By Richard Clifford, S.J.,

On Thursday, the Church commemorated the Ascension, when Jesus ascended into heaven as his disciples watched in awe. The event was so important that the evangelist Luke narrates it twice, once at the end of his Gospel and a second time at the beginning of his Acts of the Apostles!

According to the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus stayed with his disciples for forty days, preparing them for his departure and finding new ways to be with them. Jesus’s Ascension is, of course, an aspect of his Resurrection, but Acts wants us to remember the forty years Israel spent in the wilderness preparing themselves to enter the Promised Land. During his own forty days, Jesus empowered his disciples to continue his work of preaching the kingdom and forming the community. Through the Spirit proceeding from him and the Father, he continues to guide and protect them. Acts shows the disciples, especially in the persons of Peter and Paul, doing what Jesus did.

Acts gives us three examples of Jesus acting through the actions of his disciples. One is the martyrdom of Stephen, not simply a brave man enduring death for his ideals, but rather a witness to the presence of Jesus in the world. If you missed the chance to see Jesus in the flesh (that’s our fate), you can still see him in the martyrdom of Stephen. As he suffers, the heavens open, and Jesus, for a brief moment, becomes visible. In Stephen, the presence of Jesus becomes visible to onlookers, which is how Acts of the Apostles sees the early church.

Stephen makes visible another characteristic of Jesus, forgiveness, as he cries out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” They echo Jesus’s words on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know now what they are doing.” We cannot, of course, make light of a terribly evil deed, and Stephen indeed calls their act “a sin.” But we can leave in God’s hands the carrying out of justice and the process of our own healing. The ability to forgive is an important witness to the world of God’s reality and presence, for today, religion is too often used to inflict violence and revenge.

The third way Jesus continues to live in the post-Ascension Church is the unity of the community that arises from Jesus’ love of the Father, which spills over into the community. Think how precious this gift is in a world that is full of strife and competitiveness. In the Gospel of John, love for each other in the church is the strongest signal that we can send out that God is here. “By this will all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35).

Richard Clifford, S.J., former President of the Weston Jesuit School of Theology and Founding Dean of the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry