On this Sunday of the Ascension, the Church celebrates the glorious moment when the Risen Jesus, forty days after His Resurrection, returned to the Father in heaven. In the First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1.1–11), Jesus gathers His disciples one last time before ascending. But this is not a farewell of absence. It is the beginning of a new way of His presence.
The disciples are still hoping for an earthly kingdom, but Jesus lifts their eyes higher. He promises them the power of the Holy Spirit and gives them a mission: “You will be my witnesses… to the ends of the earth.” The Ascension is not Jesus abandoning the world; it is Jesus entrusting the world to His disciples. The same Lord who ascended into heaven continues His work through His Church.
Notice that the angels tell the apostles: “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” The Christian life is not spent gazing upward in fear or nostalgia. We are sent into the world with hope, courage, and joy. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, but He remains alive and active among us — especially in His Word, in the Eucharist, and in the power of the Holy Spirit.
The Ascension reminds us that heaven is now open to humanity. Jesus has gone before us to prepare a place for us. Our true homeland is with God. Yet while we journey toward heaven, we are called to be witnesses on earth: in our families, our workplaces, our parish, and our daily lives.
And so, the Gospel of the Ascension ends with the Great Commission of the Lord: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… and remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28.19–20). Christ has ascended into heaven, but He has never left His Church.
