Preface II of the Ascension of the Lord

For more information on the Preface in general, see The Eucharistic Prayer (2) and The Eucharistic Prayer (3)

After a period of forty days, commemorated by the forty days of the Easter season, the Risen Lord ascends into Heaven and invites his disciples to look toward the future and to look toward the mission he has entrusted to them. He’s promised to send them the Holy Spirit in order to help them fulfill their mission, and between Ascension and Pentecost too begin our wait after living the joy of the Risen Lord during the Easter season.

The mystery of the Ascension

The Ascension was not just a legend or myth. We are commemorating a historical event with witnesses. The disciples didn’t see Our Lord as he rose from the dead, but they spent time with him for forty days before they saw him ascend into Heaven.

“For after his Resurrection he plainly appeared to all his disciples and was taken up to heaven in their sight, that he might make us sharers in his divinity.”

We rejoice because those disciples, asked to be witnesses to the “ends of the earth,” reached our end of the earth too. Our Lord has taken his place at the right hand of the Father and even now watches over us from Heaven and intercedes for us as we continue the disciples’ mission to give witness to him to the ends of the earth.

We too must preach with joy, as the Lord commands in the Gospel, repentance for the forgiveness of sins in Christ’s name. For the disciples it started in Jerusalem; for us it starts in our homes, our schools, our society, and there are still many people who’ve not heard our testimony or the testimony of any other believer.

Let’s pray to see where we should give witness so that we too are “clothed” with the power we need to extend the Gospel with joy to the ends of the earth.