Today we celebrate the conclusion of the historical earthly life of Jesus Christ – Word-Made-Flesh. Jesus came from the Father to do the Father's will. Now that it has been accomplished to this particular stage, it was now time for him to return to his place at the right hand of the Father. It is the day of Ascension.
But Jesus did not go before setting the stage for the next act in the amazing drama of salvation history: the coming of the Holy Spirit and the manifestation to the whole world of his abiding presence until the end of time, by means of his one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Before leaving them Jesus told them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promised gift of the Father: the Holy Spirit; and then to go into the whole world and proclaim everything they had seen and heard and to baptize in the name of his Father, himself and the coming Holy Spirit. And that because of this baptism – and all of the other sacraments that would become fully instituted and defined: he, himself, would be present to us until once again, on a cloud, he returns in glory to inaugurate the fullness of his Father's kingdom.
As we, who are baptized, wait for that glorious coming, we celebrate at this and every Mass, his death and his resurrection – and we proclaim and prove by our lives of faith and service to God's people, our brothers and sisters, and to the whole world – that Jesus is Lord, we are his brothers and sisters, and God is our Father who wants so much for all of us to make it home safely to his house – where there will be merriment, and joy, laughter, music and dancing, and praise, honor and worship – forever and ever!
God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.
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