Bishop Barron's Sunday sermon on the Feast of the Ascension and the call to Spirit-led action
Bishop Robert Barron delivers a Sunday sermon on the Ascension of the Lord, exploring what it means for Christ to govern his Church from a higher dimension of existence.
Summary
Bishop Barron preaches on the Feast of the Ascension, situated between Easter and Pentecost, and offers a theological framework for understanding what it means that Christ "ascended into heaven." He argues that the Ascension does not mean Jesus relocated to another point in physical space, but rather that he transitioned into a higher dimension of existence — one from which he can now govern the entire Church across all of space and time. Drawing on readings from Acts, Ephesians, and Matthew, Bishop Barron emphasizes that the disciples' question about when the kingdom would be restored was met by Jesus with a redirection: stop speculating about timing and start receiving the Holy Spirit to do the work of building the kingdom. The central pastoral challenge he issues is for every believer to discern what the Holy Spirit is specifically calling them to do — and then to act on it.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
The Ascension situated between Easter and Pentecost
Bishop Barron: Peace be with you. Friends, today is the great solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. It's a very important feast. It's situated in between the resurrection of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit — so in between Easter and Pentecost, there's this feast of the Ascension.
Now, how do we begin to understand it? Well, think about this: after the resurrection, Jesus exists on a kind of event horizon. He's straddling two dimensions. Sometimes the risen Christ appears and seems very much like an ordinary figure within our world. "Touch me. I'm not a ghost — flesh and bones. Do you have something here to eat?" And he ate in their presence. Other times he seems to belong to another dimension: he suddenly appears and suddenly disappears, and despite locked doors he's suddenly in their midst. He walks with two of them, but they don't recognize him until the breaking of the bread, and then suddenly they do. "They worshiped," we hear, "and some doubted."
What's happening in these strange descriptions? I think they're trying to hint at this unique experience of Jesus risen from the dead — yes, still in this world, but no longer completely of this world. On that horizon between this dimension and that transcendent dimension that we call heaven.
What the Ascension means — a transition into a higher dimension
So what's the Ascension? I put it this way: it's when this straddling existence comes to an end and Jesus definitively moves into the higher dimension. We no longer have experiences like the disciples had of the risen Lord. Now we experience him through his Holy Spirit, which he sends us from heaven.
Think about that term for a minute. We say Jesus ascended into heaven. The Bible is using richly symbolic language to hint at this strange reality — that he's left behind this ordinary dimension of space and time and gone to a higher one. The Ascension does not mean that Jesus has gone somewhere else within this dimensional system. So if we say he went up into the sky, a cloud took him from their sight — think of those as symbols of the transition into a higher pitch and plane of existence. We don't mean that he's somewhere else in the solar system or out there in outer space somewhere. No, that would just mean he's somewhere else within our dimensional system.
The ascended Christ is not so much somewhere else. He's somehow else.
The dimensional analogy — square, cube, circle, sphere
Dimension language, I think, is helpful and illuminating. You look at a square, which exists in two dimensions. Raise that square to three dimensions — introduce a third dimension — and you get a cube. The square doesn't disappear. In fact, the cube includes the square. An infinity of squares can fit inside a cube. A circle in two dimensions — raise it to a sphere in three dimensions. How many circles are in that sphere? An infinite number of circles can fit in that sphere. The triangle becomes a pyramid in three dimensions.
My point is: the higher dimension doesn't destroy the lower dimension. Rather, it includes it and raises it up. I think that names what we mean when we say Jesus, or heaven, or God's realm, is a higher dimensional system.
Does it mean that he's no longer related to us? It would mean that if he'd ascended out there past the planet Jupiter or into some other solar system — yes, then he'd be a long way away. But if he's been translated into a higher dimensional system, he can now impinge upon all of us. Christ who roamed the hills of Galilee — yes, he was able to relate to a pretty small group of people, just as I can relate only to those who are right in front of me. But the ascended Christ can now be the Lord of all of space and all of time.
Now Jesus directing the work of his Church — yes, that makes perfect sense. I see how that can work. If he had not ascended and sent the Spirit, he couldn't be governing the Church the way that he does.
The disciples' question and Jesus's redirection
Now, just before the Ascension, what do the disciples say to him? It's interesting. They say, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?" From the beginning of his public life, Jesus talked about the kingdom of God — the coming of the kingdom, the kingdom that he himself embodied. Fair enough question: now that he's risen from the dead, is this the moment?
What does he say? "It's not for you to know the times or seasons, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth."
The kingdom — Jesus famously prays, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven." What's the kingdom? It's the definitive coming together of heaven and earth. When God's way of being is fully instantiated here, when this world is drawn up into the higher dimension — that's the kingdom of God. When will it definitively come? That's not for you to worry about, not for them to worry about, and not for us to worry about. Rather: wait here in Jerusalem, and you will be equipped, you will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to continue my work.
In other words, don't worry so much about when this will definitively happen — when all of time and space and history is consummated. Don't worry about that. That's up to God. What you worry about is receiving the Holy Spirit and cooperating with that Spirit to do the work of the Lord in the world.
That message is true for them and it's true for us. When will the kingdom come? I don't know definitively, but I do know I've got a task to help build up that kingdom. I've got something I can do, equipped by the Holy Spirit, to make that kingdom more of a reality. And that's what I should be worried about.
The saints as models of Spirit-led discernment
That's a way to read the lives of all the saints up and down the ages. The saints are so different — different backgrounds, experiences, different styles of life, different personalities. But what they have in common is this: they all discerned what the Holy Spirit wanted them to do right now.
When will it come definitively? Don't worry about that. To Francis: "Rebuild my church." He says, "Okay, I'll get on it." To Thomas Aquinas: "I want you to think through the mystery of the faith. I want you to write your great works." "Okay, I'm on it."
And so you, right now — the Holy Spirit has something for you to do. Discern what that is and then get going.
The Ascension opens space for human action
Here's something else I think is interesting. I certainly hold to what I've said — that the ascended Jesus is not up and away and gone somewhere. No, he's governing his Church from this higher dimension. But there is truth to this: in a way, his Ascension opens up a space for us.
If the risen Christ were simply there — well, I guess he should just take care of all this. No. In a way his Ascension opens up room for us to act. There's the space of the Church, which is filled with the Spirit of the ascended Christ — yes, indeed — but it now becomes space that we can inhabit. Good. That's appropriate.
And don't you love this too, in this account: he ascends to heaven and the disciples are looking up, craning their necks, gazing up to heaven, and the two angels appear. "Men of Galilee, why are you looking up into the sky?" Allow yourself to hear that same message. The implication is: all right, you guys, get to work. Don't waste your time wondering when exactly he'll come back and when exactly it will all be fulfilled. No, don't worry about that. Get to work now. You've got work to do. Build up the kingdom.
Paul's letter to the Ephesians — Christ seated above all powers
So that's the first reading from Acts of the Apostles. Now listen to how Paul, in that great letter to the Ephesians — and by the way, get out your Bible at some point and just read the letter to the Ephesians. You can do it in one sitting. It's one of the most magnificent and cosmically rich texts in the New Testament.
He's making the exact same point. He reminds his audience that God has raised Jesus from death, and then he says this: he's seated him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion. What are those — authorities, powers, dominions? They're angelic ranks. Paul is envisioning this spiritual realm of creation. We say God made the visible and also the invisible. Jesus, ascended into this higher dimensional system, is now seated.
Again, don't think of a chair on the planet Jupiter — that's just Jesus in some other place. This is Jesus somehow else. What does the session mean, the seating of Jesus? It means he's in the place of power. He's the plenipotentiary of the Father. He's the one given full authority to reign and to rule.
That's why in the Creed we say: "He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father." That's not incidental. Next time you recite the Creed, think about that line. He ascended into heaven and is seated — that's the sessio, the session of Jesus, because now he's in the attitude of kingship. He's giving order and direction to his Church so that we don't just look up waiting for him to come back. No, he's now giving us direction and sending us the Holy Spirit and telling us, "Come on, get to work. You do this, you do that." And through his Church, he's coordinating all of this. That's what being seated at the right hand of the Father means.
Christ as head of the body — an organic, not merely administrative, relationship
And how does he govern? Staying now with Paul to the Ephesians: "He put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the Church, which is his body."
The magnificence of that imagery. I've been talking about Christ as governor and us receiving orders — true enough. But it's even stranger and more organic. He's not just an extrinsic figure like a governor from whom I'm receiving orders. No — he's the head and we're the members. He's the head and we're the elements in his mystical body. That's how close the identification of Christ with his body, the Church, is.
He used as an instrument his humanity when he walked the hills of Galilee. Now he uses as his instrument his mystical body, the Church. That's it. Headed by Christ and filled up and energized by the Holy Spirit. That's it.
The Great Commission in Matthew — go and make disciples
I'll end with just a glance at the Gospel from Matthew, which makes the same point about the Ascension. Jesus gathers the eleven disciples on a mountain in Galilee. What does he say? "All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me."
There it is — heaven, this transcendent dimensional system; earth, the one we're used to. He wants to bring them together, and power has been given to him in heaven with implications on earth. Think square, cube. Think circle, sphere. From his ascended position he includes, as his mystical body, this world, and all power has been given to him in heaven and on earth. Wonderful.
But again, he's not going to do this work alone. Listen: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." His first word is to the apostles, and then he says to them: your job is to baptize the whole world.
I'm a bishop of the Church, a successor of the apostles. What's my job? To preside over the sacramental life of my diocese. From Christ to the apostles to the faithful — the ascended Lord is governing his Church so as to bring heaven and earth fully together.
When will it finally happen? No, no, no. Don't worry about that. Discern what the Holy Spirit is calling you to do, and then get to it. And God bless you.