Today, we celebrate the feast of the Ascension. The Bible tells us that after Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared to several of his disciples in different places and at different times. His purpose was to give them hope, to encourage them, and to reassure them that things were not as bleak as they had imagined. You can imagine how the disciples felt when they saw Jesus hanging on the cross. Their hopes must have been shattered, and they must have been in a state of deep despair, believing that everything was lost and that there was nothing left for them in the world. However, when they saw the Risen Jesus, their hopes must have soared, and they must have felt an overwhelming joy.
In today’s Gospel, we learn that after Jesus blessed his disciples and ascended into heaven, they stood gazing upwards until he vanished from their sight, and then they returned to Jerusalem. Overjoyed, they spent their time in the temple, continually praising God.
The details we learned today about the Ascension come from the evangelist St. Luke. In the Acts of the Apostles, which was also written by St. Luke, he provides additional interesting information. Luke describes how, as Jesus ascended into heaven, two men dressed in white appeared and said to the disciples, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will return in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
These two men were clearly angels, and their message to the disciples was, “Listen, you have work to do! Stop staring at the sky. You need to preach the Gospel, take care of your families, help the sick, the downtrodden, and those who suffer. You have many responsibilities to fulfill. So get going and do the work that needs to be done.”
The eminent English journalist Malcolm Muggeridge, who wrote a famous book on St. Mother Teresa, once asked her if she believed that working with the poor was a way to find God. She replied, “Because we cannot see Christ in the flesh, we cannot express our love to him, but we can always see our neighbors. We can do for them what we would like to do for Christ if we saw him. In slums, in broken human bodies, and in little children, we can see Christ and we can touch him.”
The Ascension of Jesus does not mean that he is only up there while we are down here. Yes, he is above, but he is also among us. As Mother Teresa said, we need to recognize, know, and love him in the people around us. We don't have the time to just stand and look at the sky because we have work to do.
The celebrated American poet Robert Frost expressed this idea beautifully in his famous poem, "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening." He wrote:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.”
All of us have miles to travel before we rest, so let us stop staring at the sky and begin our work.
By Fr. Cyril Veliath, SJ