You will receive the power of the Holy Spirit.
After the resurrection of Jesus,
the apostles gathered together around him and asked,
"Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to
Israel?"
Jesus answered them,
"It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth."
When Jesus had said this, as the apostles were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While the apostles were looking intently at the sky as Jesus was
going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside
them.
They said, "Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into
heaven."
Then the apostles returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day's journey away.
When the apostles entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.
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Commentary on Acts 1:6-14
Using the interval of days, Luke links the resurrection, Christ’s glorification, and his ascension with the appearance of the Holy Spirit – the Pascal Mystery. Christ’s departure marks the end of his direct involvement with the Apostles, except for his appearance to Paul on the road to Damascus. The passage concludes with a unique description of the actual event or Jesus being taken into heaven.
The passage continues with the Apostles returning to Jerusalem and forming the Christian community. The body of apostles formed a community dedicated to prayer and mutual support. It is noteworthy that Mary the Mother of Christ was with them as were other women and relatives of the Lord.
"Here we see Mary as the spiritual center round which Jesus' intimate friends gather: tradition has meditated on this 'tableau', and found it to depict our Lady's motherhood over the whole Church, both at its beginning and over the course of the centuries." [1]
CCC: Acts 1:6-7 672; Acts 1:7 474, 673; Acts 1:8 672, 730, 735, 857, 1287; Acts 1:9 659, 697; Acts 1:10-11 333; Acts 1:11 665; Acts 1:14 726, 1310, 2617, 2623, 2673
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RESPONSORIAL PSALM
R. (3) Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
The LORD loves the city
founded on holy mountains,
Loves the gates of Zion
more than any dwelling in Jacob.
R. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
Glorious things are said of you,
O city of God!
But of Zion it must be said:
"They all were born right here."
R. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
The Most High confirms this;
the LORD notes in the register of the peoples:
"This one was born here."
So all sing in their festive dance:
"Within you is my true home."
R. Glorious things are told of you, O city of God.
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Commentary on Ps 87:1-2, 3 and 5, 6-7
This post-exilic song was probably sung by pilgrims from around the known world returning to Jerusalem to celebrate in God’s holy city the joys of his bounty. The psalm proclaims the centrality of Jerusalem (Zion) as the source of holiness. The psalmist sings of how Jerusalem is the mother of faith and that, by implication, all are joined to her in faith.
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GOSPEL
My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God
and put it into practice.
The mother of Jesus and his brothers came to him
but were unable to join him because of the crowd.
He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside
and they wish to see you.”
He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers
are those who hear the word of God and act on it.”
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Commentary on Lk 8:19-21
In this passage from the Gospel of St. Luke, Jesus identifies his family as the family of faith as opposed to just his blood relatives. There are several connotations of the language used that are treated in the parallel story in Matthew 12:46-50 relating to the broader meaning of the language from the Aramaic and also the apocryphal documentation regarding St. Joseph’s unnamed widow (prior to his betrothal to St. Mary). St. Luke’s treatment of this topic is softer than that found in St. Mark’s Gospel (Mark 3:31-35), probably because St. Mary had already been introduced as the model of fidelity to the Lord.
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[1] The Navarre Bible, Gospels and Acts, Scepter Publishers, Princeton, NJ, © 2002, pp. 722
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