by Fr. John Martin Shimkus, O.S.B.

       Thanks to all the many paintings and illustration of the Lord’s Ascension we probably find it easy to imagine our Lord rising into the sky, his hands extended in blessing.  And, if really we let our imaginations go, we might even think of the disciples craning their necks to catch a last glimpse of their Lord as He soars so high that He passes clear out of sight.  We might even get the impression from this picture that heaven is actually a place located in a galaxy far away, or perhaps just outside the earth’s atmosphere!

     But that is certainly not the point of the story and to spare us such an interpretation, St. Luke includes a small detail in his account at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.  He says that when Jesus was lifted up, “a cloud took Him from their sight."  “A cloud” is the ancient biblical symbol for the presence of God.  For Jesus to enter into the cloud was not to enter into the stratosphere or outer space, but to enter, with His humanity, into the very presence of the Father.

     Now this moment was a moment of great glory for Christ.  It was the triumphant culmination of His mission on earth.  Yet everything that Jesus did in His earthly life, everything He did in his humanity was never just for Himself, but for our benefit, for our salvation.  Thus the reason He returned to God's presence, along with His human nature, was also for us.  His Ascension gives us the confidence that we too shall go where He has gone, in our own humanity, into the very presence of God.  And this is something that would be impossible, unthinkable, if it weren’t for Jesus.

     As we await that our entry into God’s presence, that same Jesus shows us how to live in that presence while still on earth.  He does this through His prayerful obedience to the Father.  When we think about Jesus earthly life, we think of how our Lord prayed to His Father, especially when confronted with decisions or trials; when choosing his apostles, in the garden before His passion, even from the Cross, He prayed.  Jesus’ prayer was an expression of His constant awareness of His Father’s presence.  And this awareness bore fruit in Jesus’ faithful obedience to the Father’s will.

     And so the event that we celebrate today, the Ascension of Jesus into heaven, is not just a quaint little vignette about our Lord drifting off into space, but a pivotal moment in our Lord's life and in our own life as well; it is an event that reminds of Jesus’ glory and our own. By seeking to obey God, with the support of prayer, especially when it is difficult, we are following the path that Jesus' showed us into the glory of Father’s presence.  And we rejoice knowing that those who strive to live in God’s presence here on earth will one day know what it is to enter His eternal presence in our heavenly homeland!

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