I know the bishops in the U.S. try hard and mean well, yet when they transferred the Holy Day Ascension Thursday to Sunday it sure smacks accomodation to the increasingly lazy self-absorbed culture.
The Bible attests that Jesus ascended into heaven body and soul 40 DAYS AFTER HIS RESURRECTION. That lands the miraculous event squarely on a Thursday.
Most of us still will answer “Ascension Thursday” to the question, “When did Jesus ascend into heaven?”
And if that weren’t enough, there are a half-dozen (arch)bishops who did not transfer the feast to Sunday and in their respective (arch)dioceses today still is a Holy Day.
Huh?!
Friends, the Church really asks so very little of her family members. Is Ascension Thursday so terribly inconvenient and nearly impossible for the faithful to honor that it must be eliminated as a Holy Day despite clear biblical basis and well established practice? At the very least, the move is ripe with misunderstandings that the Church’s teaching about the Ascension of Our Lord now is less important.
Here is a question for us all to consider: what might happen if we were to try to reverse the rising pagan tide by RAISING expectations for the disciples of Jesus? After all, when Jesus sounds the call to follow Him the proper response is to do so intentionality with no conditions levied for our personal comforts and conveniences.
