The Victory of the Ascended Lord: Our Hope and Our Mission

Voice over by Bro. Paschal

Acts 1:1-11, Psalm: 46, Eph 1:17-23, Mt 28:16-20

My dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Today, the Church celebrates the Ascension of the Lord. Forty days after Easter, Jesus leaves the earth and returns to the Father. At first glance, this might seem like a departure, a loss, an ending. But the Scriptures reveal it as a victory, a beginning, and the source of our deepest hope. The Ascension is not Jesus leaving us behind; it is Jesus going before us, opening the way to the Father, and sending us forth as His witnesses.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Luke recounts the final moments of Jesus’ earthly ministry. The disciples gather, still hoping for a political kingdom. They ask, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus redirects their focus: “It is not for you to know the times or seasons… But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” Then He is lifted up, and a cloud takes Him from their sight. Two angels appear and ask, “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” The Ascension is not a call to idle gazing; it is a commissioning. Jesus goes to prepare a place for us, but He also sends us to prepare the world for Him.

Saint Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, prays that we may understand the hope that belongs to our call. He speaks of the “immeasurable greatness of his power” that God worked in Christ “when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, power, virtue, and dominion.” The Ascension is the enthronement of Jesus as Lord of the universe. He is not absent; He is reigning. And from that throne, He gives gifts to His Church. Paul emphasizes that the Church is “his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way.” We are not orphans; we are the Body of the ascended Head. His power flows through us.

In the Gospel of Matthew, the eleven disciples go to the mountain in Galilee where Jesus had appointed them. When they see Him, they worship, though some doubt. Then Jesus speaks the most expansive commission in Scripture: “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” And then the promise that bridges the Ascension to the end of the age: “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

This is the paradox of the Ascension. Jesus is physically absent, yet He is more present than ever—through the Spirit, through the Eucharist, through the Church. He is not a distant memory; He is a living Lord who acts through His Body on earth. His departure is not abandonment; it is expansion. Now He can be everywhere, in every tabernacle, in every believer, in every act of love.

Pope Benedict XVI reflected: “The Ascension does not mean that Jesus is absent from the world, but that He is present in a new way, as the Risen Lord who lives in His Church.” Saint Augustine wrote, “He departed from our eyes so that we might return to our hearts and find Him there.”

What does this mean for us? First, we live in hope. The Ascension is our guarantee that where Jesus has gone, we will follow. Heaven is not a vague dream; it is our destination because our Head has already arrived. Second, we live in power. The same Spirit who descended at Pentecost is given to us. We are not left to our own resources. Third, we live in mission. We are not called to stand gazing at the sky, but to go—to our families, our workplaces, our neighborhoods—and make disciples, not by force, but by witness.

This Easter season, as we prepare for Pentecost, let us embrace the Ascension as our victory and our sending. Jesus reigns. Jesus is with us. And Jesus sends us. Go, then, with the hope of heaven in your hearts and the power of the Spirit in your words. For He is with you always, until the end of the age. Amen.

May God bless you all!