Gospel Reflection of the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

This Sunday in Ireland we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord. This feast commemorates the last public sighting of the Risen Lord by his disciples. This is a very important moment in the story of our Christian faith.

Initially it can look as if the Lord is leaving the earth. He is going back to Heaven and we are being left alone. But in today’s Gospel Our Blessed Lord reminds us that the opposite is in fact the case. He is returning to His Father in Heaven not to get away from us, but so that he can be with us now in a more intimate way. His final words to us are that we must always remember that He is with us always; yes to the end of time.

All He is leaving are the limitations and confines set by his sacred humanity, being physically with his disciples in this place or that place only. Now united fully in his sacred humanity with his Heavenly Father, He is with every Christian in a soul filled with grace. He goes away so that he can be with us in the intimacy of our own hearts. We don’t have to travel to the Holy Land to be with Him, all we need are hearts and lives open to him, not darkened by sin and selfishness but open to His grace and His love.

With the Lord we are to go forth and tell the world of His love for each and every person searching for truth and love. We can go to others with confidence because we know that He is with us. We must also remember that often He is with those to whom we go, but they are unaware of it. We need to help them to see where Jesus is in their lives; we need to journey with them as they come to meet the Lord who comes to them.

The Lord ascended into Heaven so that He could be more present to us. At times when we feel He is absent, because of our sufferings, our dryness in prayer, etc., we must remember that this feeling of His being absent may be His calling to us to a deeper awareness of His closeness to us. Just as his ascension into heaven reminds us that he hasn’t left us but rather He is present to us in a new way. We must always search for these new ways of his presence. “I am with you always”; never doubt these parting words of Jesus.