See? I'm not the Only One

Today is Ascension Thursday - Jesus ascended into heaven forty days after Easter - which makes it a Thursday event.

This is a marvelous feast! Christ's Ascension raised our own humanity above the angels!

“Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when, in the sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over the dignity of all heavenly creatures, to pass the angelic orders and to be raised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension it did not stop at any other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal Father, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature it was joined in the Son.”

Preaching on 1 June 444 by St. Leo the Great

However, in all too many places, including my diocese, it gets moved to Sunday.

Boo. Hiss. Boo.

Fr. Z, in his apparently "annual rant" on this topic says it best:

Folks, I know the argument. The bishops hope to expose more people to the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord. Because it is too hard to go to Mass also on Thursday, they moved the feast to Sunday. Well… in most places they moved it to Sunday. What is even more confusing is that it isn’t transferred in some dioceses. In the 1983 Code of Canon Law c. 1246, Ascension Thursday is indicated as one of the few Holy Days of Obligation. Again, I know the laudable reason for moving the feast.

However, perhaps it is the influence of reading so much St. Augustine over the years, but my present view of human nature suggests to me that when Holy Mother Church’s pastors lower expectations regarding the liturgy, people get the hint: it just isn’t that important. Maybe none of it is important.

Thus, I am left with the opinion that the option to dislocate such an important and ancient feast is an arrogant novelty.

So, I wish you all a happy and blessed [and in some places, illicit] Ascension Thursday!

Do something fun to celebrate today, even if it was transferred to Sunday in your [lame like mine] diocese.