Ascension of the Lord

What does the feast of the Ascension of the Lord mean for us?

Christ’s Ascension means that he no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death that conditions our life. He belongs entirely to God. He, the Eternal Son, led our human existence into God’s presence, taking with him flesh and blood in a transfigured form. Christ Ascension means the enthronement of the Crucified and Risen Son of Man, the manifestation of God’s kingship over the world.

However, there is an even deeper meaning that is not immediately perceptible. The event is not described as a journey to on high but rather as an action of the power of God who introduces Jesus into the space of closeness to the Divine. The Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to be in profound communion with the dead and Risen Jesus, invisibly present in the life of each one of us.

The human being finds room in God; through Christ, the human being was introduced into the very life of God. And since God embraces and sustains the entire cosmos, the Ascension of the Lord means that Christ has not departed from us, but that he is now, thanks to his being with the Father, close to each one of us forever. Each one of us can be on intimate terms with him; each can call upon him. The Lord is always within hearing. We can inwardly draw away from him. We can live turning our backs on him. But he always waits for us and is always close to us.

This solemnity must also fill us with serenity and enthusiasm, just as it did the Apostles who set out again from the Mount of Olives “with great joy.”

“I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:19)

PP Benedict XVI, Pope