FIRST READING: Acts 1: 1-11. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the Apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God. And while staying with them he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, ‘you heard from me, for John baptised with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 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.’
SECOND READING: Ephesians 1: 17-23. May the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe, according to the working of his great might which he accomplished in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
GOSPEL: Luke 24: 46-53. Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you, but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.’ Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them. And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing God.
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The building up of the Kingdom of God—or better the community of universal brother- and sisterhood—has something supernatural to it. It is not wholly natural, at least not in its maintenance, protection and preservation. Mutuality might indeed be natural, a phenomenon also shared with all living beings from time immemorial, but to positively choose a life of love and, furthermore, to uphold it is something that goes beyond natural instincts and a mere ordinary character. In itself, it is a miracle. And this miracle, as Luke’s witness in the Acts shows, is what Jesus brings about while being simultaneously absent and present: absent physically; present mystically. Jesus’ miracle lives in us who choose love as a way of life together with others.
As Paul proclaims, this choice ‘is the hope to which he has called [us], ... the riches of [Jesus’] glorious inheritance in the saints, and [...] the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe’. Indeed, Paul can rightly say that the community of love, in a mystical way, is Jesus’ ‘body’.
This supernatural nature of such a community is ‘blessed’. This is why Luke’s narrative gives witness and proclaims that Jesus ‘parted from them while he blessed them’. It is only through Jesus’ blessing—that is, through his endorsement of our choice of love—can the communial life we build together exist at all and endure.
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