Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord (June 1, 2025)
Luke 24:46-53
“And behold I am sending the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” (Luke 24:48)
Jesus’ whole life was one great outpouring of himself in love. It was the mission with which the Father entrusted him and which he fulfilled to the end and beyond. Today we celebrate that wondrous love in his final gesture of yielding to the Father’s love and mission in what we call the Ascension. There was still one thing more that needed to be done. He had made a promise and he was about to keep it. This Promise was more than a mere word. This Promise was the very unifying center that bound him and the Father into one. This Promise would reveal the essence of God, Three in one person, the very structure of life: the Spirit.
But first, Jesus must commission his disciples to be his presence in the world. He was not leaving them by returning to the Father. THEY were to be his presence. They were to remember his teaching and carry it to the ends of the earth. Or at least to the limits of their personal worlds. He would not leave them orphans, he would send upon them the Promise of the Father, his Spirit. Jesus would dwell in the hearts of each and every one and his Spirit would be the breath that gave them life: eternal life.
So, he told them to wait in the ordinariness of their lives to be clothed with his Spirit who would teach them all things, console them when the storms came, and be the very love that was the breath of their own spirit. Then Jesus raised his hands in blessing and was swept up into his Father and our Father and the Promise descended upon them as their breath and life. Now it is our turn to receive the mission bestowed on us to be his disciples in love and mercy, care and kindness and the unity that the Promise brings.