Like the apostles we are called to stop looking up at the sky with sadness, but instead to be obedient to the Lord’s command: “Go out to the whole world; proclaim the Good News to all creation“. This isn’t a command that we can carry out alone, no matter how strong our force of will. Without the consolation and beauty of the Lord’s presence we will be exhausted by the inevitable struggles and disappointments of life. But Christ is now, more present to us than ever, because by lifting up his own humanity to the right side of the Father, he is now at the very source of all reality. Everything is now present and contemporary to Him, and His presence is there in all of creation calling us to share in his divine love.
How do we approach this familiarity with Christ’s presence? We find the answer in the Post Communion Prayer that “hope may draw us onward to where our nature is united with you”. The familiarity with Christ increases our desire for Him, through prayer. Only in prayer are we able to discover, in the companionship found in the Church, His Presence.
The Holy Eucharist draws us into Christ’s loving presence. Through the Blessed Sacrament, the Risen Lord continues to attract us and ultimately the whole of creation to himself. It is through the Eucharist that he prepares a place for us.
Let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary, who was the first to participate, body and soul, in the glory to which all humanity is called, to help us to understand and rejoice in the mystery of Christ’s Ascension so that we will look forward in hope to sharing in the life of the Most Holy Trinity. Amen!