The Feast of the Ascension is really the completion of Jesus' Resurrection from the dead. In His Resurrection He returned from death on the cross to a new and never-ending life. In today's feast we celebrate the second element - Jesus' return to the glory He shares with His Father. It is more the meaning of what we celebrate we need to concentrate on rather than focus on how it happened. In fact, there are quite different accounts in the four gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles.

And today, too, is not an occasion for us simply to recall something that happened about 2,000 years ago. The Ascension is something which touches our Christian lives today. Jesus makes it very clear that His going away does not mean the end of His work. On the contrary, he calls on every one of His followers to continue the work He has been doing. We are to proclaim the Word that gives life, we are to heal and reconcile, we are to give witness as the visible Body of Christ in whatever part of the world we live in. As we saw in an earlier reading this month, we are called to bring the Good News of the Kingdom to all the places that Jesus was never able to reach. The Ascension is not an end; it is really only the beginning.