May 17, 2026: Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord

Christ appeared to His Apostles and disciples for 40 days after His Resurrection, so that they would embrace the reality of His Risen Presence.

It was a mystery that they would still need to understand more, since they asked Jesus about the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel.

Even in the scene in the Gospel reading, the Apostles go to the mountain in Galilee to meet Jesus, doubting, yet also worshipping Him.

He instead told them to seek the great power that would come upon them, which would send them on mission to build God's Kingdom over all the world.

Then Jesus was lifted up from them.  He was out of sight, and their relationship with Him entered a new phase, in which they would experience His mystical Presence abiding within them as they carried out His mission.  The men in white came to help point them to this new reality.

So Jesus continues to abide with His church, and that is our hope.  By His Ascension, He is our Exalted Head, and He is at work as we heed His command stated in the Great Commission at the end of the Gospel according to St. Matthew, to make disciples of all nations, baptizing and teaching them.  We do this because He remains powerfully with us so that the world may know the reality of God with us.  He Who came as the promised Emmanuel, God with us, makes this promise clear again as He makes Himself mystically and powerful present.