I Will Not Leave You Orphans
June 1, 2025
St. Luke is the Evangelist that gives us the account of the Ascension of Jesus, and he does so at the end of his Gospel, and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.
Forty days after rising from the dead on Easter morning, Jesus gathered His disciples in Bethany, a tiny village on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and the Temple. There He gave them the “Great Commission,” “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 to carry out all that I have commanded you. And know that I am with you until the end of the age.”
I feel certain that the Apostles were stunned when Jesus left them again (the first time was on Good Friday), but now His departure was very different. He was not taken from them but seemed to have left them on His own decision. They probably felt somewhat abandoned. But Jesus had promised them, “I will not leave you orphans. I will send to you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, who will lead you into all truth.”
The promise of the Holy Spirit and the assurance that He would be with them always until the end of the age meant that His mode of being present was changing, but that He would continue to be present. If Jesus had not ascended, then He would be limited by His human reality. If someone wanted to visit with Him, they would have to go wherever He physically was. Now, in the Spirit, He is in every church where the Blessed Sacrament is kept and also can be encountered wherever we are.
The Church (including every one of us) has inherited Jesus’ mission. It is our purpose to bring the message of salvation to all we meet. If we feel unworthy, that is ok. As the saying goes, “Jesus does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.” That is what the Holy Spirit is for.
—Fr. Mike Comer
St. Luke is the Evangelist that gives us the account of the Ascension of Jesus, and he does so at the end of his Gospel, and at the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles.
Forty days after rising from the dead on Easter morning, Jesus gathered His disciples in Bethany, a tiny village on the Mount of Olives overlooking Jerusalem and the Temple. There He gave them the “Great Commission,” “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 to carry out all that I have commanded you. And know that I am with you until the end of the age.”
I feel certain that the Apostles were stunned when Jesus left them again (the first time was on Good Friday), but now His departure was very different. He was not taken from them but seemed to have left them on His own decision. They probably felt somewhat abandoned. But Jesus had promised them, “I will not leave you orphans. I will send to you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, who will lead you into all truth.”
The promise of the Holy Spirit and the assurance that He would be with them always until the end of the age meant that His mode of being present was changing, but that He would continue to be present. If Jesus had not ascended, then He would be limited by His human reality. If someone wanted to visit with Him, they would have to go wherever He physically was. Now, in the Spirit, He is in every church where the Blessed Sacrament is kept and also can be encountered wherever we are.
The Church (including every one of us) has inherited Jesus’ mission. It is our purpose to bring the message of salvation to all we meet. If we feel unworthy, that is ok. As the saying goes, “Jesus does not call the qualified, but qualifies the called.” That is what the Holy Spirit is for.
—Fr. Mike Comer
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