VATICAN CITY (Catholic Online) - After the forty days of Eastertide, during which we have experienced the presence of the Risen Lord with the apostles, the liturgy today introduces us to the mystery of the Ascension and invites us to share in a deep spiritual joy.

The word 'spiritual' has almost lost its meaning in our culture which can be so superficial and subjective.  What makes our joy truly spiritual in the Christian sense is that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit, rooted in our relationship with Christ the Lord.  As Christians we continually ask in prayer that we will be able to receive and live these gifts of the Spirit.

In the Collect of today's Mass we ask Almighty God to "gladden us with holy joys".  The Church rejoices in the Lord's ascension into heaven, and it invites the faithful to join their hearts and voices to this mystical exultation.  But why do we rejoice when the Lord now seems 'invisible' to us?  By Ascending into heaven, has Christ abandoned us, leaving us just as before the 'yes' of the Virgin Mary at the Annunciation? Where is Christ our Joy now?

The Collect continues: "where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope". We are called to joy because our humanity is now 'elevated' in Christ beside the Father.  In fact, because of Christ's love for man He took on our flesh and so all that happens to Christ's humanity will now also affect us too.

Christ recapitulates in Himself the entire cosmos and draws it to the Heavenly Father, depositing it at the foot of His 'Holy throne' (Ps 46).  This is our glorious destiny, the ultimate and positive result to which our lives are called.

So great is the mystery of this love that St Paul, writing in chains for Christ's sake, exclaims: "I, then, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received".  We are made for heaven: made to live with Almighty God as his beloved children, called from all eternity.  There a place has been prepared for us.  It is waiting for us, and we must orientate all our energy and action towards this wonderful reality.

Ascending into heaven, Christ gives definitive direction to human history.

Like the apostles we are called to stop looking up at the sky with sadness, but instead to be obedient to the Lord's command: "Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation".  This isn't a command that we can carry out alone, no matter how strong our force of will. 

Without the consolation and beauty of the Lord's presence we will be exhausted by the inevitable struggles and disappointments of life.  But Christ is now, more present to us than ever, because by lifting up his own humanity to the right side of the Father, he is now at the very source of all reality.  Everything is now present and contemporary to Him, and His presence is there in all of creation calling us to share in his divine love.

How do we approach this familiarity with Christ's presence?  We find the answer in the Post Communion Prayer that "hope may draw us onward to where our nature is united with you".  The familiarity with Christ increases our desire for Him, through prayer.  Only in prayer are we able to discover, in the companionship found in the Church, His Presence. 

The Holy Eucharist draws us into Christ's loving presence.  Through the Blessed Sacrament, the Risen Lord continues to attract us and ultimately the whole of creation to himself.  It is through the Eucharist that he prepares a place for us.

Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was the first to participate, body and soul, in the glory to which all humanity is called, to help us to understand and rejoice in the mystery of Christ's Ascension so that we will look forward in hope to sharing in the life of the Most Holy Trinity.  Amen!

Citations of
Ac 1,1-11: www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/9ajjvja.htm    
Ep 1,17-23: www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/9axhhka.htm
Mk 16,15-20:    www.clerus.org/bibliaclerusonline/en/9avvmtp.htm