Ascension of the Lord
Lord’s Ascension to heaven
He presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he had suffered, … While meeting with them, he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem …When they had gathered together they asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way…” Acts 1,3-11
Jesus has fulfilled his earthly mission, he promises to his disciples the Holy Spirit which will remind to them all what they have heard and experienced in the past three years with him and he ascends to the heaven. The apostles remain amazed with the nose in the air, such as children who watch the balloons rise and disappear in the clouds. But where did the Lord go at the Ascension day? Certainly not in the physical sky, somewhere in the universe. The paradise, where the Lord is seated at the Father’s right hand, even with his body, where is it? Nobody knows. Our poor knowledge of time and space would suggest a place in which the time is transformed into eternity and the place in another reality which has endless features. We, with our thoughts, must stop here. We cannot go further. It is important, however, to abandon ourselves to the faith and believe that this spiritual environment exists: there, together with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the grandfather Renzo, the grandmother Rita, the grandfather Mario, the grandmother Albertina, the uncle Ilo, the uncle father Ugo, father Cyprian, father Arturo, father Francesco, don Roberto, father Thomas and all the other dear persons, after they have left to us a very precious heritage of affection, of examples and of teachings, are waiting for us. Probably this is the greatest act of faith which has been requested to us, but if we do it humbly, we will be enlightened to understand what we need to live and operate in the life project which was entrusted to us. At the end we also will go to the heaven, leaving momentarily our body on the ground, waiting that eventually it will rise again. This is what Jesus has announced and we believe. With this faith we live in joy and this is the confirmation that everything Jesus told us and which the church reminds us, is true.