The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw him, they worshipped him; but some doubted.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
— Matthew 28:16-20

Christians are strange people. For almost two thousand years we have been gathering to read the scriptures, to hear stories that we know quite well beforehand, as part of the liturgy. This story-telling is not like delving into a thriller at home by the fireside. Neither is it the interest of the scholar who pours over the ancient texts of the bible. Christians, at liturgy, are not so much on a trip into the past as being awakened to who we are and where we are in the present before God. Risen into our lives is Jesus, the Lord.
At Christmas we sing: “today a Saviour is born to us.” At Easter we pass with Jesus through death to life. There is so much more to life than the eye sees or the fingers grasp.

We sometimes talk with people about Jesus as if he were a person who had lived with us for one brief moment and then departed and left us on our own. Sometimes people speak of Christ as if he came to humanity, assembled a church, wound it up like a clock, and then went away to let it operate on its own. And sometimes we ourselves begin to think that way, as if Jesus came down from heaven two thousand years ago and then went away and left us.

The celebration of the Ascension is not a celebration of the departure of Jesus. He did not go up on a mountain, step onto a cloud as though he were stepping onto an elevator, punch the button for the top floor, and then go up like he was on some sort of heavenly lift. To picture the ascension in this fashion is to be hung up on a completely materialistic and false picture.

We must remember that those who wrote the accounts of the ascension of Jesus were Jews. They were writing to Jews in a Jewish culture, using the literary symbols and figures of speech that Jews, particularly religious Jews, saw as religiously different symbols. In Jewish religious literature, cloud is a word that denoted the presence of God. Thus Moses received the Ten Commandments on top of Mount Sainai in the midst of clouds. It was a cloud that led the people of God by day through the Sainai desert. Cloud was a religious symbol that announced the presence of God.
It is therefore significant that the ascension depict Jesus on top of the mountain. It recalls the mountain on which the Ten Commandments were given. It is likewise significant that Jesus departed, so to speak, in a cloud. What is being said is, in fact, that Jesus was not departing. What the evangelists are saying is that, at the ascension, Jesus would be present to the world in a new way.

The presence of Jesus is more than just a presence each of us has in our memories of someone we may have known long ago. It is a real presence — his presence in the Eucharist. A tremendous strength is gained when we enter a quiet church or chapel and see a flickering sanctuary lamp near the tabernacle. That little flame reminds us ‘he is here’. How much that presence has comforted untold numbers of people throughout the centuries.

Jesus is still with us, in his word — the gospels. This presence is also a real presence, and as we listen at each Eucharistic celebration to the reading of the gospel we are truly experiencing the presence of Jesus as real as the air we breathe.

There will always be rich spiritual dividends for the one who reads or listens to the Gospel with deep faith and longing. That faith, and that longing, enable the Holy Spirit to make Jesus present to us in a very special, a very personal way. Reading and listening, with faith and longing, to the word of God is fulfilling his invitation, “Come to me all you who are weary and find life burdensome and I will refresh you” (Matt. 11:28).

There is another presence of Jesus, another way in which he is with us, that is perhaps the most important, the most dynamic, certainly the most readily available presence, and that is his presence in other humans. He promised us that he would be present wherever two or more were gathered in his name. He would be present whenever and wherever his apostles were teaching and baptizing. He would be with us all days, even to the consummation of the earth, whenever and wherever two or more cells in his body were brought together.

The Body of Jesus that is with us after the ascension is a body composed of billions of cells. Just as our bodies are held together by one life-giving spirit, so also is the Body of Jesus an organism composed of billions of cells, all held together by one life-giving spirit, the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit who makes us whole and therefore holy. That same Holy Spirit makes us whole and complete; integrating us with our neighbour, with our world and with our God. In that integration we find integrity. In that integrity we find truth, the truth that sets us free.

And so it is that at the ascension we find the Church discovering itself, discovering what it really is, and discovering the true and real presence of Jesus. The world is going to know Jesus Christ or not know Jesus Christ depending on us. We are the life-giving cells of the body of Jesus, cells that are the communicators of his Spirit, communicators of his mind and his heart. Everything that we do and every relationship we can have with other persons can be baptized. We have the power, we have the Spirit. What remains to ask ourselves if we have the willingness, if we have the vision.

The ascension is not the departure of Jesus. The ascension is our empowerment to make Jesus present in our daily lives, our ordination to be communicators of his Holy Spirit, our commission to bring his truth and his love to a world that as yet does not know him. Far from being the departure of Jesus, the ascension is his inauguration of a new kind of his presence. Let us now spend a few moments considering the scripture passage quoted above. In each of out lives we experience moments that we call “highs” or “lows,” sometimes we refer to them as “good” times and “bad.” This is true for most of us most of the time. We anticipate and celebrate the “highs” and try to tolerate the “lows” as best we can. It would be wonderful if the “highs” outnumbered the “lows,” but a mixture is expected in all of our lives. The special moments in our lives fortify us against the bad ones. These good moments help us survive the difficult times, the disappointing situations that erode our faith and hope.

In Jesus’ public ministry there were many moments that were special, but many also that were not so pleasing or pleasant. Through the pages of sacred scripture we follow the ministry of Jesus with his successes and failures. The ascension of Jesus into heaven, however, poses a quandary because it was both a high and a low. It was a high since it was the culmination of Jesus’ work here on this earth. At the same time it was a low as it necessitated a “good-bye” to a group of friends that he had been intimately associated with for several years. It is precisely this scene that Matthew describes in the above passage.

These are the men he had called to follow him, to become his apostles. Now he is meeting them for the last time for some final instructions and his farewell. What thoughts must have been running through the minds of all of them. They must have been filled with a great deal of anxiety. With his glorious resurrection Jesus began to prepare the small band of followers for this special moment when he would ascend into heaven to be with his father. He told them to go forth and spread the “good news” even to the very ends of the earth.

And Jesus must have been wondering and thinking: “Have I trained them well? Have they really gotten the message? Will they go forth and proclaim the Good News to the world?” And how about the eleven that had climbed the mountain near Galilee at the bidding of Jesus? Matthew says, “At the sight of Him, those who had doubts fell down and gave Him homage.” The had sat at his feet and heard His teachings; they had seen the miracles He had performed. And yet, some had doubts we know. Now these doubts are resolved; this is the Christ, the Son of God, and they realize that this is the last time they will see Him in this world, and their hearts must surely have been heavy. Matthew says nothing of this but concentrates on the instructions that Jesus has for those who will establish His Church.

Then Jesus says, “Teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you.” In other words, instruct the people in faith. Make them aware of the importance of conversion. Tell them how Jesus gave His life for them because He loves them so much, so that they too might join Him with His father in heaven. Then there is the promise that Jesus gave His apostles and us: “Know that I am with you always, until the end of the world!”
Matthew says nothing of the actual ascension. St Luke says: “As he blessed them, he left them and was taken up to heaven and they fell down to do him reverence, then returned to Jerusalem filled with joy. There they were found in the temple constantly, speaking the praises of God.” (Luke 24: 51-53).

When Jesus ascended into heaven the universal mission of the Church started. This mission is expressed through the sacraments with the Eucharist as a constant reminder of the words of Jesus: “I am with you always, until the end of time.”
When we speak of the Church, we are not speaking of buildings, but of people. Like the call of the disciples, we too have been called to carry on the mission of the Church, always remembering the commandment of Jesus to “love your neighbour as yourself,” and frequently recalling His words in John’s Gospel: “Love as I have loved you.”