Spiritual Corner -- The Feast of Ascension

Today is the Ascension Day, a feast day on which we celebrate the risen Jesus when He returned to His Father. In many places, the Ascension Day is celebrated on Thursday, that is, the fortieth day after Easter Sunday, but in Canada, in order to let more people honour such a great day, the Church celebrates the feast on Sunday.

The Feast of Ascension is a very important feast, because:

1. It marks the end of the presence of Jesus in flesh and blood on earth. After the Ascension, He no longer appeared in human body to His disciples, but stayed with them in a new fashion. The risen Jesus did not leave this world, but is still present through the Holy Spirit.
   
   The disciples were grieved when Jesus was nailed on the cross; but they did not feel sad to see Jesus rise up to heaven. This time, they experienced great joy because they knew that since then, there would be nothing to separate them from Jesus.
   
   
2. We start to pray for 9 days from the Feast of Ascension to prepare for the Pentecost.
3. This is a day of joy because we look forward to the second coming of Jesus who will return in glory on the very last day. The ascension of Jesus is a powerful symbol to show that we, loyal followers of Christ, will one day enter the kingdom of heaven and live happily with God.

During this week, spend more time on prayers and anticipate the coming of Pentecost.

Yours,
Fr. Philip Tan