Today we celebrate the feast of the Ascension, that event which took place, according to the Acts of the Apostles, forty days after Jesus rose from the dead, when he ascended into heaven. This particular event is very significant to us and has a large bearing on our faith for a couple of reasons.
First of all, the Ascension is about celebrating Jesus’ return to heavenly glory, which he gave up when he became one of us in the incarnation. It’s about rejoicing that he now wears his kingly crown instead of a crown of thorns. It’s about his victory over death and sin; his triumph and glorification. But we also need to remind ourselves that the Ascension is about our sharing with Jesus in His glory. Because Jesus ascended to heaven, we know that the same possibility is there for each one of us. And that joy which we share with Jesus is greater than any joy we can possibly think of. Because it gives us hope—hope that we too may participate and share in the same triumph and glory with Jesus.
The Ascension of Jesus is a preview of God’s plan for each of us. And it’s been His plan from the very beginning. God’s original intent was for us to dwell with him for eternity in Paradise. The Ascension of Jesus opened the gates of heaven for us which had been closed and guarded ever since Adam and Eve were banned from the Garden of Eden following their original sin. But Jesus’ bodily Ascension into heaven gives us hope that if we are faithful to him, then we too are to rise in glory and to enter into a new life with Jesus. That’s why we say in the Creed that “I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” This doesn’t mean that we come back to life and wander aimlessly around for all eternity. The resurrection at the end of time means that our bodies, our glorified bodies, are to share new life in union with Jesus in God’s Kingdom. And not just with Jesus—but with our loved ones, and with the Blessed Mother, and with all the saints.
That’s the gift. The gift of heaven is there for us. It’s an invitation that we can either accept or reject. And that’s the challenge that brings us to the second point. In order to accept this wonderful gift, we need to fulfill and complete the mission that Jesus began.
We can’t look at just the glorification of Jesus on this feast of the Ascension. If all we did was to memorialize Jesus, we would miss the point of his glorification. When we look carefully at the readings today, we would see that more happened than just Jesus ascending to heaven. Before he was taken up, Jesus gave his disciples some work to do. In our first reading from the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus told his disciples that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit, and that they would be witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
To be a witness means to be loyal in giving living testimony to Christ, regardless of the cost. It means the possibility of dying for the faith. In Greek, the language in which The Acts of the Apostles was written, the word for witness and the word for martyr are the same. It means that we shouldn’t just say that we are Christians; we need to act and live like Christians. Saint John says in his first letter, “Children, let us love not in word or speech, but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18). This means we need to imitate what Jesus did, and continue his mission here on earth – all the way to the cross. After Jesus ascended into heaven, two angels appeared to the disciples and said to them, “Why are you standing there looking up at the sky?” In other words, “Don’t just stand there doing nothing! Get busy! You have work to do.”
And then in the Gospel reading Jesus says to his disciples, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature.” This was not a farewell speech—this was a commissioning. Jesus was giving them a command—he was sending them on a mission. Jesus’ command to proclaim the gospel to every creature doesn’t necessarily mean that we need to preach to plants and animals, but it lets us know of the cosmic nature of our faith. The proclamation of our faith affects not just humanity, but nature itself. In his letter to the Romans, Saint Paul says, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subject to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:19-21).
What we need to understand is that this commissioning was not intended for just these disciples mentioned in the gospel. The power and authority of Jesus that was given to these disciples is given to the entire Church to continue the mission of Jesus on earth. And that extends to each one of us. At the end of Mass, we are all told to “go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life” or to “Go and announce the Gospel of the Lord.” This is not just a salutation that says “good-bye” or “see you next week.” This is a direct command. We are being commissioned to go out into the world and do what Jesus did. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that through Baptism “we become members of Christ, are incorporated into the Church, and made sharers in her mission” (CCC 1213).
This is an awesome task! And it’s not hard. It’s just humanly impossible. But Jesus reassures us with an encouraging promise. Mark’s Gospel concludes with the words, “[T]hey went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” And at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells his disciples, “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” So we are not alone when we go out into the world and do his work. And he continues to be with us, just as he promised—in the Scriptures, in the Church, and most importantly, in the Eucharist.
In fact, in the second reading, Saint Paul describes how through Christ’s gift of grace, we are equipped for the work of ministry to build up the Body of Christ, which is the Church—all of us. And if we are indeed Christ’s body, then by virtue of our baptism and our union with Jesus, we are literally the hands to do His work, the voice to proclaim and preach His Word, and the heart that loves, gives and forgives as Jesus loves, gives and forgives. We can’t just sit back to see what happens or hope that certain things happen. As the Body of Christ, it is our duty to make things happen. Jesus gives us that command, and he gives us his Spirit to help us carry out his mission. When Jesus said “I am with you always, until the end of the age”, he was talking about us. We are to be the presence of Christ in the world.
Our challenge, then, today is to reflect on the Ascension of Jesus as a sign of hope, and as a commission: a command to continue his work, to evangelize and teach others, to bring the message of faith, hope, and the love of God to others—to bring others to Christ. With the Holy Spirit, we have the power to make disciples and teach in the name of Jesus; but more importantly, we have the power to be the presence of the risen Christ – to each other, and to the whole world.