Ascension Day

The Ascension of the Lord; “Holy Thursday” in the Book of Common Prayer

Thursday, the fortieth day after Easter; many Catholic dioceses keep it on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, and the Orthodox usually keep it later, on the Julian reckoning

Canon 43 orders, by the authority of the Scriptures, that all keep the day of Pentecost, to correct a wrong practice it does not name; whoever does not is to be marked as bringing in a new heresy. The canon does not mention the fortieth day or the Ascension. The Catholic Encyclopedia calls it much disputed: some read it as aimed at a feast on the fortieth day kept in place of Pentecost, and so as a sign that the Ascension was then kept with Pentecost. It is not a record of an Ascension feast.

A church order of unknown compiler. The Catholic Encyclopedia dates it most probably about 380, allowing twenty years either way. It tells the church to count forty days from the first Lord’s Day, up to the fifth day of the week, and keep the feast of the ascension. This is the first sure record that names an Ascension feast on its own day. It comes about 350 years after the event.

count forty days, from the Lord's day till the fifth day of the week, and celebrate the feast of the ascension of the Lord

Her diary describes a vigil and service on the fortieth day after Easter, a Thursday, in the church over the cave at Bethlehem, where the bishop and priests preach on “the things suitable to the day and the place”. She does not say the day was the Ascension; the heading and the note calling it the earliest testimony to the fortieth-day Ascension are the translator’s. In Jerusalem she saw the Ascension read on the afternoon of Pentecost at the Imbomon on the Mount of Olives, the place from which the Lord is held to have ascended. So at Jerusalem the ascension was still kept within Pentecost, not on its own day.

On the fortieth day after Easter, that is, on the fifth weekday

Preaches a homily on the Ascension at Antioch, at a large cemetery with shrines of martyrs outside one of the city’s gates. It is the one authentic homily on the Ascension of the nineteen attributed to him. The date falls somewhere between 386 and 397, while he served at Antioch.

Writing to Januarius, he lists the yearly keeping of the Lord’s passion, resurrection, ascension and the descent of the Spirit among customs held “throughout the whole world”. He says they rest on tradition and not on Scripture, and may be understood as set either by the apostles or by councils. The Catholic Encyclopedia reads him as saying the feast is of apostolic origin, while granting that there is no documentary evidence of it before about 400 beyond the late 4th-century witnesses above. Augustine himself says only that it may be understood so.

other things which we hold on the authority, not of Scripture, but of tradition, and which are observed throughout the whole world

Mamertus, bishop of Vienne, introduces three Minor Rogation days of litany and processions before Ascension, and the Fifth Council of Orléans in 511 orders them. Pope Leo III later approves them, between 795 and 816. The Catholic Encyclopedia says the Major Rogation, on April 25, seems to have been introduced to counter a pagan procession, the Robigalia; it does not say the same of the Minor Rogations.

Its Directory for the Publick Worship of God says festival days, commonly called holy days, have no warrant in the word of God and are not to be continued. Strict Presbyterian bodies keep only the Lord’s Day on this ground.

Ascension Day becomes a statutory holiday. East Germany drops it in 1967, when it brings in the five-day week, and restores it in 1990. In Germany the day is also a men’s day out, often called Herrentag or Vatertag, which became fashionable in the late 19th century.

Writing in a paper read in the Churches of Christ, he objects to churches that keep Easter Sunday, Lent, Whitsuntide, Trinity and Christmas, and holds that the church may not add days the Scriptures do not authorize. The Supper was kept on the first day of the week. He grants that individuals may do some things at home that the church may not do as part of its worship. He does not name the Ascension. It is one writer’s view, not a church statement.

And we are told that the early disciples did this regularly, upon the first day of the week.

Says the faithful are obliged to take part in the Eucharist on days of obligation, unless excused for a serious reason or dispensed by their own pastor, and that those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin. The Code of Canon Law (canon 1246) lists the Ascension among the days of obligation.

Those who deliberately fail in this obligation commit a grave sin.

The Holy See approves a decree that lets each ecclesiastical province of the United States move the Solemnity of the Ascension from Thursday to the Seventh Sunday of Easter, by a two-thirds vote of its bishops. The decree took effect on September 8, 1999.

Acts 1:3 says the risen Lord appeared to His disciples “by the space of forty days”, and the fortieth day from Easter is the Thursday on which the feast is kept. Most historians think the Ascension was first remembered as part of the fifty days after Easter, often on Pentecost itself, and only later given its own day. Egeria supports this: at Jerusalem the Ascension was read at the Imbomon on the afternoon of Pentecost, while the fortieth day was kept at Bethlehem (H3). By about 400 a separate Thursday feast was established in both East and West (H2, H5).

The Rogation processions and the German Herrentag grew up around the feast in the centuries after (H6, H8). They are customs of the feast, not of the New Testament.

First remembered within the fifty days

Elvira canon 43 read two ways

Augustine’s apostolic origin

Roman Catholics

The Eastern Orthodox churches

Anglicans

Lutherans

Methodists

Strict confessional Presbyterians

The Churches of Christ

The Thursday liturgy

Readings from Acts 1, Luke 24 and Mark 16. In the Orthodox Church the day before is the leave-taking of Pascha, the last day the Easter greeting is used, and the afterfeast runs eight days.

Extinguishing the paschal candle

Before the 1970 reform the Easter candle was put out after the Gospel at the main Mass on Ascension Thursday, a sign that Christ had left the earth. Today the candle stays lit until Pentecost in the ordinary form, and some communities that use the older rite keep the old custom.

Novena to Pentecost

Since Leo XIII, the days between Ascension and Pentecost are a nine-day novena of prayer for the Holy Spirit.

Rogation days and processions

The three days before Ascension, once called Minor Rogations or Gang Days in England, were kept with the litany of the saints and processions to pray for crops (H6). The Catholic Encyclopedia also records medieval processions with torches and banners on the feast itself.

Herrentag and Vatertag

In Germany men’s outings on Ascension Day became fashionable in the late 19th century. Today they mean handcarts and drinking more than worship (H8).

A public holiday

A national holiday in Germany, France, Finland, Denmark and many other countries. Germany made it a statutory holiday in 1934 (H8). In those countries many people take the Friday as well, for a long weekend.

The church’s appointed remembrance is weekly, and it looks to the cross

The New Testament gives the church one day and one memorial: the first day, and the Supper that proclaims His death (S1, S2).

The church gathered “upon the first day of the week” to break bread (S1). The Lord gave the memorial: “this do in remembrance of me”, and Paul says what it proclaims, “the Lord’s death till he come” (S2). That is the remembrance God appointed, on the day the apostles kept it. Apostolic example binds, and a specific appointment excludes other kinds: the church has no warrant to add a yearly feast of the ascension to its worship.

The New Testament shows no church keeping one. The first sure record of a separate Ascension feast is about 380 (H2), with Chrysostom’s sermon soon after (H4); before that, at Jerusalem, the ascension was still read within Pentecost (H3). Augustine, its great defender, rests it on tradition, not on Scripture (H5).

The ascension is central to the gospel, and the New Testament preaches it

Christ went up, and He now intercedes as our high priest; this is preached, not turned into a feast (S3, S4).

Luke ends his Gospel and begins Acts with the ascension. Jesus was taken up as the disciples looked, a cloud received Him, and two men in white said He would come in the same way (S3). The letter to the Hebrews builds on it: Jesus “hath passed through the heavens”, and the church draws near with boldness to the throne of grace through Him (S4). The gospel is not whole without it, and the church should preach it, often and with joy.

But preaching the ascension is given, and a yearly feast of it is not. No apostle commands one. The text gives the forty days of Christ’s appearing, the event, and the meaning it carries. The meaning is for every Lord’s Day.

Days are a matter of conscience for each believer, not a law for the church

Romans 14 leaves one believer free to regard a day and another free not to; Colossians 2 says no one may judge over it (S6, S7).

Paul writes of believers who differed over days: “One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let each man be fully assured in his own mind” (S6). The days at Rome were most likely Jewish days and fasts, so the passage does not set out to approve a Christian feast. It does give the rule for a believer’s own regard for a day: it is between the believer and the Lord. Colossians 2:16-17 says no one may judge a believer “in respect of a feast day or a new moon or a sabbath day” (S7). Scholars differ on what the Colossian teaching was, but the list matches the days of Israel’s law.

Some read these texts as concerning Jewish days only, so that they neither forbid nor permit a Christian feast. Others read them as a rule that no day may be required. On either reading, no one may bind a day on a brother. A Christian may thank God for the ascension on Thursday. They may not make the day binding on others, or bring it into the church’s worship as a holy day (A1).

Paul rebukes those who “observe days, and months, and seasons, and years”, and fears his labor was in vain. Ascension Day is such a day.

The Galatians were Gentiles who had worshiped no gods (verse 8) and were now taking up the law’s calendar as a way to stand right with God (verse 21 and 5:4). Scholars differ whether their days were pagan or Jewish. The text strikes at days made necessary for standing with God, which fits a feast imposed on the church as a duty. It does not name the ascension, and it does not by itself forbid a believer’s private regard for a day, which Romans 14 allows (S6). The case against the feast in the church’s worship rests on the pattern (A1), not on this passage alone.

A feast the Lord never gave, taught as a duty, is worship by the precepts of men. The strict Presbyterians use this text against holy days.

This is a right use for the part that matters. Jesus condemns setting aside a command of God for a human tradition (verses 3-6) and teaching human rules as God’s doctrine. A church that makes Ascension Day a day of obligation does that. It does not reach a Christian who gives thanks for the ascension on Thursday without calling it God’s command (A3), and it does not touch the gospel the feast is about.

The text gives “forty days”, so the fortieth day after Easter is the day to remember the ascension.

Luke gives the length of the time the risen Lord appeared to them, and the ascension came at its end. He does not command a remembrance of it or name a date for one. Counting forty days to a Thursday is the church’s reckoning. Whether the earliest churches kept the ascension on that day or within Pentecost is a question of history, not of Scripture, and the record shows both (H3). The text is good for knowing when it happened, not for a duty to keep the day (A2).

The disciples worshiped Him and returned with great joy. The church should keep a day of that worship and joy.

They did worship and rejoice, and the church should. But Luke adds that they “were continually in the temple, blessing God”, which is a joy for every day, not a feast on one. The text gives the worship and the joy, and no yearly day for them (A2). That joy is what a Christian brings to every Lord’s Day.

Study

• The ascension is central to the gospel (Acts 1; Hebrews 4). What changes in a church’s teaching if it preaches it every week, rather than on one Thursday a year?
• The record shows the Ascension read within Pentecost at Jerusalem (H3), and a fortieth-day Thursday feast only from about 380 (H2). What does that say about how a feast takes shape when Scripture does not give a day?
• Augustine rests the yearly feast on tradition, not on Scripture (H5). How should a Christian weigh a tradition its defender says is not in Scripture?
• Galatians 4:10 and Colossians 2:16-17 are often quoted against feasts. Read each in its chapter: whom was Paul writing to, and about what days?
• In Germany Ascension Day is a holiday for men’s outings more than for worship (H8). What does it show about how a church feast can drift into a civil day?

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