The Ascension Acts 1:1-11; Eph 1:17-23; Lk 24:46-53

Today’s readings describe the Ascension of Jesus into his Heavenly glory after he had promised to send the Holy Spirit as the source of Heavenly power for his disciples and commanded them to bear witness to him through their lives and preaching throughout the world.  The Ascension and Pentecost, together, mark the beginning of the Church.  The feast of the Ascension tells us that the Church must be a community in mission, guided by God’s Spirit and confident of God’s protection even amid suffering and death.

Each Sunday we profess through the Creed, "He ascended into Heaven."  Christ’s Ascension was the culmination of God’s Divine plan for Christ Jesus – his return to his Father with his “Mission Accomplished."  Ascension is the grand finale of all his words and of the works He has done for us and for our salvation.  It is a culmination, but not the conclusion.  As he is now with God in glory, he is now with us in Spirit: "Lo, I am with you always." The feast of the Ascension celebrates one aspect of the Resurrection, namely Jesus’ exaltation.  He did not wait 40 days to be glorified at God’s right hand. That had already happened at his Resurrection. 

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, this human being – the person and the resurrected body of Jesus – became for all eternity a part of who God is.  It was not the Spirit of Jesus or the Divine Nature of Jesus that ascended to the Father.  It was the Risen living Body of Jesus: a Body that the disciples had touched, a Body in which He Himself  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, now and forever, is a living, participating part of God. That is what 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 wonderful and an important and a holy thing to be a human being.

The apostles aren’t sad at the leave taking of Jesus. Think of the children you see at the county fair who lose the grip on their helium balloon and, as it floats away, they weep. Then turn to the parent, saying, “Buy me another one. Buy me another one.” It’s not like that with Jesus’ apostles. They don’t feel abandoned. The Scripture says they did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God. Under Jesus’ blessing hands this small group of Christians who see Jesus ascend to heaven is the nucleus of God’s worshiping church, a nucleus as strong and powerful as the nucleus of any atom.

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 not given to a select few but to all believers. 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.”

After attending a convention led by Billy Graham a woman wrote to him. “Dear Sir, I feel that God is calling me to preach the Gospel. But the trouble is that I have twelve children. What shall I do?” The televangelist replied: “Dear Madam, I am delighted to hear that God has called you to preach the Gospel. I am even more delighted to hear that He has already provided you with a congregation in your own home.” We are called to begin the preaching in the small community we live in and then go out to the rest of the world.

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, of hope and peace, by the witness of our lives. On this day of hope, encouragement and commissioning, let us renew our commitment to be true disciples everywhere we go, beginning with our family and our parish, "living in a manner worthy of the call [we] have received.”