‘Teach Ye All Nations’: Jesus’s Ascension and Parting Command

Today is the feast of Ascension Thursday. Forty days after Jesus’s Resurrection, Christ gave His final commands to His disciples and ascended bodily into Heaven, where He reigns at the right hand of God. Below are passages describing Jesus’s parting command or the Ascension itself from the New Testament:

“And the eleven disciples went into Galilee, unto the mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And seeing him they adored: but some doubted. And Jesus coming, spoke to them, saying: All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. Going therefore, teach ye all nations; baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.” —Matt. 28:16-20…

“But [Jesus] said to them: It is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power: But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they were beholding him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven.” —Acts of the Apostles 1:7-11…

St. Francis of Assisi said, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and if necessary use words.” Jesus warned us we would be persecuted by the world (Jn. 15), but that is partly because the world should be able to tell we are Christians even without our saying so, simply by how we live. And while some will hate our Christianity, others might be open to conversion. Jesus commanded us to teach and baptize. We are to bring others into His Church, that there might be one fold and one shepherd (Jn. 10:16).

The angels tell the disciples in Acts of the Apostles that “This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven.” Jesus is with us, in the Eucharist, in our churches, in our families, in our hearts—in joys and sorrows, in trials and victories, Christ is always beside us. And He has promised that He will return bodily, in all His Divine Glory, at the end of the world…