This Sunday we celebrate the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord. There are three great feasts during the fifty-day long Easter Season in the Church: Easter Sunday, Ascension Sunday, and Pentecost Sunday when the Holy Spirit entered the apostles. The three feasts are interconnected and have to be understood in relation to one another. 

Easter Sunday marks the Resurrection of Christ from the dead and his transformation into a spiritual body. Thus begins a period of forty days during which he appeared to his apostles in bodily form and revealed to them the central truths about himself. 

Following these forty days Christ “ascended into to heaven where he sits at the right hand of the Father.” This language that tells us that he is no longer physically present on earth. He told the apostles beforehand, somewhat cryptically, that it is better for them that he leaves them, because if he doesn’t go the Holy Spirit cannot come to them (John 16). What does this mean?

Christ is not leaving the members of his Church. But instead of being bodily present to them he will be spiritually, in a deeper way, present to them. The Holy Spirit makes Christ spiritually present to each Christian. We remember that on the road to Emmaus the two disciples recognized Christ “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35). Christ, though not physically present to us is present in a deeper way in the Sacrament of Holy Communion. Moreover, Jesus told his disciples that whatever good they do to the “least of my brethren,” that is, to the poor, they do unto him. So, Christ is spiritually present to the Church in the poor and suffering.

Christ’s ascension into heaven enables us to experience him in a deeper way than we would be able to do were he physically present among us. At the moment of Christ’s ascension the angel said to the apostles,“Men of Galilee, why are you gazing into heaven looking for him?” (Acts 1:11) Christ is not absent; he is sending the Holy Spirit as he promised. “And I will be with you until the end of time,” he promised (Matthew 28:20). 

Enjoy your weekend,
Fr. Robert