Ascension THURSDAY

The Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

It has been forty days since Easter. Incidentally, forty days after Easter Sunday is always a Thursday. The Church has thus celebrated Ascension Thursday for centuries. Being a solemnity, Ascension is one of the highest feasts of the liturgical year. The Holy See gives permission to bishops’ conferences to transfer the solemnity to the following Sunday - this is what happens in the United States (since 1998, by the way). Interestingly, the bishops of England and Wales moved the feast to Sunday in 2007 but then voted to move it back to Thursday in 2018. 

Today, those who are members of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter are obliged to head to Mass on Thursday. Likewise, the Eastern Catholic eparchies of the United States observe Ascension Thursday. And, as the Pillar reports:

“In 2024, the U.S. provinces observing the Ascension on Thursday, May 9 are Boston, Hartford, New York, Omaha, and Philadelphia. All other provinces observe the feast on Sunday.

So if you live in Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Nebraska, or Pennsylvania, you’ll likely need to head to Mass on Thursday. If you live somewhere else in the U.S., you can definitely go to Mass, of course, but you’re not obliged.”

The only reason that I have heard for moving the Solemnity of the Ascension from Thursday to Sunday is to decrease the number of Holy Days of Obligation. I personally think that this is pathetic and is doing no one any favors. The Ascension is a major event and one of the primary elements of the Paschal Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ. As such, it should be celebrated with the solemnity it deserves, on the day prescribed by the rotation of the Earth around the Sun (and common sense) - forty days after Easter, because Jesus ascended into Heaven forty days after Easter. This also allows us to mystically enter into the ten days of anticipation of Pentecost Sunday! Thankfully for liturgists and bishops’ conferences, fifty days after Easter Sunday is always a Sunday. I hope that one day all of the major solemnities and feasts of the Church will be marked with the dignity and solemnity befitting them, without caving to this minimalist expectation of the faithful by the clergy. Expect more of us and we will rise to the occasion. As our Lord said: “For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” (Matthew 25:29)

At any rate, I think it is worth dwelling on the Gospel passage from today’s liturgy - even today, Thursday. We will get another chance to hear it, in most dioceses, on Sunday. But let us realize the weight of what our Lord is doing. Jesus is ascending, body and soul, into Heaven, where He sits at the right hand of the Father. He tells us that it is good that He should go, so that He might send us the Holy Spirit. The temporal mission of the Son is concluded and the temporal mission of the Spirit is about to begin. 

Here are the words of our Lord to his disciples:

“Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” 

May we continually renew our vigor in carrying out the commission our Lord has given us of sharing the Good News, knowing that He is with us always. Come, Holy Spirit. Help us to carry out the mission entrusted to us in our Baptism. Amen.