(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Mass-Blog-for-the-Ascension-of-the-Lord-2026.mp3)
Imagine you’re a disciple listening to Christ’s final instructions before his ascension.
“You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:1-11)
By that time in our history, his disciples probably didn’t interpret “to the ends of the earth” meaning, quite literally, a flat earth. Greek scholars were already teaching that our world was a sphere. So, when Luke tells us through Sunday’s excerpt from Acts that their Master “was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight,” was he implying that heaven is a place somewhere up in the sky above our flat earth? Even the angelic men who suddenly appeared beside these witnesses asked, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
What if these were angels telling them, “Stop looking into space and come back down to earth. You have work to do here.”
Their job was to distribute God’s Word around the world, the same way it was spread among them—through the kingdom of their hearts, where Christ’s Holy Spirit took up residence soon after God the Son vanished from their sight.
Before disappearing he told them, “Behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
Imagine Christ’s grand return to earth will come the same way—through the hearts of all believers whom his gospel has changed. That would mean Heaven isn’t just one place. Paul refers to Christ’s destination as seated at the right hand of God the Father, in “the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come.” (Ephesians 1:17-23)
Imagine all the things representing your heart’s priorities—including your principalities, authorities, powers, and dominions. Where does God sit in that Kingdom? Is He the King? If we are like his dumbfounded disciples, his Kingdom had already come into their hearts shortly after he disappeared bodily from their sight.
So why are we 21st Centurions still looking up in the sky, waiting for Jesus to return from beyond the clouds? Are we not his disciples too, baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? Were we not taught to observe all that Christ commanded his apostles?
Imagine Christ’s Ascension didn’t rocket him into some outer space but into an inner space. Yours and mine. We are Christ’s home. He looks through the windows of our eyes at our own hands and feet, which are now his tools for accomplishing the work that still needs to be done. Think of your heart as a Temple.
Remember what young Jesus told his worried parents who found him sitting among the scholars at Jerusalem’s temple? “Didn’t you know I must be about my father’s business?” (Luke 2:49)
Let’s rise with the apostles to that level of discipleship. Through an ascension to our heart’s heights we’ll join the family business of Father, Son, and Spirit.
–Tom Andel