The author of the letter to the Hebrews sets the tone for this feast with a denial that becomes a broader affirmation: Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a figure of the real one, but into heaven itself, to appear now in the sight of God on our behalf. The fact that Luke the Evangelist makes us contemplate the Risen Christ who blessed them at the moment of his return to the Father helps us to experience this feast as the conclusion of a stage of revelation that opens up to an equally important and significant time. As always happens at the end of the Eucharistic celebration, the final blessing is not only a farewell, but it is also the sending on a mission to be witnesses of what the Lord has allowed us to experience personally so that it is a gift for all. The evangelist Luke who brings us a further account of the Ascension in the second volume of his only work, the Acts of the Apostles, and seals the fulfillment of the ministry of Jesus in his midst with the fact that they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. The life of the Church begins where her Lord has completed his journey revealing himself as the true sanctuary not made by human hands in which the mercy of God can be fully welcomed. Starting from the middle of his gospel, Luke shows us Jesus who he walks decisively towards Jerusalem. There his mystery of resistance to the Tempter is fulfilled in his paschal abasement. There the disciples must await the strength and power that come from above. From Jerusalemm the Church is called to retrace – on the contrary – the path of her Lord, pushing ever further towards the innumerable Galilee of our days. the. A word still and always burns in our hearts as viaticum: You are witnesses of this.

Commentary by b. Michael David, osb Community of the Koinonia de la Visitation

Translation by f. Mark Hargreaves, Prinknash Abbey