(Luke 24:46-53; Acts 1:1-11)

Luke 24:46 "Thus it is written, Christ shall suffer and rise from the dead on the third day

Luke 24:47 and in his name shall be preached to all nations repentance and forgiveness of sins, beginning at Jerusalem.

Luke 24:48 Of this you are witnesses.

Luke 24:49 And I will send upon you that which my Father has promised; but you remain in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high."

Luke 24:50 Then he led them out to Bethany, and lifting up his hands, he blessed them.

Luke 24:51 While he was blessing them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.

Acts 1:4 While he was at table with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait until the promise of the Father was fulfilled, "the one," he said, "which you have heard from me:

Acts 1:5 John baptized with water; ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence."

Acts 1:8 But you will receive power from the Holy Spirit who will come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth".

From Jerusalem, in an expansive manner, the proclamation of salvation spreads, embracing the whole of humanity. The centrality of Jerusalem is evident in Luke from the very beginning of his Gospel, which opens in the very heart of Jerusalem, the Temple, and at the most sacred moment, that of worship, and around which the entire childhood of Jesus revolves. Now, with v. 48 there is the investiture of the entire apostolic group as official witnesses of the events of salvation, of which they are constituted depositaries. In other words, the apostolic group receives the mandate for its mission, being constituted in authority by the Risen One Himself. An investiture from which not only the mission is generated, but also serves as the constitutive foundation of the Church itself, which originates precisely from the mandate of the Risen One.

In the face of the entrustment of the mission, placed at the foundation of the Church, constituting it in authority with God and with men, v. 49 foreshadows how this mission will take full effect with the anointing of the Holy Spirit: "And I will send upon you that which my Father has promised". Jesus does not mention the Holy Spirit, but only the "promise of my Father".

Luke defines the Holy Spirit as the "promise of the Father", although nowhere in Luke's Gospel does such a promise appear in explicit terms. In order to understand which promise Luke is referring to and where it is mentioned in his Gospel, it is necessary to continue the search in Acts 1:4-5 where he says that "While he was at table with them, he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait until the promise of the Father was fulfilled that, he said, which you have heard from me: John baptised with water, but you will be baptised in the Holy Spirit not many days from now". The reference here is to Lk 3:16: "John answered and said to them all, 'I baptise you with water; but there cometh one mightier than I, unto whom I am not worthy to untie even the strap of his sandals: he shall baptise you in the Holy Ghost and fire'. A promise, which will see its fulfilment in Acts 1:8 where it speaks of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit on the disciples. 

The end of Luke's Gospel is here touching the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles and joining with these. The extremes, therefore, touch each other and join them, creating a sort of communicating vessels in which the event Jesus, now Risen, pours himself into the Church, continuing in it his saving action. 

The promise of the Father - the gift of the Holy Spirit - is followed by the recommendation: "remain in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high". The city spoken of is clearly Jerusalem, the place of the fulfilment of the mystery of salvation, brought about in the death-resurrection of Jesus, but whose efficacy finds its full fulfilment only in the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is the power of God working in those who believe. 

Luke closes his Gospel in an unusual way with respect to evangelical tradition, recounting Jesus' ascension into heaven. He is the only one among the evangelists to make a separate specific treatment of it. 

The ascension puts an end to Jesus' activity in Jerusalem, to leave it as an inheritance to his own. This is why Jesus performs a blessing action (v. 50), the meaning of which is to transmit his spiritual inheritance on the apostolic community, which will have to continue its mission, precisely starting from Jerusalem. The blessing placed on the apostolic group closely recalls the Genesis image of the creation of man, on whom God placed his blessing, accompanied by the command to be fruitful and multiply, filling the whole earth. This is the mission with which the entire apostolic group was invested, and the blessing is therefore not to be understood as a simple and touching gesture of greeting, but imprints on that germinal group of the nascent church the sign of divine fruitfulness. The term blessing in Hebrew is, in fact, 'berakah', which derives from 'berek', meaning 'knee', a euphemism for the genital organs, which are the organs in charge of generation and therefore, by their nature and function, synonymous with fertility. 

 Argentino Quintavalle, author of the books 

- Revelation - exegetical commentary 

- The Apostle Paul and the Judaizers - Law or Gospel?

Jesus Christ true God and true Man in the Trinitarian mystery

The prophetic discourse of Jesus (Matthew 24-25)

All generations will call me blessed

 Catholics and Protestants compared - In defence of the faith

 The Church and Israel according to St Paul - Romans 9-11

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