The Ascension - 20th May

An interested non-Christian who attended yesterday’s celebration of the Ascension might well ask us: where is Jesus now? One answer would be obvious to him or her from the gospel of yesterday’s feast - Jesus is now enthroned in glory in heaven. But another answer, equally true and equally important is that Jesus is present in and through his Church. Although we can’t see him after the Ascension he is actively at work in our world today through his Body on earth.

This presence isn’t some vague feeling or some residual awareness. It is real, forceful, and made concrete in sacraments and sacramental signs. When the Church celebrates the Mass it is Christ who presides and leads our worship. When the Church baptises it is he who baptises. Through the sacrament of penance Christ forgives sin, in the sacrament of confirmation it is Jesus who sends his Spirit. In a similar way when the gospel is proclaimed it is Christ who speaks, when we venerate an image or icon it is Christ who receives our worship.

Jesus did not leave us to ‘get on with it’. He remains present in and through his faithful people. The Church itself is a sacrament of his presence and action. Because as St Leo the Great put it: ‘After the Ascension the visible presence of our Saviour passed over into sacraments’. P.D.