Liturgical Colour : White

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate the great solemnity of our Lord’s Ascension to the heavenly glory, to claim His seat at the right hand of God, the end of His earthly ministry, by which He had liberated us all mankind from the depredations of evil and the tyranny of sin. The Ascension is the final act in God’s glorious works to liberate all of us and make us whole again, and the final proof that indeed Jesus is the Lord, the Messiah, God and Man who had come upon us to free us.

Just as the Resurrection provides us hope of a new life, then the Ascension is a foretelling of our own fate if we remain faithful to the Lord and it shows us what will happen to us as well, at the end of days. We know that since ages past, that there had been several individuals who did not suffer death, because of their faith and righteousness. The Patriarch Enoch, one of the first sons of man was lifted up from this world and walked in it no more, because he was righteous before God.

And Elijah the prophet also was taken up in flaming chariots in the sight of his successor Elisha, as a clear sign of God’s favour for all of his hard work and dedications in his many years of preaching God’s word and calling for the repentance of sinners. And the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is even greater than all those mentioned, for He rose up to heaven on His own power and might.

The Ascension has many meanings, of which first it shows us the triumph of the forces of good, the Lord and all the faithful against all evil, for this decadent and darkened world cannot hold against us, for our Lord had shown us the path to break free from that darkness. As such, it is a proof that we have triumphed against evil and sin, as exemplified by the Resurrection and the Ascension confirms it. The Lord ascended in great triumph and glory, and so shall be our glory and triumph when it is our time to ascend in glory because of our faithful life.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, the Ascension also affirms that our Lord Jesus Christ is both Man and God at the same time. There were detractors and unfaithful ones, even unto this day, who believed that Jesus is mere man and nothing more, or that He is God and Divine only, and not a man. All these were inadequate and false beliefs that did not do justice to the truth about Christ our Lord.

If Jesus is just mere man, then what He had done for us would be for nothing. For the death of a mere man would not be sufficient to atone for the combined sins of all mankind, whose wickedness had built up to such a great extent, that only the One and only God, whom through Jesus, was incarnated into Man, and as both God and Man, He went through the sufferings and the pains, which are supposed to be our punishment, for all of our sins, so that, by bearing our sins, He brought us free from all the burdens of those sins.

And the Ascension proves this, just as the Transfiguration before the suffering and death of Christ showed a brief glimpse into this reality and truth. While it was only Peter, James and John who were at the mountain with Jesus at the time of His Transfiguration, more disciples, if not all of them were at the place and moment when Jesus ascended into His glory in heaven. This proves beyond doubt, that not only that He has conquered death by His resurrection, but that He truly came down from heaven and was returning to the place where He came from.

And how is this important and relevant for us all? That is because before He ascended into heaven, Jesus reminded the disciples of the one very, very important mission which He had entrusted to them and to the whole Church of God. This mission is that His word, the revelations of truth that He had brought into the world, the way to salvation, may be preached and taught to all peoples, to all mankind throughout the world.

All of us Christians who belong to the Church of God and who had been baptised in the Name of the Most Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit must go forth to the nations to preach to them the message which Christ had brought into this world, and which His herald, St. John the Baptist had also delivered, that is repentance of sinners, that men may abandon their sinful ways and embrace fully the ways that Christ had taught them, and which we now keep in faith through the Church.

Thus, as we celebrate the occasion of today’s glorious Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, let us all remember that all of us also will enjoy the same experience, if we are all faithful to the Lord and obey Him in all of His commands. The glory of heaven and true joy are ours, if we follow the Lord and do all of the things that He had commanded us to do, and this is that we ought to call on the others who have yet to hear the word of God, so that they may be saved too.

Remember that just earlier I mentioned some of the righteous ones whom God had saved from death and brought into the heavenly glory? This is to show us that, although indeed we will all as mortals still suffer the effects of physical death, but that death for all the faithful will be nothing more than a passing moment and a transition between the imperfect world and life that we have now, with the world that is to come.

Do we all realise that it has been too long for us to stay hidden in this darkness and how long we have been suppressed by the sins and the wickedness that we have committed thus far in life? Let us therefore throw away these shackles of sin and unworthiness, which prevent us from truly realising the great potential that lie within each and every one of us. We have a duty and a responsibility, brethren, and it is indeed time now for us to act.

Let us all go forth and practice what we believe in, so that our faith will no longer remain just as a mere belief, but also brought completely into concrete and real action, so that all who sees us will know that we believe in God, and therefore, they too may believe by what we have done. And because we have done what is righteous before God, and bring others to Him as well, then the glory of our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension will also be ours, and eternal life and the glory of heaven will be our just reward.

May Almighty God, the Ascended Christ, who went forth to prepare the places for His righteous ones, continue to guide us and bless us, so that we truly can merit to be counted among those whom He chose out of the nations, to be reunited with Him in the glories and wonders of eternal life in heaven, filled with true joy and happiness. God be with us all. Amen.