Jesus’ death/resurrection/ascension and the early church would not be so clear, and the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit among those first disciples would be much more obscure.
Luke wrote the Gospel that bears his name as a chronicle of Jesus’ life and ministry. It was his attempt to put it all into some kind of logical, orderly form that anyone could understand. He addressed it to a person named Theophilus—a person we know nothing about—who might have been a patron, a benefactor or even a high-ranking official. His Gospel prepares the way for what happens in Acts, volume 2 of his 2-volume set. This second volume is also addressed to Theophilus. Together these two books comprise over one-fourth of the New Testament and establish a theological link between Jesus’ ministry and the ministry of his disciples. The Holy Spirit is that link. She is the bridge across the waters connecting Jesus’ life and mission to the physical world he has left behind. She breathes that life into the disciples, inspires and guides their ministry as they carry out the work Jesus left them to complete.
In thinking about the Ascension it’s important not to get caught up in trying to find a literal explanation. There isn’t one. We must move into a deeper place—a place where the physical and non-physical meet—in order to receive the mysteries of miracle, resurrection, ascension. We are called into a child-like place of wonder and joy. The angelic messengers appearing next to the disciples as the cloud takes Jesus from their sight ask, “Why are you standing there looking up at the sky?” It’s a question just as easily directed to us. Why do we stand looking up at the sky waiting for something to happen rather than opening to the Mystery like a child delighting in the world from the safety of her mother’s arms?
We are called to walk the walk of a disciple who trusts the Spirit is as real as the ground under our feet. There is work to be done, prayer to be prayed, people to be accompanied, tears to be dried and joy to be spread. There is mystery to embrace, love to be shared!
This is Mother’s Day. The Ascension demonstrates Jesus’ maternal devotion and unending concern for his disciples, both then and now. Our mother Jesus, Julian of Norwich called him. Dorothy Canfield Fisher wrote: “A mother is not a person to lean on, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.”
Good mothers give children room to grow. Jesus had to leave so the disciples could learn to listen for God’s voice within their own hearts, access Spirit’s guidance and move with the Wisdom embedded in the depths of their own beings. They needed to find the courage to carry life’s crosses and follow in the footsteps of a teacher who asked that love meet every obstacle and mercy embrace every enemy. Jesus couldn’t make the road easy for them, or for us. All he could do was assure them of his ongoing presence in and through the Spirit who, he said, would teach them everything they needed to know. It is all a mother can do—prepare children for the unpredictability of life as best she can and reassure them that her love and care will continue even when they can’t see her. Jesus left but his presence in the Spirit remains.
With Pentecost just around the corner, here WE are now—feet on the ground, hands and hearts engaged, ready for the next invitation, the next holy task. The Spirit has already been given, is already active in our lives, in our minds, in our words and our actions. Yet the season invites us to increase our openness to Spirit in these final days of Easter, and to deepen and expand our capacity to love and be loved.
So we return to the upper room as did those first disciples, our role models. In these remaining hours between Ascension and Pentecost let’s prepare to receive the Holy Spirit again that we may walk the walk of disciples who trust the Mystery of Divine Maternal devotion flowing through all creation. As we learn to embrace that Mystery, may the Spirit of compassion, joy, and mercy refresh our hearts and our world with the fire of our Holy Mother’s love.
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