THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD May 17, 2026

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 1:1-11 Ephesians 1:17-23  Matthew 28:16-20

Christ goes up to heaven. And surely that is one of the main points of today’s celebration. When we look at the Gospel, we hear the author telling us, “When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” It could not be put in a stronger way! They doubted. They doubted that He was a live, they doubted that He had any special role in their lives, they doubted everything. That should make us aware that even Resurrection is not going to convince others that Jesus is the Lord. They doubted. We doubt. We have to admit that at times we wonder about Jesus. We may even have been raised in this strong Catholic tradition of ours and still have doubts. We may have seen miracles and still doubt.

Jesus tells us that we need the Holy Spirit. Ascension Day is always the time when our hearts and our minds begin to turn to the Holy Spirit. No matter what doubts we have, we can still begin to call on the Holy Spirit, asking for enlightenment, asking for peace, and asking for faith. We can be very aware of the words in the second reading, from Ephesians: “a Spirit of wisdom and revelation resulting in knowledge of him.” That is what we can long for!

If those who walked and ate with Jesus while He was alive here on this earth in our own flesh had doubts about Him and found Him hard to believe, we should not expect much more for ourselves. We are weak in all the ways of these early followers of Christ. Some did eventually leave the group of His followers. But many chose to stay, recognizing that He had words that gave life.

So today, we celebrate the Ascension, we can pray that the words of Jesus will bring us life. We can ask for and long for the coming of the Holy Spirit into our personal lives so that we might have knowledge of Jesus in a very personal way. We can say with the Psalmist: “Lord, let us see your face and we shall be saved.” Come, Holy Spirit!