Can We Rise to the Challenge?

May 12, 2024
Forty days after His Resurrection from the dead, on Easter Sunday, Jesus gathered with His disciples and ascended to the right hand of the Father. Before ascending, He gave them their Great Commission to “Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them everything that I have commanded you, and know that I am with you always, until the end of the age.”

I think of Jesus’ Ascension as graduation day for the Apostles. He was saying that they were now ready to go out on their own, with His ongoing presence and with the working of the Holy Spirit, to guide and direct them as they lead the Church. They certainly did not feel that they were ready, but He judged that they were, in fact, ready.
   
Jesus was lifted up in their presence to return to the Father, to sit at His right hand, and to rule over heaven and earth.
—Fr. Mike Comer