The Ascension of the Lord: Sunday Gospel Reflection

“The Ascension of Christ is the assurance of our own ascension into heaven after the Last Judgment.” - Fulton Sheen

This Sunday, we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of our Lord—a very underrated yet extremely important moment in history. It marks the moment when Jesus ascends back to His rightful place at the right hand of the Father, but this time, He brings His humanity with Him! By God, who became man, taking on our flesh and raising it to divinity with Him, we now have access to having our bodies glorified in Heaven. As the Mystical Body of Christ, we, the Church, are also at the right hand of the Father through Christ. This grants the Church the authority to bind and loose, but only through the authority of Christ given to the Apostles and their successors.

This leads us into the Gospel reading, also known as the Great Commission. Jesus, in His resurrected body, before Ascending to the Father, gives the apostles their main mission: to “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 behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” - Matt 28:19-20. Jesus sends forth the Apostles which essentially is what the word Apostle means—to go into all the nations of the world and bring them to Christ. This doesn’t just mean some people from every country, but that all nations, in their entirety, come to become disciples of Christ. This is a major request from Jesus: He wants the Apostles and us—to continue making disciples until His second coming. Take a moment to think—how many people have you shared the Gospel with in the last week, month, or year? If the answer is zero, especially over the past year, then are you truly believing and following Jesus? I say this with love and respect because it applies to all of us. God doesn’t just want a personal relationship with you; He desires communion with all the saints in Heaven and on earth. Since God is a communion of persons, we are called to be the same. We should be cultivating relationships with other Christians and allowing the Holy Spirit to use us in helping to form future disciples of Christ.

Before we go out and start sharing the Gospel with others, we need to examine ourselves and ask: Do we truly believe? Are we living radically differently from before? If the person you are witnessing to sees bad fruits from you then chances are you will taint their image of Christians. We all fall short, but are we trying our best to repent and believe in the Gospel is what matters. We must witness with love before knowledge for the love of God is what will bring souls to Him. Go out and proclaim the Gospel in word but also in deed. Many people need to see Jesus as much as they need to hear Him, and you might be that person who helps them see Jesus through acts of love for souls in need!