Bishop Enrique Díaz Díaz shares with Exaudi readers his reflection on the Gospel of this Sunday, June 1, 2025, entitled: “While he blessed them, he was ascending into heaven.”

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Acts 1:1-11: “He was ascending into heaven before the eyes of his apostles”

Psalm 46: “God ascends to his throne with shouts of joy”

Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23: “Christ entered heaven itself”

Luke 24:46-53: “While he blessed them, he was ascending into heaven”

Our civilization has risen above all the hopes and expectations of preceding generations, yet it finds no happiness or meaning in life to sustain it in its endeavors. It has taken to the air, broken the barriers of sound, amplified its voice and altered images, surpassed speeds, dominated spaces, and yet man does not enjoy the true joy of victory. He feels empty and lives with the crushing feeling of a life slipping through his fingers and a great anxiety about the uncertainty of the future. The world has sunk into a suffocating atmosphere because it has removed God, and despite having replaced him with power and riches, it cannot fulfill its aspirations. It has lost the link that unites heaven and earth and finds itself without a compass and lost.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ’s Ascension into heaven. It is a feast that, properly understood and lived, gives meaning and direction to our lives, unites heaven with earth, strengthens our journey, and illuminates the darkness that threatens to engulf humanity. The Ascension is the triumph of God made flesh, who takes upon himself all suffering and pain to give it meaning. It is the goal of all efforts and the summit from which we can all contemplate clearly and carefully all the various paths, difficulties, and setbacks. Everything acquires meaning. The Ascension is the answer to our anguished question: “Where am I?” Looking at the glorified Jesus, we will find the path that leads from earth to heaven.

Saint Luke offers us an interesting perspective today: he concludes his Gospel with the Ascension, but at the same time opens a new narrative, “The Acts of the Apostles,” with this same event. The first account is the goal of all the verbs of movement he uses to indicate where Jesus is headed. The Ascension is the triumphant conclusion of Jesus’ earthly life and the culmination of his journey; but at the same time, it is the beginning of the “time of the Church,” inaugurated with the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. Jesus has two presences in the search for the Kingdom: a physical presence and a mystical, real presence in his disciples. Upon receiving the Spirit, the community of believers takes on the mission of continuing the work inaugurated by Jesus, of manifesting the Kingdom of the Father, of being “gospel,” good news, for a bewildered and directionless world. This work begins by giving meaning to the life of humanity, for they must preach “to all nations the need to turn to God for the forgiveness of sins.” It offers a compass to the wayfarer: to direct him toward God; it is also an inexhaustible source of energy: the Holy Spirit, “the power from on high,” and all this stems from the earthly reality of sin and misery.

Those without reference points or points of support are lost and remain suspended in the void. There are those to whom heaven and the Kingdom of God mean nothing; they think only of money, pleasure, power, fun, enjoying and wasting their lives. Their ambitions and goals are limited to the earthly and tangible. Others, on the other hand, ignore human reality, forget the pain and suffering of humankind, and present heaven as the only reality. This is how religions and individualistic tendencies appear, offering salvation as if it were a lottery and a matter of luck (and money!). They remain suspended, amorphous and uncommitted, before the humanity that struggles and strives to achieve justice, fraternity, and equity.

Today, Christ presents us with a third option: he proposes that, driven by authentic hope, we build heaven from here, on earth, through love, work, and service to our brothers and sisters. Jesus does not want disciples “standing gazing up at heaven.” He does not accept indifference to human anguish. There can be no apathetic disciples who are indifferent to human suffering. Those who forget to build, fight, and conquer justice and peace are not true disciples. Nor are those who limit themselves to their pleasures and a culture of hedonism and consumption truly followers of Jesus. Thus, humanity loses its meaning. Jesus’ proposal is expressed in the kerygma he offers the disciples: through pain and death, reach resurrection. To begin from the earth to reach heaven. To follow the path of the One who became incarnate and shared with humanity to lead them to a divine life, which must become a reality from now on. Earth is the only way we know to go to heaven, and this is how Jesus showed us. We must, therefore, be builders of hope and forgers of dreams that are embodied in our concrete reality.

On this Feast of the Ascension, we will have to answer many questions and concerns that can help us seek paths of encounter and commitment: How do I embrace my identity as a disciple of Jesus who bears witness to a possible Kingdom that is built from here on earth? Do I know and accept the path of self-sacrifice that Jesus taught us? Am I a bearer of good news and announce hope to those who suffer and afflict? How does it show that I am a disciple of Jesus?

God, Good Father, show us that beyond our selfish limits there is a possible Heaven. Strengthen our steps and make them firm so that we may fulfill the task of building a world after your heart and of proclaiming to all the Good News of your love and salvation. Amen.