Ascension 2026 -return to glory

To understand what is happening today, we have to understand where Jesus came from.​
And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. Jn 1:14

The Ascension is the completion of that arc. It is the return journey. 

 Jesus now ascends in his glorified humanity back to the Father. He goes as he himself prayed the night before he died. In John 17, Jesus raises his eyes to heaven and prays: "Father, the hour has come. Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you." And then: "Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began." (Jn 17:1, 5)

There is a moment in every great departure when the people left behind stand perfectly still, staring at the space where someone they loved used to be. The disciples did exactly that on the Mount of Olives. They watched Jesus rise — ascend — into a cloud, and they just stood there, necks craned toward heaven, until two men in white robes called them back to the present: "Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?" (Acts 1:11)

But the angels weren't scolding them. They were reminding them: there is something to do next. This was not the end but rather a new beginning. He gave them the mission:

"All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." (Mt 28:18-20)

Jesus also told them clearly: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for 'the promise of the Father'... in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit." (Acts 1:4-5)

They could have scattered. They could have rationalized their way back to Galilee, back to their old trades, their old lives. The one who had commissioned them had just vanished into a cloud. But they went back to Jerusalem. They gathered. And according to Acts, they "devoted themselves with one accord to prayer." (Acts 1:14) They waited — but it was not passive waiting. It was vigilant, expectant, prayerful waiting. They were not standing in the street looking at the sky. They were on their knees together, preparing themselves, becoming — even before Pentecost arrived — the kind of people who could receive the fire that was coming.

There is a lesson here for us. We live in that same in-between space. We know the Spirit has been given. We know the mission has been entrusted to us. But there are seasons — in our personal lives, in the life of the Church — when we are called to wait actively. To pray persistently. To stay together rather than scatter. To trust that the promise made on a hillside in Judea is still being kept, for us, right now. The  same mission:

The Ascension is not the story of Jesus leaving. It is the story of Jesus reigning — returning to the glory he shared with the Father before the world began, bringing our humanity with him, interceding for us without ceasing, and sending us out clothed in his authority and sustained by his presence.
John testified to this at the beginning of his letter: the eternal life that "was with the Father" has been "made visible to us." We have seen it. We have touched it. Now we proclaim it.

The angels were right to interrupt the disciples' upward gaze. Maybe we need reminding too: there is too much to do. There are too many people who have never heard that the Word of life became visible, that eternal life has broken into history, that the tomb is empty and the Lord is alive. So we don't stay here looking at the sky. We go. And he goes with us.

Peace.

Deacon Michel