The Ascension of the Lord
May 16, 2021
Deacon Greg Alberts, St. Mary Immaculate, Plainfield
“But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.”
I think there is a temptation in the spiritual life to treat God as though he’s far away, to treat Jesus as though he left us behind, and, oddly enough, to forget about the Holy Spirit all together. And if we’re not careful, the very feast we celebrate today can feed into that temptation. This is day in which Jesus was taken up into heaven – having fulfilled all that the Father had desired, and knowing that the Advocate, the Helper, the Holy Spirit would come upon them, he was taken up, and took his place at the right hand of the Father.
But he didn’t leave.
The Ascension of the Lord does not signify his departure. If it did, that’s what we’d call it – the departure. Or Jesus’ final farewell.
The truth is, friends, that our God is present, active, and reliable. This is precisely how the Church can be effective at all. It is not by our own power nor by our own abilities that the work of the Church that Jesus himself established is accomplished.
It is not the case that He has acted at one time, left us His Word, his Church, and everything we need to keep going. Provisions, as it were, for a long journey, with the promise of His return. Rather, he promises his constant and enduring presence, his activity.
He also promises us a helper, the Holy Spirit, which we will celebrate next week.
It is not in this years’ cycle of readings that we get this enduring presence of Jesus most clearly, but rather in Matthew’s Gospel. He says, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
And it is present to us right here, though indirectly when it says, “while the Lord worked with them” and the word was accompanied by signs.
The enduring presence of Jesus Christ enables us to do these incredible things that the Gospel speaks of, picking up serpents, and healing the sick.
But this call that we receive is one that is written on the very fabric of our existence, it the very purpose for our creation – Jesus desires to do something with us. And because he is present and active and reliable, we, too are enabled to respond to that desire of Jesus.
It is not the departure of Jesus, not really anyway, because of his promise to continue to enrich and safeguard the Church and us.
We do not perform the apostolic ministry on our own, nor do we respond to the call to discipleship without his help.
“Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
This is both a call to action and a reminder.
A call to go forth and proclaim the Gospel, and a call to remember from whom you first received it. And in that remembering, imitate him, rely upon him, and recall his activity.
Jesus did not leave us today.
Father Alberts 