The Ascension of the Lord: “I Am With You Always”

There are some goodbyes that do not feel like goodbyes at first.

A child leaves home for university. A friend moves away. Someone we love dies. The chair is empty, the room feels different, and yet somehow their presence remains. A phrase they used. A kindness they showed. A way of looking at the world that has lodged itself inside us.

The Ascension of the Lord can feel, at first glance, like one of those moments. Jesus has risen from the dead. He has appeared to his disciples. He has spoken peace to them. He has eaten with them. He has restored Peter by the lakeside. And then, forty days after Easter, he is taken from their sight.

Was that it? Had he gone?

The answer of the Church is no. Not gone. Not absent. Not finished.

Before his Ascension, Jesus gives his disciples the words given to us in the Gospel: “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
— Matthew 28:20

Those are not the words of someone abandoning his friends. They are the words of the Lord who will be present in a new and deeper way.

The Ascension is not Jesus disappearing into the clouds. It is Jesus returning to the Father, taking our humanity with him into the glory of heaven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes it as Christ’s humanity entering God’s heavenly domain. In Jesus, human life is lifted up, honoured and brought home to God.

That is why this feast is full of hope. Jesus says in St John’s Gospel: “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places… I am going to prepare a place for you.”
— John 14:2

The Ascension tells us that heaven is not an escape from real life. It is the fulfilment of real life. It is where love, mercy and truth finally come into their fullness.

But the disciples are not allowed to stand around gazing upwards forever. The angels ask them, in effect, “Why are you standing there looking into the sky?” There is work to do. There is a Gospel to live. There are wounds to heal, strangers to welcome, sins to forgive, and hope to carry into the world.

Jesus also tells them: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses.”
— Acts 1:8

That is our calling too.

Here at St Charles, the Ascension reminds us that our faith is not simply about looking back to what Jesus once did. It is about living now in the presence of the risen and ascended Lord. He is with us in the Mass. He is with us in the Scriptures. He is with us in the poor, the lonely, the sick, the anxious, and the searching. He is with us when we pray, when we serve, when we forgive, and when we begin again.

The Ascension raises our eyes to heaven, but it does not remove our feet from the ground.

Christ has gone before us. Christ remains with us. Christ sends us out.

And his promise still stands:

“And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
— Matthew 28:20

Amen