"There ain’t no grave gonna hold my body down"

Depending on where you live, either yesterday or this coming Sunday is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Where I live it is this Sunday. Jesus' ascension into heaven forty days after he arose from the dead is the second of the five Glorious Mysteries of the Most Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Of course, May is the month of our Blessed Mother. The fruit of the mystery of the Ascension is the theological virtue of hope.

Most of all "we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Savior, Jesus Christ." In the Ascension as relayed to us in the Acts of the Apostles we are pointed towards this as well. As Jesus ascended, His disciples stood there watching Him go up. The angels who were there said to them, "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" (Acts 1:11). Of course, all of this is to do nothing other than to once again draw out attention to the resurrection, not only of Jesus', but our own. Of course, without His there would be no possibility of ours. As St. Paul wrote: "For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins" (1 Cor. 15:16-17).

All of this is why Tom Jones singing "Ain't No Grave" is our Friday traditio for this Sixth Friday of Easter, falling either the day after or two days before the Ascension: