Homily for Solemnity of the Ascension

Homily for the Solemnity of the
Ascension of the Lord

May 14, 2026
Collect
Acts 1: 1-11
Eph 1: 17-23
Christian Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.

by John Singleton Copley

“The ascension of Christ your Son is our exaltation, and where the Head has gone before in glory, the Body is called to follow in hope” (Collect).

This is our hope:  that we belong to Christ—members of his Body, “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5)—and therefore we are empowered (1:8) to follow him and join him in the glory of heaven.

Having assumed our flesh and blood, our whole human nature, thru his incarnation, Jesus brings our humanity to heaven.  Bestowing his Holy Spirit upon us, he divinizes us and makes us worthy of divine sonship and of accompanying him into eternity.  What a glorious hope!

Paul reminds us:  “You may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones” (Eph 1:18), among the saints sanctified by the forgiveness of our sins and a firm union with our Lord Jesus.

Therefore, as the preface states, “We, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”  He is “head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way” (Eph 1:23).  Without us, Christ is incomplete; with us, he is full, or fulfilled.  This is our hope!

St. Augustine preaches, “We are already in heaven with him, even tho what is promised us hasn’t yet been fulfilled in our bodies.”[1]  We are already with him spiritually, as he is with us.  He has gone before us into glory; he calls us to follow him also in our bodies, for he is our exaltation, the one who lifts us up.  We follow him in hope.

[1] Sermon on the Lord’s Ascension, LOH 2:921.