Word of the Week

Ascension of the Lord

Desire: Thelo (Gk.): meaning, “to desire”, or “to will, have in mind, intend”. This term also conveys resolve, determination, and being fond of and taking delight in doing something.

The CCC covers a lot of territory in its explanation of desire: from the negative functions of desire in revenge (2303), envy (2539, 2553), lust (2514), and the disordered appetite towards money (2424); to the positive functions of desire for the good (1707, 1765), happiness (1718-19, 1725, 2548), prayer (2610) and conversion (1431).  Out from these themes tied to desire is that desire to see and possess God (2548), which is the “true desire of man” (2557). The CCC explicates further: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself. Only in God will he find the truth and happiness he never stops searching for” (27). Only in the absence of prayer and conversion is our will misguided into the aforementioned desires of sin. In the end, it is God’s desire that is the measuring point for our desire, and for this reason, our resolve ought to be the desires of the holy Spirit (2541-43, 2737, 2764), which is centered in conversion (1431), and evangelization (429) that all men be saved (cf. 74, 2756).

The Greek thelo can be found up to two-hundred times in the New Testament with over One-hundred accounts in the four gospels. In this Seventh Sunday of the Easter Season, we have from the gospel of John, Christ’s prayer for the Church, where he was desiring that those, whom the father gave to him, would behold his glory, which had been given to him in love “before the foundation of the world” (Jn.17:24). Our readings for this Sunday, that have our minds and hearts looking heavenward towards the Ascension of Christ, put into focus for us Christ as the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last (cf. Rev.22:13), and as such, Christ’s prayer and intention was one where he was desiring for us to share in the life of the Trinity (Jn.17:20-26), our heavenly inheritance. So how do we do this? Desire what Christ desires, nothing less than sonship!

We have from our second reading today, not only an account of the stoning of Stephen, the first martyr of the Church (cf. Acts 7:54-60), but also an example of desiring sonship with God. Initially, we can begin to appreciate this in an illustration between the strikingly similar portrayal of Stephen’s stoning and the crucifixion of Christ.

Stephen (Acts 7:56-60)                              Christ (Mt.24:64-65; Lk.23: 34, 46)

                * Sees the Son of man standing at                  * Sees the Son of Man seated at the right
the right hand of the Father                               hand of the father

* commends his Spirit to Christ                        * commends his Spirit into his Father’s hands

*seeks forgiveness for his persecutors             * seeks forgiveness for his persecutors

The above diagram highlights not only Stephen’s fortitude in the face of death, like that of Christ’s, but also his resolve to be whatever it was that God was calling him to be, and in this case, a martyr of the early Christian Church who had forgiveness on his lips. How often have there been times in life where we “skirt” or “dance around” the difficult question to avoid persecution. Stephen’s desire was united to the will of the Father, and for this reason, we have the protomartyr. Let his example be a deeper contemplation into how to follow Christ as a child of God.

 

“I love you, O my God, and my only desire is to love you until the last breadth of my life. I love you, O my infinitely lovable God, and I would rather die loving you, then live without loving you. I love you, Lord, and the only grace I ask is to love you eternally…My God, if my tongue cannot say in every moment that I love you, I want my heart to repeat it to you as often as I draw breath.”

--St. John Vianney

Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.

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