The Solemnity of the Ascension marks a turning point in the Easter season. Jesus’s appearances to the apostles and disciples culminate with his Ascension to his heavenly Father and his promise to send upon them the Holy Spirit. Each year we begin a novena of prayer – nine days looking forward to the fulfilment of Christ’s promise at Pentecost.
The apostles’ lives had been transformed by knowing and following Jesus during the three years of his public ministry. All their hopes and dreams for the future had been shattered by his trial and his ignominious death on the cross. Seeing him again after his rising from the dead, their relationship with Christ underwent a profound change.
The apostles and disciples experienced the pain of bereavement on Good Friday and the wonder of the Lord’s rising to new life at Easter. All too soon they were to see him leave them again at his Ascension – but not before he promised to send them another helper, the Paraclete.
Like the apostles and disciples emerging from behind their closed doors and reaching beyond the fears and uncertainties that had held them back, we must go out strengthened and enlightened by the Holy Spirit.
We pray to the Holy Spirit for peace in Ukraine, in Sudan and in the Holy Land – and so that we can respond effectively to the Lord’s invitation: Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation.
