“I dealt with all that Jesus did and taught, until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.” (Acts 1:1-2)

The major theme for this Ascension of the Lord Sunday focuses on one of the dogmas of our faith, that our Lord “has ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.” The reality of Christ’s Ascension is so important that the Nicene Creed and the Apostle’s Creed affirm it, that the denial of this dogma will be a departure from one of the essences of our Christian faith, making us not authentic believers of the Christian faith. 

The Ascension of the Lord proclaims Christ's bodily Ascension into heaven to receive His glory. It foreshadows our own entrance into Heaven not simply as souls after our death, but as glorified bodies, after the resurrection of the dead at the Final Judgment. Christ, in redeeming humankind, not only offered salvation to our souls, but also to our physical body, and began the restoration of the material world itself to the original glory that God intended it to be before Adam's fall.

The Ascension of the Lord is closely linked to His descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who “came from the Father” can return to Him. Therefore, Christ said: “No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.” Left to its own natural powers, humanity does not have access to the Father’s house, to God’s eternal life and happiness. Only Jesus Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head, and our Source, has preceded us (CCC #661).

God does not want us holding a relationship of Transaction but Transformation. Therefore, Dynamic Christian disciples are those who (1) BELIEVE, (2) GROW, (3) SERVE, (4) LOVE and (5) LEAD others to Jesus. Today’s topic invites us to share the joy of the Ascension of the Lord, to imitate and follow Jesus Christ more closely, to repent our sins, to exercise our Christian stewardship, to use our time, treasure, and talents to love God above all and to love our neighbors as ourselves, participating in the works of mercy, to accomplish God’s will in our lives to glorify God.

How can we proclaim, assist, and fulfill the evangelizing mission of the Church?   

Wishing everyone a blessed week in the Lord.