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Ascension of the Lord
5 June 2011
Dear Friends in Christ,
Today we celebrate (transferred from last Thursday, when it should have been celebrated) the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the glory of his heavenly Kingdom. This mystery of faith does not mean that the Lord was merely taken from our sight to continue in space and time as we know them but simply in another place; rather, Christ the Lord in his Ascension transcended the created universe altogether, including the created realities of time and space. But in transcending the created universe, the Lord Jesus did not abandon his Church or leave us comfortless. Even as he gave us the Great Commission to spread the Gospel to the ends of the earth, he promised to send the Holy Spirit of truth to be teacher, guide, and consoler, and the coming of the Spirit was accomplished and manifested 50 days after Christ’s Resurrection, a mystery which we will celebrate next week on the great Solemnity of Pentecost.
As you know, beginning this fall on the First Sunday of Advent, the whole Church in the English-speaking world will begin to use a new translation of the Roman Missal, a translation which is much more faithful to the original Latin texts and which employs elevated language that more effectively reflects the transcendence of the Paschal Mystery we celebrate in the sacred liturgy. The two new Prefaces of the Ascension, which we will begin to use next year at this feast, speak to us of the sacred mystery of Christ’s Ascension, and the first of these exclaims:
“It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God. For the Lord Jesus, the King of glory, conqueror of sin and death, ascended to the highest heavens, as the Angels gazed in wonder. Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of hosts, he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state, but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before. Therefore, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise, and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, sing together the unending hymn of your glory, as they acclaim” … Holy, Holy, Holy …
After Labor Day, printed cards with the new translation of the congregation’s parts of the Mass will be placed in the pews so that you can begin to study the new texts and commit them to memory. After 40 years of using one English text, the transition to the new translation will doubtless be bumpy, but the result for the whole Church will be well worth our effort.
Father Newman