If Jesus had not ascended into heaven and was still walking the earth with his resurrected body today, what do you think he would be doing now? … Maybe Jesus would have his own reality TV show. Perhaps he would have a podcast or he would be the world’s biggest social media influencer. Since there would be no Pope, maybe Jesus would be doing many of the same things the Pope does today. Who knows, maybe he would even get the most votes in the upcoming presidential election.
If Jesus would not have ascended into heaven and was still walking around the earth with his resurrected body today, he could be doing all these amazing things. Then, why did Jesus ascend into heaven? St. Thomas Aquinas gave us his answer to this question. St. Thomas Aquinas said that one of the main reasons Jesus ascended into heaven is to shift our gaze from being fixated on the things of this world and to instead focus on the things that await us in heaven. As great as having a podcast, being a social media influencer, and being President of the United States are, Jesus knows that there is something even greater in heaven than these gifts the world has to offer.
In our first reading, we get a taste of what the Apostles were fixated on after Jesus had been walking around the earth for 40 days. What are his 11 apostles focused on? The last thing the apostles say to Jesus before he ascends to heaven is this: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Despite Jesus’ attempts to help them understand the relative unimportance of the passing things of this world and the ultimate importance of the heavenly kingdom, the apostles still were fixated on a very earthly, political power type of concern with restoring the kingdom to Israel.
Jesus ascended into heaven to in part help us from becoming fixated on the earthly and political matters of this world. The sad thing is the human heart hasn’t changed all that much over the last 2,000 years. All too often we still fixate too much on the earthly and political matters of this world. For example, too many of us have allowed our politics to become our religion. Ultimately, the Devil doesn’t really care if we are worshipping the donkey or the elephant as long as we aren’t worshipping the Lamb.
The Lamb of God has already won eternal salvation for each and every one by taking away the sins of the world. Jesus’ saving plan with his Paschal Mystery, his suffering, death, and resurrection was accomplished once for all when he ascended into heaven. The ascension is essential to the saving plan of the Paschal Mystery we celebrate.
As amazing as all the things are that Jesus could be doing on the earth today if he was still walking around the earth with his resurrected body, Jesus knows that he and each of us were made for more than that. Jesus ascended to heaven, in part, to draw our attention to this reality, to remind us that we are made for more. We often focus on the gifts God gives us and neglect the God who gave us the gifts. Jesus knows that the creator and giver of all these gifts is even better than the creations or the gifts themselves.
So, what does this mean for us on this Mother’s Day? It means that as we honor and celebrate our mothers who gave us at the very least the gift of life, all the much more we should be worshiping the God who gave us our mothers and ask the greatest mother of them all, Mother Mary, to pray for our mothers to become more full of grace as she is full of grace and to become more a holy spouse and mother like her.
Jesus wants us to direct our love to heavenly things in this way. He wants us to fix our eyes on heaven and on the glory that awaits us. We are supposed to look at where we are going. If we are walking or driving our car while not looking where we are going, we increase the likelihood of missing our turn and it could be deadly. The same is true with our spiritual lives, if we don’t look at where we are going, we may miss our turn to heaven and it could be deadly. Jesus turned his gaze to heaven because he knew that is where he was going. We must turn our gaze to heavenly things now so we don’t miss our ultimate turn to heaven when it matters most. Jesus was not meant to stay here on earth forever and the same is true for us.
In our first reading, we heard that Jesus was taken up to heaven in a cloud. The apostles here saw something similar to what the whole world will witness at Jesus’ second coming. The last verse tells us that Jesus will come again in the same way the apostles saw him go. This shows that the ascension of Jesus in glory is not the end of the story. From the same heaven in which he enters, he will one day return. The ascension of Jesus into heaven is an anticipation of the glory that will be revealed at his second coming. Jesus ascending into heaven. Let our hearts and our eyes ascend with him so the same may be true for me and you.