5 Joyful Reflections on the Ascension

When we think of Christian holy days that are filled with joy, Easter and Christmas are generally the first ones we think of. And this is rightfully so. After all, the birth of Our Savior and Jesus’ glorious Resurrection are the miraculous events that shape our faith and give us all great hope. But how often do we reflect on the radiant joys of other holy days?

The Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord is one holy day that’s frequently overlooked by many. But it’s filled with as much joy, hope and peace as Christmas and Easter. Falling 40 days after Easter Sunday, Ascension Day honors Jesus’ Ascension into heaven. Here are five joyful reflections to meditate on as we contemplate this beautiful mystery of our faith.

Jesus Became Our Eternal Advocate

In Saint Peter’s Square in 2013, Pope Francis spoke about how the Ascension is the culmination of Jesus’ earthly life (until he returns to us). The pontiff primarily focused on Luke 24:50-53, which recounts Jesus’ departure from his disciples and Blessed Mother by stating “While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessing God.”

“We have One who always defends us, who defends us from the snares of the devil, who defends us from ourselves and from our sins,” said Pope Francis. He added “Let us not be afraid to turn to him to ask forgiveness, to ask for a blessing, to ask for mercy! He always pardons us, he is our Advocate: he always defends us! Don’t forget this! The Ascension of Jesus into heaven acquaints us with this deeply consoling reality on our journey: in Christ, true God and true man, our humanity was taken to God. Christ opened the path to us. He is like a roped guide climbing a mountain who, on reaching the summit, pulls us up to him and leads us to God. If we entrust our life to him, if we let ourselves be guided by him, we are certain to be in safe hands, in the hands of our Saviour, of our Advocate.”

We Find Strength to Live Our Faith

In the same address, Pope Francis spoke about the strength we receive from Jesus’ Ascension. “Then two men in white robes appeared and asked them not to stand there looking up to heaven but to nourish their lives and their witness with the certainty that Jesus will come again in the same way in which they saw him ascending into heaven (cf. Acts 1:10-11). This is the invitation to base our contemplation on Christ’s lordship, to find in him the strength to spread the Gospel and to witness to it in everyday life: contemplation and action, ora et labora, as St. Benedict taught, are both necessary in our life as Christians,” said Pope Francis.

“Dear brothers and sisters, the Ascension does not point to Jesus’ absence, but tells us that he is alive in our midst in a new way. He is no longer in a specific place in the world as he was before the Ascension. He is now in the lordship of God, present in every space and time, close to each one of us. In our life we are never alone: we have this Advocate who awaits us, who defends us. We are never alone: the Crucified and Risen Lord guides us.”

We are United with God

Pope Benedict XVI also talked about the joy of the Ascension. During a pastoral visit to Cassino in 2009, he told the crowd “’Heaven:’ this word Heaven does not indicate a place above the stars but something far more daring and sublime: it indicates Christ himself, the divine Person who welcomes humanity fully and forever, the One in whom God and man are inseparably united forever. Man's being in God, this is Heaven. And we draw close to Heaven, indeed, we enter Heaven to the extent that we draw close to Jesus and enter into communion with him. For this reason today's Solemnity of the Ascension invites us to be in profound communion with the dead and Risen Jesus, invisibly present in the life of each one of us.”

We Received New Purpose in Life

Thirty years before that address, St. John Paul II shared his thoughts about this holy mystery. In the first part of his homily, he spoke about the instructions that Jesus gave to his Apostles before ascending into heaven. “The instructions indicated, above all, that the Apostles were to wait for the Holy Spirit, who was the gift of the Father. From the beginning, it had to be crystal-clear that the source of the Apostles’ strength is the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who guides the Church in the way of truth; the Gospel is to spread through the power of God, and not by means of human wisdom or strength,” said St. John Paul II.

“The Apostles, moreover, were instructed to teach – to proclaim the Good News to the whole world. And they were to baptize in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Like Jesus, they were to speak explicitly about the Kingdom of God and about salvation. The Apostles were to give witness to Christ to the ends of the earth. The early Church clearly understood these instructions and the missionary era began. And everybody knew that this missionary era could never end until the same Jesus, who went up to heaven, would come back again.”

Christ’s Victory is Our Victory

During the same homily, St. John Paul II also spoke about the immense power of Christ’s victory reflected in his Ascension. “Because of Christ’s merits, because of his intercession with the Father, we are able to attain justice and holiness of life, in him. The Church may indeed experience difficulties, the Gospel may suffer setbacks, but because Jesus is at the right-hand of the Father the Church will never know defeat. Christ’s victory is ours,” said St. John Paul II.

He later added “Dear sons, be imbued with the hope that is so much a part of the mystery of the Ascension of Jesus. Be deeply conscious of Christ’s victory and triumph over sin and death. Realize that the strength of Christ is greater than our weakness, greater than the weakness of the whole world. Try to understand and share the joy that Mary experienced in knowing that her Son had taken his place with his Father, whom he loved infinitely. And renew your faith today in the promise of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has gone to prepare a place for us, so that he can come back again and take us to himself.”