Ascension of The Lord - Year A - Why Are You Standing There & “Ascension Hymns”
On the Feast of the Ascension, the Church gives us one of the most human scenes in all of Scripture. Jesus is lifted up before the eyes of his disciples, a cloud takes him from their sight, and they remain there staring into the sky. Then two angels appear and ask: “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky?”
At first, the question seems almost unfair. Where else would they look? The Lord they loved had just disappeared from their sight. Yet the angels are asking something deeper: Why are you frozen? Why have you stopped moving forward?
We understand that feeling. There are moments in life when we become caught between what was and what will be. A parent lingers outside an empty bedroom after a child leaves home. A widow still reaches for the coffee cup of a spouse who is gone. Someone retires after years of meaningful work and wonders who they are now. These are not failures of faith. They are deeply human experiences of love and loss.
Yet throughout Scripture, God gently calls his people forward. At the empty tomb, the angels asked the women: “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” God does not erase the past, but neither does He leave us there.
The Ascension is not about Jesus abandoning his disciples. It is the beginning of a new kind of presence. Before ascending, Jesus promised: “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” Through the Holy Spirit, he remains with his Church in every age, and especially in the Eucharist, where he continues to nourish and strengthen his people.
This is why the Ascension is a feast of hope. The disciples are told not to remain staring upward because Christ is already sending them outward. And he sends them not because they are perfect, but because they are willing. Matthew tells us: “They worshipped him, but they doubted.” Still, Jesus entrusted them with the Gospel.
That should console all of us. God has never waited for perfect people before calling them. Moses was afraid. Peter denied the Lord. Yet God worked through them, and he works through us as well.
Parents who worry about their children, teachers who wonder if they are making a difference, elderly people who quietly pray each day, young people trying to hold on to faith in a distracted world — all are included in Christ’s mission. The Lord does not ask whether we are flawless. He asks whether we are faithful.
And that mission is often lived in simple ways: patience when we are tired, forgiveness when resentment would be easier, kindness instead of gossip, time given to someone who is lonely or forgotten. These small acts are the Gospel made visible.
The angels were not scolding the disciples for looking at the sky. They were reminding them that Christ had gone ahead of them, and that now it was time to follow.
The same invitation is given to us today. Christ is not absent. He is alive, present, and already waiting for us in the ordinary moments of daily life. And so we move forward with confidence, holding onto the promise that sustains every Christian life: “I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
In honor of the Feast of the Ascension, we would like to share our latest video collection of three previously unreleased recordings titled "Ascension Hymns".
We begin with "Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise," praising the King of glory ascending to His throne to intercede for us at the Father's right hand. We then sing "Sing We Triumphant Hymns of Praise," the ancient Latin hymn exulting in Christ's triumphant ascent above all powers and principalities as proclaimed in Ephesians 1:17–23. We close with "Go Make Of All Disciples," from Matthew 28:16–20 sending the Church forth to baptize and teach all nations in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Video can be watched by clicking here or by clicking on the thumbnail below.
