Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord into Heaven. This celebration causes us to look upward and dare to go where our Lord has gone before. Now we must decide if we will elevate our sight in such fashion, thus joining with the apostles, or if we will instead keep our sight cast downward upon the here and now.
Our Lord’s Ascension into Heaven brings to conclusion His earthly life. This earthly life came about when He was conceived within the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Annunciation. Many events then proceeded in His earthly life from His birth in Bethlehem, to His preaching concerning the Kingdom of God, to His sorrowful Passion, and to His glorious Resurrection. We now anticipate when He will come again at the end of time.
Along the way shepherds came to adore Him, magi brought Him gifts, and the apostles came to know and love Him. The apostles encountered many ups and downs concerning their time with the Lord. They came to mourn at His death, rejoice at the Good News of His Resurrection, and now they were saddened by His Ascension. They like us, were not left alone, for they came to receiving the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
The Fathers of the Church used to refer to the Ascension as being the “hope of the body.” Truly this celebration is a great hope because through it we are reminded to keep moving forward because life always triumphs over death.
With all of the ups and downs of life it can be difficult to have faith and trust placed in the Lord, but we must still have hope and the Lord’s Ascension signals that hope to us. For through the Lord’s Ascension may we come to realize that we have not been left alone. Rather, our Lord continues to be present with us in this day and age. He continues to be manifest among us in the Most Holy Eucharist for “He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me and I in him.” We are not alone for the Lord has told us so, so let us continue to dwell with Him and elevate our sight upward towards Him.
In this world there are so many who have lost sight of where they are headed in this life. They see no value to the practice of religion and the the pursuit of truth. Others have grown complacent and need to be shaken out of their complacency. We must reminded of the Lord in the midst of all that we do in the here and now.
The Ascension serves as our reminder that the Lord is indeed flesh and blood like you and me. It serves as a reminder that we need to continue to encounter and set our sight upon Him within this life. The answer to where we are headed is to where He has gone before, the Kingdom of Heaven. Do we dare to join Him here or would we rather remain caught up in the here and now?
Let us not be filled with sorrow, but with hope as we realize that through the Ascension a great gift has been poured out upon the world. Heaven is indeed where we are headed, so let us begin to live as if this were a truth. The Lord continues to bless us with grace in order that we may follow where He has gone before. Let us dare follow Him and elevate our sight upward towards Him in all that we do.
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