ASCENSION: A THREE-FOLD PROMISE

Reflections on the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord: Acts 1:1-11, Ephesians 1:17-23, Luke 24:46-53

Ascension isn’t a space project. It is an event that is rooted in the salvific plan of God. The Risen Lord ascends to the right hand of his Father to complete God’s redemptive plan. God became man at Christmas. In ascension, he elevates creation into the divine realm. Jesus, before his ascension, makes three promises:

1. The Promise of the Holy Spirit: 

Jesus tells his disciples, “Wait for the gift my Father promised... you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5). They were told to stay in Jerusalem until they received the Holy Spirit. As we know, Jerusalem was not their home. They were there for the Passover, and after the disturbing events of the Holy Week, they were eager to leave. Thomas was not with the twelve (John 20:24); Cleophas and the other unnamed disciple were on the route to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), Peter and six other disciples (including Thomas, Nathanael, James, John, and two others) returned to Galilee and went fishing (John 21:1-3). In each of these cases, Jesus appears to them and brings them back to Jerusalem. To receive the promise of the Holy Spirit, we need to stay united.

The disciples were still under the formation of the Risen Lord. Their patient wait was a pedagogical waiting period that prepared them for the promise. The promise of the Holy Spirit is central to our life and identity as Christian disciples. John identifies some key roles that the Holy Spirit plays in our discipleship. He teaches us everything, reminding us of everything that Jesus had told us (John 14:26); He testifies on our behalf (15:26); He establishes the world’s guilt in matters of sin, justice and judgment (16:8-11); He leads us into all truth (16:13) and He illuminates our minds, helping us to understand the Word of God and to recognise that Jesus is God's Son (1 John 5:20). Are we clothed with the power and the promise of the Holy Spirit? Jesus continues to gather his Church to empower us with the Holy Spirit. 

2. The Promise of Jesus’ abiding presence with the Church: 

Jesus promises, “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20). This promise comforts the disciples in trials and sustains the Church in its ministry. The ascension of Jesus did not mark his abandonment of his followers but inaugurated a new, profound mode of his presence with the Church. He assured the disciples, “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18) and “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:19). How is this promise fulfilled today? Where is the Risen Lord present to us? He is present to us in the Word. He continues to ‘open the scriptures’ to us, helping our hearts to ‘burn within’ (Luke 24:32). His teachings testify to him (1 John 5:39). He is present to us in our sacramental celebrations which effectuate the union that we seek with the Risen Lord.

Our baptism ‘in the Holy Spirit’ reminds us of our union with Christ’s death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-4) and the Eucharist helps us relive our communion concretely, sharing in the body and blood of Christ. The sacraments are not merely symbols or customs, but channels of Jesus’ grace and presence among us. The Risen Lord is present to us in the Church. As the second reading attests, “And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body”. Christ dwells in the Church and works through believers to love, serve, and proclaim Him (2 Corinthians 5:20).

3. The Promise of the Glorious Return: 

“This same Jesus... will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven” (second reading). The eschatological coming of Christ encourages the Church to live in readiness and travel together as pilgrims of hope (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). Ascension reminds us that we are permanent pilgrims who journey with the memory of the first coming towards the fulfilment of the glorious coming. Jesus’ ascension places us between the mysteries of incarnation and the eschatological return. Saint Bernard refers to this interim period as ‘the mystical time’: the One who has already come and the One whose coming is future, now incarnates Himself daily in our lives, bringing renewal. This mystical time has but one goal: to transform us into Him.

This mysticism of becoming Him, like Him, with Him, in our mundane daily lives dictates the purpose of Christian living. The challenge for Christians is not to get anxious over when He will return, for as Jesus insists, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority”. Our purpose is to remain his witnesses “in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth”. Our purpose is to watch and stay awake. Watch, so we do not succumb to routine. Stay awake, so we aren’t caught off guard, ‘standing there looking at the sky’ but commit ourselves to the Kingdom ‘already here and not yet’.