To encourage all the faithful to celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension, the feast has been moved this year from the Thursday after the Sixth Sunday of Easter to the next Sunday thus replacing the Seventh Sunday.

We are all well aware that our lives as Christians are modeled on the life of Jesus. At least that is our ideal. Jesus fought the powers of evil; he calls us to join the battle against evil. Jesus sacrificed himself for us, we are called to sacrifice ourselves for others. Jesus rose from the dead. We die and rise from the dead in baptism.

Today's feast, the Ascension, fits this same framework. Jesus ascended into heaven and was admitted, actually re-admitted, into the glory of the Father. We also follow the Lord and are admitted into the Glory of the Father when our days on earth are complete. We don't cease being Christians with physical death. We only cease being Christian with eternal death.

It is clear that God the Father was pleased with his Son's life on earth. We who were the culmination of the Father's creation, who were special to the Father, had distanced ourselves from him. Actually we had cut ourselves off from him.

Jesus brought us back, reunited us. The Son was brought back into the Glory of the Godhead. He ascended. We are called to join Jesus in the Glory of the God. His Ascension, as one of us, is a sign of the gift God has in store for us.

We celebrate the conclusion of Jesus' life on earth today and the continuation of his life at the Right Hand of the Father. We pray today that our lives might also conclude here on earth with our doing the will of the Father so that we also might join Jesus before the throne of God.