Ascension of the Lord: God Mounts His Throne to Shouts of Joy

Michie · May 22, 2023

SCRIPTURES & ART: ‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

This Sunday is one of those confusing days liturgically, thanks to the “pastoral” initiatives of the Catholic bishops of the United States. If you live in 10 states (mostly in the northeast except for Nebraska), the Solemnity of the Ascension is celebrated on its historical date, i.e., 40 days after Easter, Thursday, May 18. (Sunday, May 21, will be the “Seventh Sunday of Easter.”) If you live in the other 40 states, the bishops have transferred the solemnity to Sunday, May 21. The thrust of my essay is the Ascension.

Both the First Reading and Gospel focus on the Ascension. The Acts of the Apostles is the second of his two-part work on the early Church, probably written for an important Roman convert to Christianity, Theophilus, mentioned by name at the start of both works. The Gospel takes us from Jesus’ birth to his post-Resurrection appearances. Acts takes us from the Ascension through Pentecost and the expansion of the early Church, primarily through the eyes of Sts. Peter and Paul, until both are in Rome.

Continued below.

Ascension of the Lord: God Mounts His Throne to Shouts of Joy

SCRIPTURES & ART: ‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

www.ncregister.com

Yeshua HaDerekh · May 22, 2023

Michie said:
SCRIPTURES & ART: ‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

This Sunday is one of those confusing days liturgically, thanks to the “pastoral” initiatives of the Catholic bishops of the United States. If you live in 10 states (mostly in the northeast except for Nebraska), the Solemnity of the Ascension is celebrated on its historical date, i.e., 40 days after Easter, Thursday, May 18. (Sunday, May 21, will be the “Seventh Sunday of Easter.”) If you live in the other 40 states, the bishops have transferred the solemnity to Sunday, May 21. The thrust of my essay is the Ascension.

Both the First Reading and Gospel focus on the Ascension. The Acts of the Apostles is the second of his two-part work on the early Church, probably written for an important Roman convert to Christianity, Theophilus, mentioned by name at the start of both works. The Gospel takes us from Jesus’ birth to his post-Resurrection appearances. Acts takes us from the Ascension through Pentecost and the expansion of the early Church, primarily through the eyes of Sts. Peter and Paul, until both are in Rome.

Continued below.

Ascension of the Lord: God Mounts His Throne to Shouts of Joy

SCRIPTURES & ART: ‘And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.’ (Matthew 28:20)

www.ncregister.com

Ever wonder why Yeshua tells Mary not to touch Him after his resurrection because He had not yet ascended yet later that day He allows it???

Michie · May 22, 2023

Christ Is Risen! Now Don't Touch Him!

Why did Jesus tell Mary Magdalene, the first witness of his resurrection, "Touch me not"? The Catholic explanation offers some food for thought.

www.catholic.com

Why Was Thomas Allowed to Touch the Risen Jesus, but Mary Magdalen Was Not?

Haydock’s Catholic Family Bible and Commentary interprets the first passage (Jn 20:17) this way: I will not leave you again; be not in a hurry to touch me; you...

www.catholic.com

Yeshua HaDerekh · May 22, 2023

Michie said:
Christ Is Risen! Now Don't Touch Him!

Why did Jesus tell Mary Magdalene, the first witness of his resurrection, "Touch me not"? The Catholic explanation offers some food for thought.

www.catholic.com

Why Was Thomas Allowed to Touch the Risen Jesus, but Mary Magdalen Was Not?

Haydock’s Catholic Family Bible and Commentary interprets the first passage (Jn 20:17) this way: I will not leave you again; be not in a hurry to touch me; you...

www.catholic.com

Not the answer. You need to understand what day it was and what occurred in Judaism on that morning...

Michie · May 23, 2023

Yeshua HaDerekh said:
Not the answer. You need to understand what day it was and what occurred in Judaism on that morning...

You are in the Catholic forum. The op is discussing Scripture and art from the Catholic perspective.

Today’s Solemnity is illustrated by the early 14th-century artist, Giotto. His fresco, “The Ascension,” is in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, completed around 1305.

The entire work emphasizes upward movement: the very paint strokes, which flick upward; the human figures looking up at the slightly raised pair of angels whose own fingers point upward; the choirs of angels on Christ’s right and left that dynamically appear to be sweeping upward, especially in prayer with their folded hands; Jesus himself whose raised hands seem to open the heavens before him to “sit at the right hand of the Father” toward whom his eyes (“no one has ever seen the Father but the Son,” John 1:18; 6:46) are directed.

The heavenly is underscored both by the upward movement of all the characters as well as the absolute domination of blue hues across the entire work. The only other distinctly strong color is gold, in the halos around the heads of Mary and the eleven Apostles, around the head and body of Jesus (who also rises on a cloud, the usual symbol and shield of the Divine Glory, the shekinah). Gold in medieval Western art and Eastern iconography is the mark of heaven, holiness, divinity. But he is credited with developing a Western medieval religious art that deemphasized some of the Byzantine elements, e.g., Giotto’s bodies are not elongated but generally proportional and detailed.

Continued below.