From: Acts 1:1-11
Prologue
[1] In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, [2] until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. [3] 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. [4] 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, [5] for John baptized with water, but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
The Ascension
[6] So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom of Israel?" [7] He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. [8] But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my wit- nesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." [9] And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. [10] And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, [11] 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."
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Commentary:
1-5. St Luke is the only New Testament author to begin his book with a prologue, in the style of secular historians. The main aim of this preface is to convey to the reader the profoundly religious character of the book which he is holding in his hands. It is a work which will give an account of events marking the fulfillment of the promises made by the God of Israel the Creator and Savior of the world. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, into his book St Luke weaves quotations from the Psalms, Isaiah, Amos and Joel; it both reflects the Old Testament and interprets it in the light of its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
The prologue refers to St Luke's Gospel as a "first book". It mentions the last events of our Lord's life on earth--the appearances of the risen Christ and his ascension into heaven--and links them up with the 0account which is now beginning.
St Luke's aim is to describe the origins and the early growth of this Christianity, of which the main protagonist of this book, the Holy Spirit, has been the cause. Yet this is not simply an historical record: the Acts of the Apostles, St Jerome explains, "seems to be a straightforward historical account of the early years of the nascent Church. But if we bear in mind it is written by Luke the physician, who is praised in the Gospel (cf. 2 Cor 8: 18), we will realize that everything he says is medicine for the ailing soul" ("Epistle" 53, 9).
The spiritual dimension of this book, which is one of a piece with the Third Gospel, nourished the soul of the first generations of Christians, providing them with a chronicle of God's faithful and loving support of the new Israel. "This book", St John Chrysostom writes at the start of his great commentary, "will profit us no less than the Gospels, so replete is it with Christian wisdom and sound doctrine. It offers an account of the numerous miracles worked by the Holy Spirit. It contains the fulfillment of the prophecies of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel; we can observe in the very facts the bright evidence of Truth which shines in them, and the mighty change which is taking place in the Apostles: they become perfect men, extraordinary men, now that the Holy Spirit has come upon them. All Christ's promises and predictions--He who believes in me will do these and even greater works, you will be dragged before tribunals and kings and beaten in the synagogues, and will suffer grievous things, and yet you will overcome your persecutors and executioners and will bring the Gospel to the ends of the earth--all this, how it came to pass, may be seen in this admirable book. Here you will see the Apostles speeding their way overland and sea as if on wings. These Galileans, once so timorous and obtuse, we find suddenly changed into new men, despising wealth and honor, raised above passion and concupiscence" ("Hom. on Acts", 1).
St Luke dedicates this book to Theophilus--as he did his Gospel. The dedication suggests that Theophilus was an educated Christian, of an upper-class back- ground, but he may be a fictitious person symbolizing "the beloved of God", which is what the name means. It also may imply that Acts was written quite soon after the third Gospel.
1. "To do and teach": these words very concisely sum up the work of Jesus Christ, reported in the Gospels. They describe the way in which God's saving Revelation operates: God lovingly announces and reveals himself in the course of human history through his actions and through his words. "The economy of Revelation is realized by deeds and words, which are intrinsically bound up with each other", Vatican II teaches. "As a result, the works performed by God in the history of salvation show forth and bear out the doctrine and realities signified by the words; the words, for their part, proclaim the works, and bring to light the mystery they contain. The most intimate truth which this revelation gives us about God and the salvation of man shines forth in Christ, who is himself both the mediator and the sum total of Revelation" ("Dei Verbum", 2).
The Lord "proclaimed the kingdom of the Father both by the testimony of his life and by the power of his word" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 35). He did not limit himself to speech, to being simply the Teacher whose words opened man's minds to the truth. He was, above all, the Redeemer, able to save fallen man through the divine efficacy of each and every moment of his life on earth.
"Our Lord took on all our weaknesses, which proceed from sin--with the exception of sin itself. He experienced hunger and thirst, sleep and fatigue, sadness and tears. He suffered in every possible way, even the supreme suffering of death. No one could be freed from the bonds of sinfulness had he who alone was totally innocent not been ready to die at the hands of impious men. Therefore, our Savior, the Son of God, has left all those who believe in him an effective source of aid, and also an example. The first they obtain by being reborn through grace, the second by imitating his life" (St Leo the Great, "Twelfth Homily on the Passion").
Jesus' redemptive action--his miracles, his life of work, and the mystery of his death, resurrection and ascension, whose depth and meaning only faith can plumb--also constitute a simple and powerful stimulus for our everyday conduct. Faith should always be accompanied by works, by deeds, that is, our humble and necessary cooperation with God's saving plans.
"Don't forget that doing must come before teaching. 'Coepit facere et docere', the holy Scripture says of Jesus Christ: 'He began to do and to teach. ' "First deeds: so that you and I might learn" (St. J. Escriva, "The Way", 342).
3. This verse recalls the account in Luke 24:13-43 of the appearances of the risen Jesus to the disciples of Emmaus and to the Apostles in the Cenacle. It stresses the figure of forty days. This number may have a literal meaning and also a deeper meaning. In Sacred Scripture periods of forty days or forty years have a clearly salvific meaning: they are periods during which God prepares or effects important stages in his plans. The great flood lasted forty days (Gen 7:17); the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness for forty years on their way to the promised land (Ps 95:10); Moses spent forty days on Mount Sinai to receive God's revelation of the Covenant (Ex 24:18); on the strength of the bread sent by God Elisha walked forty days and forty nights to reach his destination (1 Kings 19:8); and our Lord fasted in the wilderness for forty days in preparation for his public life (Mt 4:2).
5. "You shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit": this book has been well described as the "Gospel of the Holy Spirit". "There is hardly a page in the Acts of the Apostles where we fail to read about the Spirit and the action by which he guides, directs and enlivens the life and work of the early Christian community. It is he who inspires the preaching of St Peter (cf. Acts 4:8), who strengthens the faith of the disciples (cf. Acts 4:31), who confirms with his presence the calling of the Gentiles (cf. Acts 10:44-47), who sends Saul and Barnabas to distant lands, where they will open new paths for the teaching of Jesus (cf. Acts 13:2-4). In a word, his presence and doctrine are everywhere" (St. Escriva, "Christ Is Passing By", 127).
6-8. The Apostles' question shows that they are still thinking in terms of earthly restoration of the Davidic dynasty. It would seem that for them --as for many Jews of their time--eschatological hope in the Kingdom extended no further than expectation of world-embracing Jewish hegemony.
"It seems to me", St John Chrysostom comments, "that they had not any clear notion of the nature of the Kingdom, for the Spirit had not yet instructed them. Notice that they do not ask when it shall come but 'Will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?', as if the Kingdom were something that lay in the past. This question shows that they were still attracted by earthly things, though less than they had been" ("Hom. on Acts", 2).
Our Lord gives an excellent and encouraging reply, patiently telling them that the Kingdom is mysterious in character, that it comes when one least expects, and that they need the help of the Holy Spirit to be able to grasp the teaching they have received. Jesus does not complain about their obtuseness; he simply cor- rects their ideas and instructs them.
8. The outline of Acts is given here: the author plans to tell the story of the growth of the Church, beginning in Jerusalem and spreading through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth. This is the geographical structure of St Luke's account. In the Third Gospel Jerusalem was the destination point of Jesus' public life (which began in Galilee); here it is the departure point.
The Apostles' mission extends to the whole world. Underlying this verse we can see not so much a "geographical" dimension as the universalist aspirations of the Old Testament, articulated by Isaiah: "It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, and many peoples shall come, and say: 'Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem" (Is 2:2-3).
9. Jesus' life on earth did not end with his death on the Cross but with his ascen- sion into heaven. The ascension, reported here, is the last event, the last mystery of our Lord's life on earth (cf. also 24:50-53)--and also it concerns the origins of the Church. The ascension scene takes place, so to speak, between heaven and earth. "Why did a cloud take him out of the Apostles' sight?", St John Chrysostom asks. "The cloud was a sure sign that Jesus had already entered heaven; it was not a whirlwind or a chariot of fire, as in the case of the prophet Elijah (cf. 2 Kings 2: l 1), but a cloud, which was a symbol of heaven itself" ("Hom. on Acts", 2). A cloud features in theophanies--manifestations of God--in both the Old Testament (cf. Ex 13:22) and the New (cf. Lk 9:34f).
Our Lord's ascension is one of the actions by which Jesus redeems us from sin and gives us the new life of grace. It is a redemptive mystery "What we have already taught of the mystery of his death and resurrection the faithful should deem not less true of his ascension. For although we owe our redemption and salvation to the passion of Christ, whose merits opened heaven to the just, yet his ascension is not only proposed to us as a model, which teaches us to look on high and ascend in spirit into heaven, but it also imparts to us a divine virtue which enables us to accomplish what it teaches" ("St Pius V Catechism" I, 7, 9).
Our Lord's going up into heaven is not simply something which stirs us to lift up our hearts--as we are invited to do at the preface of the Mass, to seek and love the "things that are above" (cf. Col 3:1-2); along with the other mysteries of his life, death and resurrection, Christ's ascension saves us. "Today we are not only made possessors of paradise", St Leo says, "but we have ascended with Christ, mystically but really, into the highest heaven, and through Christ we have ob- tained a more ineffable grace than that which we lost through the devil's envy" ("First Homily on the Ascension").
The ascension is the climax of Christ's exaltation, which was achieved in the first instance by his resurrection and which--along with his passion and death--constitutes the paschal mystery. The Second Vatican Council expresses this as follows: "Christ our Lord redeemed mankind and gave perfect glory to God [...]. principally by the paschal mystery of his blessed passion, resurrection from the dead, and glorious ascension" ("Sacrosanctum Concilium", 5; cf. "Dei Verbum", 19).
Theology has suggested reasons why it was very appropriate for the glorified Lord to go up into heaven to be "seated at the right hand of the Father." "First of all, he ascended because the glorious kingdom of the highest heavens, not the obscure abode of this earth, presented a suitable dwelling place for him whose body, rising from the tomb, was clothed with the glory of immortality. He ascended, however, not only to possess the throne of glory and the kingdom which he had merited by his blood, but also to attend to whatever regards our salvation. Again, he ascended to prove thereby that his kingdom is not of this world" ("St Pius V Catechism", I, 7, 5; cf. "Summa Theologiae", III, q. 57, a. 6).
The ascension marks the point when the celestial world celebrates the victory and glorification of Christ: "It is fitting that the sacred humanity of Christ should receive the homage, praise and adoration of all the hierarchies of the Angels and of all the legions of the blessed in heaven" (J. Escriva, "Holy Rosary", second glorious mystery).
11. The angels are referring to the Parousia--our Lord's second coming, when he will judge the living and the dead. "They said to them, What are you doing here, looking into heaven? These words are full of solicitude, but they do not proclaim the second coming of the Savior as imminent. The angels simply assert what is most important, that is, that Jesus Christ will come again and the confidence with which we should await his return" (St John Chrysostom, "Hom. on Acts", 2).
We know for a certainty that Christ will come again at the end of time. We con- fess this in the Creed as part of our faith. However, we know "neither the day nor the hour" (Mt 25: 13) of his coming. We do not need to know it. Christ is always imminent. We must always be on the watch, that is, we should busy ourselves in the service of God and of others, which is where our sanctification lies.
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Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland. Reprinted with permission from Four Courts Press and Scepter Publishers, the U.S. publisher.
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