Top-Rated Homilists
Ascension of the Lord
Fr. George Corrigan, OFM
Universal Mandate
Ascension of the Lord
friarmusings Fr. Austin Fleming
Ascension
Ascension of the Lord
A number of paintings depicting the Ascension feature two feet at the top of the canvas, sometimes over a group of disciples staring up at them, sometimes including heavenly hosts awaiting the Lord’s return to the Father’s right hand. Dali’s contemporary rendering is above, Kulmbach’sclassical version is below.
Is it Ascension Thursday where you live? Or will your local church celebrate Ascension Sunday? The answer can be found here.
You can find the scriptures for Ascension day here. The Preface prayer for the Ascension offers a brief theological summary of what the Church celebrates on this 40th day after Easter. The theology is in the verbs!
Dominican Blackfriars
Called in Hope
Ascension of the Lord
The Dominican Friars in Britain 
Fr. George Smiga
Why Are You Looking Up at the Sky?
Ascension of the Lord
When today’s first reading from the Book of Acts describes Jesus’ Ascension, it says that Jesus was lifted up and a cloud removed him from the disciples’ sight. It also says that the disciples kept intently looking at the place in the sky where Jesus had ascended. Then, it tells us that two angels appeared and said to the disciples, “Men of Galilee why do you stand there looking up at the sky?” Now the answer to the angels’ question is obvious. The disciples stood looking at the sky because that was the place from which Jesus had left them. Although they always knew that Jesus would be present to them spiritually, they understood that from this point forward they would not be able to see him as they did during his ministry and after his resurrection. Things had changed. Jesus would no longer be physically present to them. So they stood looking looking up into the sky, looking after what they had lost.
Bishop Robert Barron
Word on Fire 
Fr. Anthony Ekpunobi, C.M.
Msgr. Joseph Pellegrino
Tell the World that Jesus Lives
Ascension of the Lord
The disciples climbed the hill in Galilee and saw the Lord being taken up into heaven. But first he gave them a mandate and a promise. The mandate was to go, make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you. The promise was that they would not do this alone: Know that I am with you always, until the end of the age.
The angels in today’s gospel are saying this to us, “Men of Galilee, men of the New Israel, men of the Church, why are you looking up? Women of Galilee, women of the New Israel, women of the Church, don’t look at the sky. And, all of you, stop contemplating your navels. No, get to work. Others need to know about the heights and depths of God’s working in our lives.”
And so we are told to tell the world that Jesus lives. “Know that I am with you always.” The Solemnity of the Ascension is a call for us to tell the world that Jesus is still with us.
Fr. Vincent Hawkswell
Fr. Robert Altier
Seventh Sunday of Easter
At the end of the second reading today St. Peter says that anyone who is made to suffer for being a Christian should not be ashamed, but should glorify God because of the Name of Christian. Before there is any possibility of suffering for being Christian, we need to be Christian enough that someone would actually want to denigrate us for our faith in the Lord. St. Peter tells us not to be ashamed if we suffer for the Faith, but we have to make sure that we are not ashamed of the Faith or we will never suffer for it.
It would be a very rare occasion that someone will persecute another based simply on what the other believes in their mind. It does happen at times because people will ask questions and, when they learn that someone is Catholic, then they begin to treat that person badly. However, even in these cases, it is most common that the person is asked because the other person saw something in the actions of the Catholic person. In other words, most people who are going to suffer for the Faith will do so because there was enough evidence in their day to day life to demonstrate that they are Catholic.
Fr. Michael Chua
michaelckw.blogspot.com 
Fr. Tom Lynch
Clergy E-Notes
Ascension of the Lord
Pro-life reflections and intercessions related to the Sunday readings
Fr. Jude Langeh, CMF
Fr. Phil Bloom
To Judge the Living and the Dead
Ascension of the Lord
Bottom line: Although we naturally fear judgment and accusations, Jesus sends the best defender – the Holy Spirit who heals our world, our hearts and our memories.
This Sunday we celebrate Jesus’ ascension “to the right hand of the Father”. We are coming to the end of the strangest Easter season ever. This crisis has caused us to return to basic questions. Who are we? Why are we here? Who is Jesus?
Today’s first reading says that Jesus “presented himself alive to them by many proofs”. These were not credulous men, easily deceived. We hear in the Gospel that when they saw the risen Jesus “they worshiped,” yes, “but they doubted”.
Even after seeing the risen Jesus, it’s not easy for them to believe. Why? Well, as we saw on Easter Sunday, the resurrection is not simply the truth about one man. No, the resurrection is the truth about everything.
This become particularly clear as we celebrate the Ascension. Jesus takes his place at the right hand of the Father – as King of the Universe and King of your life and mine. In our creed after professing our faith in Jesus’ Ascension we say, “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.”
RELATED HOMILIES:
2017: Life in Christ Week 7: Mission
2014: Journey to Hope Week 7
2011: The Personal Center
2008: Ascension Quotes
2005: There the Action Lies
2002: Finding the Way Home
1999: A Wake Up Call
Fr. Tommy Lane
Enlightened to our Calling and Destiny
Ascension of the Lord
You can look at yourself in three ways: what you think of yourself, what others think of you, and what God thinks of you. The most important is what God thinks of you. What does God think of you? The second reading gives us the answer: God looks on you as his son or daughter since you were baptized.
May God our Father…enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see what hope his call holds for you…(Eph 1:17-18)
You want the perfect house, the perfect car; in fact, you want the best of everything. But the best awaits us in the next life because God has planned the very best for you. In that prayer Paul prayed
May God our Father…enlighten the eyes of your mind so that you can see … what rich glories he has promised the saints will inherit…(Eph 1:17-18)
Fr. Michael Cummins
The Concreteness of the Ascension
Ascension of the Lord
Fr. Michael Fallon, MSC
The Ascension of Jesus
Ascension of the Lord
The feast of the Ascension reminds us that the goal of our life is the same as his. The Second Reading reminds us of the ‘hope which his call holds for us’ and the ‘life of glory which we are to inherit’. We and all those whom we love are called, like Jesus, to enjoy undistracted communion with God forever. Paul speaks of the glorified Jesus as ‘the head of the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills the whole creation’(Ephesians 1:23).
Today we also thank God for the community of Jesus’ disciples to whom it our privilege to belong. When Philip asked to see the Father, Jesus told him that to see him is to see the Father (John 14:9). Similarly, if we want to see the face of Jesus we have only to look upon the face of the Church. Of course we need to be discerning. The Church is composed of sinners like you and me who have been partly enlightened by Jesus but who are still partly living in the dark. The Church is composed of people like you and me who long for God but who can easily be distracted and fail, sometimes seriously.
Fr. John Kavanaugh, S.J.
The Beyond
Ascension of the Lord
Once during Holy Week Jesus made the covers of Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report—a phenomenon that might lead us to think that he had really changed the world for good, except for the fact that the Unabomber appeared on all three covers the following week.
Anyway, the three magazines vary greatly in their knowledge about Jesus. The real superstars of the articles are speculative theoreticians, whose own imaginings and desires we find in abundance.
Robert Funk, who started the Jesus Seminar and has taught at the academic shrines of Texas, Harvard, and Emory, wants to “set Jesus free,” he says, from scripture and creed.
Bishop Frank Schuster
Make Disciples of All Nations
Ascension of the Lord
If we take the Ascension of the Lord in isolation from what we have been celebrating this Easter Season, we entirely miss the point. Jesus says I will be with you always, even till the end of time. Jesus also said, where two or three are gathered together, I am in the midst of them. My friends, the Ascension of the Lord isn’t a footnote in salvation history. The Ascension of the Lord is rather central. As Fr. Peter Weatherby put it, “before the Ascension, the risen Christ was present in only one place. After the Ascension, he is present in every place. Before the Ascension, Jesus sat and ate with his disciples by the lakeside, now we receive his body and blood, the bread of life, in every country, in every city of the world. Before, he walked the dusty paths of Palestine, now he strides through every land, borne by his Church. Before, he dwelt in one man and one place, now he dwells in every person who has been baptized into his life. Before, he healed a few of the sick, now he blesses millions of the sick through the sacrament of anointing. Before, he taught the crowds in the market place, from the boat, and on the hillside, now his words are read from every Church and chapel and pulpit. Before, he prayed in solitude on the Mount of Olives, now he prays in every believer. Before, his body suffered for us on the cross, now we receive his risen and mystical body and blood in the Mass. Before, he showed love and compassion to the weak and vulnerable, now his people bring that compassion to every community of the world, caring for the hungry and the distressed.”
