At the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles Jesus did not ascend immediately; he spent a highly symbolic 40 days—reminiscent of his 40 days in the wilderness at the beginning of his ministry—speaking to the apostles “about the kingdom of God.”

THE NARRATIVES ABOUT Jesus by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John fit nicely into a classic American genre: the road story.

The Ascension of Jesus is about the power of change and the possibility of transformation, about a God who was willing to reach down to humanity and bring it up into divine life.

We pray now to the Lord who is head over all things.

A little lost perhaps in the accounts of Jesus’ dramatic Ascension is a thread running through the solemnity’s readings: the importance of signs.

The term ascension is susceptible to unintended comic imagery of Jesus waving good-bye from a balloon gondola or being lifted on a wire. Another unfortunate connotation is that heaven is somehow “up,” while we are left down here.

As sign and wonder this exaltation is a pointer to the revelation . . . of Jesus Christ as the heart of all powers in heaven and earth. —Karl Barth (1886-1968)