Sunday after Ascension Day

The last Sunday before Pentecost is the Sunday within the Octave of Ascension. With the Feast of the Ascension, the Church celebrates the reality of Christ as true God and true man.

During the forty days after His resurrection from the dead, Jesus revealed Himself to those who loved Him and believed in Him. On the fortieth day they saw Him ascend into heaven. This vision was necessary, not for Jesus Himself, but for His disciples so that they might know that He is with His Father.

At the same time, He promised His disciples to be always with them. He is Emmanuel: God with us. His presence is no longer physical, but spiritual, and that means He is actually even closer to us than He would be if He were physically by our side. By His Spirit Jesus is in us – as we are through the same Spirit in Him.

Even when He was physically on earth, Jesus was always with the Father, because He and the Father are one. Since God and man are inseparably united in the person of Jesus Christ, we are also through Him inseparably united with God, our Father. Just as the apostle Paul says: “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)