“And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.” (MT 28:20). 

With that, Christ Jesus bid farewell to his disciples, in the physical sense, as he ascended into the heavens.  Nonetheless, in our first reading’s account from the Acts of the Apostles, the two bystanders witnessing this scene and the disciples looking up as their “teacher,” “Shepherd,” “Messiah” departed, simply commented: “This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return. . . .” 

His departure and departing words of farewell with the promise of the “Advocate,” the Holy Spirit at their side hearkens back to the original meaning of ‘goodbye.’  For many centuries the common parting words were, “God be with you.”  In the sixteenth century, recorded in a letter, the phrase was shortened for the first time to our present use of parting.  By the nineteenth century the parting words, “God be with you,” were all but abandoned for the simpler, ‘goodbye.’  A beautiful hymn written by Jeremiah Rankin in 1882, openly embraces the root meaning of ‘goodbye.’

God be with you till we meet again,

by His counsels guide, uphold you,

with His sheep securely fold you;

God be with you till we meet again.

’neath His wings securely hide you,

daily manna still provide you;

God be with you till we meet again;

when life’s perils thick confound you,

put His arms unfailing round you;

God be with you till we meet again;

keep love’s banner floating o’er you,

smite death’s threat'ning wave before you;

God be with you till we meet again. 

And so it is, as Christ Jesus promised at his Ascension, God remains with us through the grace of the Holy Spirit, our Advocate.   Our Advocate will guide us to the truth through faith and openness to God’s will.  Too often though, we confuse the ‘truth’ with efforts to create a secure, comfortable, sustainable lifestyle.  Pope Benedict concluded how such efforts too often lead to ‘relativism: there is no absolute, divine truth; rather such is relative to the individual or situation.

As at the first Pentecost following Christ Jesus’ Ascension, the Holy Spirit remains our Advocate as believers, pointing us forward beyond our own needs and desire to procure a stable, sustaining lifestyle.  To risk beyond our own comforts and satisfactions, seeking the Truth as our unbridled purpose here on earth.  Pope Francis shared that hope during his papacy.

“To put it simply: the Holy Spirit bothers us. Because he moves us, he makes us walk, he pushes the Church to go forward. And we are like Peter at the Transfiguration: 'Ah, how wonderful it is to be here like this, all together!' ... But don't bother us. We want the Holy Spirit to doze off ... we want to domesticate the Holy Spirit. And that's no good. because he is God, he is that wind which comes and goes and you don't know where. He is the power of God, he is the one who gives us consolation and strength to move forward. But: to move forward! And this bothers us. It's so much nicer to be comfortable.”

Providing the Holy Spirit to be our Advocate as Christ Jesus ascended into heaven was so much more than ‘goodbye;’ profoundly, and always, “God Be With You.”

God Bless,  Fr. Tim

FYI:  “Ascensions into heaven are like falling leaves sad and happy all at the same time. Going away isn't really sad, especially when your going enables a new kind of presence to be born.”