Today’s feast is not just about Jesus; it is about us too! Because he embraced our humanity in utter kenosis and united it with divinity in himself, his ascension becomes our ascension too. He lifts up our wretched humanity into what God had originally intended it to be: image and likeness of divinity. The humanity that fell with Adam is now raised to its sublime dignity in Jesus.

Nothing can lift up our humanity into God’s likeness except the impulse to love each other as Christ has loved us. Today, let us make an effort to rise above ourselves, above our natural impulses, into the supernatural grace that alone can bring out all that is true, good and beautiful about out humanity in Jesus our Lord and Savior. No doubt, we cannot do it on our own. It cannot be achieved by sheer effort; it is grace. But haven’t we received this grace already at baptism—when Christ bestowed on us the singular gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost? Christ ascended so that the Spirit could descend and make our own ascension possible!