The mystery of the Ascension is a hard mystery for us to understand in this life.  We are so rooted in time and space that it is hard for us to think of presence in any way other than in time and space.  We conceive of the mystery of the Ascension as a time in which Jesus “goes away” and will someday “come again”.  His going away from us seems to be a distancing of himself from this world.  We naturally think of him as going to some far away place, to heaven, which belongs to another life.  He is seated now at the right hand of the Father, but the throne of Christ the King seems to belong to another realm and a distant time in the future.  For many of us, the Ascension seems to signal a time in which Jesus is absent from this world and we await a time in which he will come again and fill the world once more with his presence.  Therefore, we live this mystery of the Ascension in the tension between absence and presence.  It is not surprising that we might have a hard time understanding this mystery as the apostles also had a hard time understanding what Jesus was talking about when he was trying to prepare them for the mystery of the Ascension in his final discourse.  The apostles just scratched their collective heads and said, “We do not know what he means.” (Jn 16,18)

A time of absence seems to indicate a time of sadness and loss for us.  If the Ascension was truly the time of Jesus’ “going away” from us then it would be a time for sadness and distress.  However, the experience of the Ascension was eventually experienced by the apostles as a time of great joy.  “As he blessed them he parted from them and was taken up to heaven.  They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and they were continually in the temple praising God.” (Lk 24,51f)  The apostles respond to the Ascension of Jesus with great joy, a joy that will not be taken away from them.

Let us take another look at the mystery of the Ascension in the teaching of Jesus in the scriptures.  “A little while and you will no longer see me, and again a little while later and you will see me.”  So some of his disciples said to one another, “What does this mean that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?  So they said “What is this ‘little while’ of which he speaks)?  We do not know what he means.”…But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you. “ (Jn 16,16-18.22)  “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me, because I live and you will live.  On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.” (Jn 14,18ff)  “Do not let your hearts be troubled or afraid.  You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and I will come back to you.’  If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father; for the Father is greater than I.” (Jn 14,27ff)  “So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.  But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.” (Mk 16,19f)  Jesus is taken up into heaven and takes his seat at the right hand of God but he continues to work with the apostles in their mission of spreading the gospel message.  Jesus ascends to the Father and yet remains present to the apostles in a new, dynamic mode of presence.  The mystery of the Ascension does not signal a time of absence but rather a new, more powerful mode of presence.

In the mystery of the Ascension, where does Jesus go?  We are told that he goes “to the Father” and that he is taken up into a cloud.  “When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” (Acts 1,9)  The cloud is not some meteorological phenomenon in the sky but is the cloud of God’s presence, the cloud that accompanied Israel in the desert and rested upon Sinai, the cloud that signaled God’s presence in the sanctuary of the Temple.  The cloud is a sign of presence, not absence.  It is a sign of God’s omnipresence and closeness in creation.  Jesus leaves his incarnate presence in the flesh but now becomes eternally present in God, through the Spirit.  “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Mt 28,20)  This is a cause for joy, knowing that Jesus will be with us always, in all places, in all circumstances and in all of our experiences.  Jesus is taken up into God and is once more hidden in the oneness of the Holy Trinity.

The mystery of the Ascension reveals to us all our destiny as baptized believers.  We are meant to live our lives “in God”, hidden in his presence.  “If then you were raised with Christ, seek what is above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Think of what is above, not of what is on earth.  For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ your life appears, then you too will appear with him in glory.” (Col 3,1-4)  For this reason we must, “Rejoice always.  Pray without ceasing.”  (1Thes 5,16)  We must keep our minds and hearts lifted up to the Lord in prayer and think of the things above.  Our life is immersed in the Divine Presence and hidden with Christ in God.  For us, life is Christ and that life is hidden in the Father.  Everything in our life must be moving towards the goal of union with the Father so that God may be “all in all.”  “When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.” (1Cor 15,28)

“My soul rests in God alone, from whom comes my salvation.” (Ps 62,1)  When God is “all in all” in our lives, then we can find rest in this weary world.  We live in the mystery of Ascension and our minds and hearts must continually ascend to heaven and seek our Lord who is seated at the right hand of the Father.  In faith we are already caught up in this mystery of eternal life and perpetual joy.  We have nothing to fear in this life save only to be separated from him who is our life, our hope and our salvation.  In the mystery of the Ascension, Jesus “goes away” and “comes again”  in the same movement of union with the Father and in this way he prepares a place for us to dwell always with him in “the Father’s house.”