In top photo: This stained glass image of the Ascension of Our Lord appears in St. Mary of the Lake Church, Lakewood, part of Our Lady of Guadalupe Parish, Lakewood.
Gospel reflection for May 17, 2026, Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord
By Father Garry Koch
At Christmas we celebrate the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity in the person of Jesus Christ. This taking-on of our human flesh and nature by the Divine LOGOS transformed our humanity. Today, as we approach the close of the Easter season, we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus; the return of the son to the father. He who became incarnate as an infant, now ascends as a glorified human person to the father. This brings to completion the Incarnation, clarifies the meaning of the Paschal Events, and points humanity beyond itself and back to the desire of God for all of humanity: to share in eternal life in his presence.
It was necessary for Jesus to continue to reveal himself to his apostles after he was raised from the dead so that they might come to more fully understand the depth of their experiences with him. The disciples needed to consider every word, every encounter, every subtle and significant action that Jesus said and did during his public ministry. Their reflections and their conversations helped them to understand more fully and really to prepare themselves for proclaiming the Gospel.
Jesus appeared to them, according to St. Luke, for a period of forty days – a signifying amount of time within the Jewish tradition – to prepare them for this moment and then what was to come after.
Jesus not only instructed the apostles, he commissioned them. He sent them forth to teach, to heal the sick, to experience their own time of passion and death.
The ascension marks the close of this period of preparation and opens a new one. Although St. John presents all of these events as occurring immediately and concurrently with the Resurrection, St. Luke draws out this period to reflect the historical reality in which the Church lives. We are living in the time of the Kingdom of God while yet awaiting its fulfillment.
He who took on our humanity without compromising his divinity, now takes that humanity, no longer stained by original sin or separated from God, and presents that pure humanity, first known to God in the creation of the man and the woman, back to the father. Jesus, though he himself knew no sin, nonetheless having taken the collective sin of all humanity unto himself, destroyed that sin and restored it to life in his Resurrection.
Now, we stand with the disciples poised to take on the task that is ahead of us – the proclamation of the kingdom.
This is not always, perhaps ever, an easy task. Jesus prepared his disciples for the moments that stood ahead of them. They will suffer persecution, oppression and martyrdom for the sake of the kingdom. As Jesus was rejected, so will they.
But in and through the power of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate or Paraclete, that Jesus was sending to them, they would persevere and bear much fruit.
Now, almost 2,000 years later, you and I stand as the fruit of their labors on behalf of the kingdom.
Subsequently each generation, and as the Gospel spread, men and women of every land and nation, language, and ethnic group, have sacrificed all that they had and so that we would come to know Jesus, to receive his Sacraments, and be kept for eternal life.
It is our task now – each generation present here today – to continue the work of the Gospel and to proclaim the kingdom.
It might be harder today than 50 years ago, and perhaps easier today than 50 years from now. Yet it is our mission, given to us by the blood of thousands of martyrs, millions of missionaries, priests, religious brothers and sisters, and the full complement of the Communion of Saints – the people of God – who have struggled, lived and died as faithful members of the Body of Christ.
It is us – his people – that Jesus has taken into himself in his glorified body, as he presents not just himself but all the entirety of his Body, the Church, to our heavenly father.
Father Garry Koch is pastor of St. Benedict Parish, Holmdel.