With Us Always
The Feast of the Ascension can tempt us to look upward. The Gospel tells us that Jesus is lifted up, returning to the Father, and it is easy to imagine Him disappearing through the clouds into the vastness of the heavens. The disciples themselves stood staring into the sky, trying to hold on to the last visible trace of the One they loved. We know and understand how they felt. When someone we love dies, be they our spouse, partner, parent, child or friend, our hearts instinctively reach outward and upward, searching for them in the mystery beyond our sight. Love does that — it seeks outside ourselves for the one who is gone, the part of our heart that is broken, the part of us that cries out in pain for the one who seems lost to us.
The angels’ words to the disciples, in today’s reading are meant for us as well: “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” In other words, don’t only look out there. Don’t imagine that Jesus has gone far away into a distant heaven. He is not absent. The Ascension is not about distance. It is about presence – a presence that has changed its form so it can live even more deeply within us.
Jesus promised, “I am with you always, until the end of time.” He did not say, “I will be with you from a distance.” He said with you. And more than that – within you. The One who returned to the Father is the same One who breathed His Spirit into us, who dwells in the quiet center of our hearts, and who meets us in its depths where love takes root.
This is true not only of Jesus, but of all those we have loved and lost. They are not only enveloped in the great mystery of God. They are carried in the sacred places of our hearts, woven into the love that shapes us. To find them, we do not need to search the heavens. We need to look inward, to the place where love remembers. The Ascension teaches us that the human bonds formed in God, formed in love, do not dissolve. They deepen. They become forever a part of who we are.
In a few weeks we will celebrate the Feast of Corpus Christi – the Body and Blood of Christ. Corpus Christi reminds us that Jesus does not simply walk beside us; He gives Himself to us completely. When we receive Eucharist, we take the fullness of Christ – body, blood, soul, and divinity into our being. God invites us to become what we receive. Jesus teaches us through Eucharist that the divine life of Jesus is not something external. It is embodied within us, transforming our humble humanity into a glorious divinity from the inside out.
It is in that sacred inner space – the place shaped by grace, nourished by Eucharist, and softened by love – that the Lord has ascended to and where we meet the Lord who promised to remain with us to the end of time. It is in the sacred space within us that God resides and reveals Himself. It is there that divinity embraces us, if we allow ourselves to be embraced, and we embrace divinity, if we dare.
On this Ascension Sunday, we do not stand looking up at the sky. We look into our hearts – the place where Christ lives, where our loved ones dwell, where the Spirit breathes, and where God continues to write His story in us. Heaven is not far away. Heaven is near. It is within us.
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As this will be my final reflection for our parish bulletin, I am filled with gratitude. It has been my privilege to write for you, to pray with you, and to walk this stretch of our faith journey together. Many of you have received these reflections with kindness and openness of heart. Though it is time for me to step aside, you will remain a part of the heart of love that forms me. God bless you, guide you, and hold you close as we continue our faith journeys.
