Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
The Celebration of the Lord’s Ascension is the mystery after which our parish was named. That makes today our parish feast day.
So, happy feast day!
The first reading today tells us that after Jesus told His disciples that they would receive power from the Holy Spirit and that they will be His witnesses to the ends of the earth, it goes on to say that He “was lifted up, and a cloud took Him from their sight” (Acts 1:9).
During the forty days after the resurrection, when Jesus ate and drank with his disciples, teaching them about the Kingdom, His glory remained veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity. Jesus’ final appearance to His disciples ends with the irreversible entry of His humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where He is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand (see Catechism par. 659).
Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father’s glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with Him for ever.
This is the hope that enables believers to endure great hardships and trials without falling into despair, because we know what is in store for those who remain faithful; that we too are called to share in the glorious reality of heaven, where Jesus now dwells with the Father.
What’s more, Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for all, intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who assures us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is the Father’s gift to help us in this pilgrim journey until we too are taken up into the glory of heaven.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
