“I will go and prepare a place for you…” (John 14:2-3).

Before His passion, Jesus told His disciples that He must go and prepare a place for them. Secondly, we see the Ascension as a fulfilled promise.

In his letter to the Philippians (Phil.2:6-8), St Paul writes about the humility of Christ He, who took upon Himself the condition of a slave, and for this reason He has been exalted.

In the first place, Christ, ascending into heaven is a sign of exaltation.

We would do well to reflect on just a few: The Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven has so many implications for us. To move or slope upwards as opposed to going downwards. The verb “to ascend” means to rise or move to a higher point, degree or rank to proceed from an inferior position to a superior one. It is for this reason that God is omnipresent and all the other descriptions we can think of. The church has always spoken and taught about heaven in terms of the realm of God that state of being that put God over and beyond matter and space. Whenever I went to “Sunday School” (religious education), and learned of Israel and Jerusalem, I knew they were up there, just some few miles away…it’s so great to be a kid.įriends, today, we have an event that is very much related to being thrown into the air or being flown in an aircraft that goes deep into the clouds the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ though not into the air but into heaven. I imagined what it would be like, piercing through the clouds, being enveloped by them bit by bit and wondering what I might see from up there. As a young boy, I always imagined how my first experience of flying would be like. Anytime an aircraft flew over our neighborhood, the older folks would tell us tales about the aircrafts actually entering into heaven and emerging again with all the passengers and their belongings. “… Mediator between God and man, judge of the world and Lord of hosts, he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”Īs we speak about the skies today, I am reminded of the stories I heard when I was young. Allow me to begin by quoting from the sacramentary on the preface of the Ascension. The day after Pentecost (which falls 10 days later) was marked as the “Whit Monday” bank holiday in the UK until 1971, when it was replaced by a bank holiday on the final Monday in May.“where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope”ĭearly beloved, it is a great day for us to gather and celebrate our Lord’s Ascension into the heavens. Pentecost is based on the biblical story of the holy spirit descending on the apostles (Photo: Hulton Fine Art Collection/Getty Images) Where is Ascension Day a public holiday?Īscension Day is a public holiday in France, Germany, Austria, Indonesia, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Belgium, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the South Pacific island nation Vanuatu. In countries where it is not marked as a public holiday, it has become common to move its commemoration to the following Sunday (a week before Pentecost) to allow more worshippers to attend mass. It is thought that Ascension Day was being marked as early as the fourth century, and it remains a significant observance in the Catholic Church. “After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ “He said to them: ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.

Happy ascension day 2021