Today's readings describe the Ascension of the Lord Jesus into his Heavenly glory after promising the apostles the Holy Spirit as their source of Heavenly power and commanding them to bear witness to him by their lives and by preaching the Good News throughout the world. The ascended Jesus promised the Apostles, "I am with you always; yes, to the end of time," and keeps that promise through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Today's feast is a celebration of Jesus' glory after his suffering and death – a glory in which we also hope to share.
The Biblical accounts of the Ascension focus not so much on the details of the event as on the mission Jesus gave to his disciples. For example, in the accounts narrated in Luke and Acts, the Ascension took place in Jerusalem. In Matthew and Mark, on the other hand, the event occurred in Galilee. All accounts, however, agree that the Ascension, a real event, happening in real-time and observed by real people, took place on a mountain. In Luke and Acts, the Ascension happened forty days after the Resurrection, a period during which Jesus repeatedly appeared to his followers. In Matthew and Mark, there is no indication of the period between the Resurrection and the Ascension. The Gospel writers were not aiming at the accuracy of historical detail but were more concerned with transmitting Our Lord's message.
The Ascension is most closely related, in meaning, to Christmas. In Jesus, the human and the Divine become united in the Person and life of one man. That's Christmas. At the Ascension, it was not the Divine nature of Jesus alone that ascended to the Father. It was the risen Jesus -- fully human and fully Divine; whole, alive and entire, in his glorified Body -- Who ascended: a body which the disciples had touched, the Body in which Jesus had eaten and drunk with them both before and after His Resurrection, a real, physical, but gloriously restored Body, bearing the marks of nails and a spear. This is what and Who ascended. This is what, and Who, now and forever, is a living, participating part of God. The Ascension, along with the Incarnation, is here to tell us that it is a good thing to be a human being; indeed, it is a beautiful and vital and holy thing to be a human being. It is such an important thing that God did it. Even more, the fullness of God now includes what it means to be a human being.
In today's Gospel, Jesus gives his mission to all the believers: "Go out to the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature." This mission is for all believers, not just a few. To be a Christian is to be a proclaimer and an evangelizer. There is a difference between preaching and proclaiming. "We preach with words, but we proclaim with our lives." As we celebrate the Lord's return to His Father in Heaven – His Ascension -- we are being commissioned to go forth and proclaim the Gospel of life and love, hope and peace, by the witness of our lives. On this day of hope, encouragement, and commissioning, let us renew our commitment to being faithful disciples everywhere we go, beginning with our family and our parish, "living in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received." Pope Francis' apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, says: "All the baptized, whatever their position in the church or their level of instruction in the Faith, are agents of evangelization, and it would be insufficient to envisage a plan of evangelization to be carried out by professionals while the rest of the faithful would simply be passive recipients. ... Indeed, anyone who has truly experienced God's saving love does not need much time or lengthy training to go out and proclaim that love."
The disciples "returned to Jerusalem with great joy." Jesus' exaltation and final blessing gave them, as it gives us, the assurance that, though absent, Jesus is still present, present even in the pain and sorrow we undergo. That is why St. Augustine assures us, "Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his Body, have to bear. He showed this when he cried out from above: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?' and when he said: 'I was hungry, and you gave me food.' While in Heaven, he is also with us; and while on earth, we are with him. He is here with us by his Divinity, his power, and his love. We cannot be in Heaven, as He is on earth, by Divinity, but in Him, we can be there by love." "With a spirit of wisdom and insight to know him clearly," we can discover Christ's presence at every turn of our life's journeys to his final return at the end of time.
By His Ascension, Christ has not deserted us but has made it possible for the Holy Spirit to enter all times and places. In this way, each of us can be transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit into agents or instruments of Christ. We are enlivened, and our actions become animated in a new way by the Holy Spirit, as we serve and love God and our brothers and sisters.