Fr. Michael Williams

I heard about a notice outside a church which said, ‘To all our Christian friends- Happy Easter; to all our Jewish friends- Happy Passover; and to all our atheist friends- good luck’.

As followers of Our lord, we do not rely not on luck or chance, we rely on a Person. And not just any Person; we rely on a Person who has won the victory over death and ascended to the glory of Heaven.

The celebration of the Ascension of the Lord is a celebration of Our Lord’s mission given to Him by the Heavenly Father becoming completed. The Ascension could be subtitled, ‘Mission Accomplished’.

Children (and the odd adult!) like to watch films about superheroes saving the world from destruction and some evil enemy. Well, what Jesus did in His mission was to save us from death and hell. He saved us from an enemy far more dangerous than Goldfinger or the Joker!

Our Lord’s mission is the greatest mission anyone ever has undergone, because it’s the mission to save the human race; the human race which had wandered far away from the Father’s house, and wandered to the edge of the abyss. But with Jesus’ death and Resurrection He opens the gates of Heaven once again, and in His Ascension we can ascend to Heaven with Him, once our earthly life is complete.

With Jesus’ death and resurrection completed, He returns to the place where He was from the outset, the right hand of the Father. ‘Jesus being taken up into heaven’ is the victory procession, a procession we are called to join.

But before we can ascend to the place, which Jesus has prepared for us, we have to complete the mission that the Lord has given to each one of us. Blessed John Henry Newman’s once said, ‘God…has committed some work to me, which He has not committed to another. I have my mission’. I suppose we could all make that statement, ‘God…has committed some work to me, which He has not committed to another. I have my mission’. We all have a work to be done in this life- a mission- a commission given to us by God. Our work, our commission, in this life is to complete that work, and then when it’s completed, to join the Lord in His heavenly homeland.

And it’s worth reminding ourselves that Our Lord is with us in our mission as He said in today’s gospel, ‘Know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time’.