Afew questions come to mind about the Ascension: Why do we celebrate it; why did it happen? Growing up in the Church before the United States Bishops agreed to let each diocese determine whether to transfer the celebration of the solemnity to the following Sunday, I still find it difficult to stop calling it Ascension Thursday. One of the beauties of the scriptures is how they draw from our Jewish ancestry and the importance numbers play in understanding salvation history. The number 40 means change. We see that in the beginning of Jesus’ ministry when he is driven into the desert. We see it throughout the Old Testament with the 40-day flood, the 40 years wandering in the desert, and so on. It only seems natural then that we still look at the Ascension as 40-days after the resurrection. With that symbology, we can expect—and realize—that there is a change about to happen.
The ministry that Jesus’ disciples came to appreciate came to an end. The trauma of the crucifixion must have been impossible for them. Then, elation at the Resurrection follows and Jesus spends weeks with them further enlightening them on God’s plan of salvation. Now, 40 days later he delivers his “farewell address to the troops” and is taken up to heaven. Jesus returns to the Father from whence he came. This is what I like to call “Jesus’ mic drop.” A few final words and through the clouds he exits. Scriptures only relate facts and dialogue, not feelings. Our own human experience supplies that missing piece. What went through the disciples’ minds as they witnessed this new miraculous event? Surely it must have come together that all Jesus had done, taught, proclaimed, and endured was real—and it had a purpose.
He left, and they were standing there with a “now what?” look on their faces. “Now what” would be revealed a few days later at Pentecost. But the answer as to “why” was starting to become clearer. Jesus had to return to the Father so that the Church could grow. Imagine if Jesus were physically present in human form today. People would start to gather, word would spread, more would flock to hear him. He may tour, do podcasts, even write a book or two. Like any other celebrity he would be nothing more than a figure of the external. The Church of Jesus spread because he—and it—became the Church of the internal. Christianity permeates the globe because it is an experience of the heart and soul, it is, by design, internal because it is begotten of God. Regardless of the day in which we recall Jesus’ ascension into heaven, we celebrate it because in doing so we celebrate all that he came to do for us, all that we are called to do, and all that we have become.