16 May 2021
Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
“…why are you standing there looking at the sky?” In other words the angel tells the disciples, and tells us, “Don’t just stand there: follow Him!” Do the things He did; He is the Way, so follow in His steps and you, too, will be brought home to your heavenly Father.”
Didn’t Jesus promise His followers at the Last Supper, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be. Where I am going you know the way” (John 14:1-4).
We know the way; we know Jesus. Today we celebrate His Ascension into Heaven, His return home to His Father. It may seem counter-intuitive for Jesus to come to us and then leave, but His Ascension gives us a goal, a model, to follow. He beckons us to follow Him not merely here on earth, but all the way to Heaven itself. We are called to follow Him in our life on this earth, every step, not only in a life of prayer and worship, not only in loving service to our neighbor, but also to the Cross in the suffering we encounter in life, and in the death that we will one day die. We meet Him then, face-to-face, where He shows us the path we have walked all our life and where, ultimately, it leads us: either to Him, or away from Him, in either direction for eternity. Then, and only then, does our journey end.
Jesus has ascended, Body and Soul, into heaven; you are a member of that same Body, and a temple of that same Spirit, and you just have to catch up to the rest of Him! Do you feel that pull, that draw to Him? Follow Him: follow Him in everything, great and small. Follow Him, even through suffering and doubt, loss and error, even through death. He has gone through all of that ahead of you. He has marked the way with His own blood. By ascending to Heaven, He has proven one thing: if you follow in His path you will, with His help, find your way home.