OMELIE / Omelie EN

17 mag 2026

17 May 2026 – Ascension of the Lord – Year A

17 May 2026 – Ascension of the Lord – Year A

First Reading Acts 1:1–11; Psalm 46 Second Reading Ephesians 1:17–23 Gospel Matthew 28:16–20

Saint Luke tells us that Jesus appeared to the apostles for ‘forty days, showing himself to them and speaking to them about the kingdom of God’. He spoke of the kingdom of heaven from the very beginning of his public life, and continued to describe it through parables and stories. Even on the cross, the words “in your kingdom” were spoken by the thief, and Jesus transformed them by saying “in paradise”. Yet, having risen, he still speaks “of things concerning the kingdom of God”. This kingdom is constantly present in Jesus’ mind, in his desires, and he wants it to be so for his disciples too. It will also be present in their prayer, to such an extent that Jesus taught them to say to the Father: ‘Thy kingdom come’. Why such insistence? Was it necessary?

It seems that the disciples were never attentive and never understood, to such an extent that even after his resurrection, they asked: ‘Is this the time when you are going to restore the kingdom of Israel?’. When they heard the word ‘kingdom’, they thought of David’s kingdom, and not of another reality—that is, a kingdom made up of people from all peoples, all nations, and all languages, a kingdom that does not seek to arm itself, but which ensures only that all may be brothers obeying the one Lord, Jesus himself, whom they may call king in his own right. They were unable to change their conception of the kingdom; the idea of a worldly kingdom remained firmly within them. They would later understand that Jesus would no longer be visible and that he would send from the Father, as he had promised, ‘the power of the Holy Spirit’.

We shall therefore be committed – as the Apostle writing to the Ephesians exhorts us – to deepening our knowledge of God through the teachings of Jesus. We shall know towards what our hope must be directed, and we shall enjoy his glory, which is manifested with great power. From now on we shall always see God in the company of Jesus, ‘seated at his right hand’, above every reality we have hitherto regarded as important and supreme. He, a true King! Jesus and God the Father will also be one in our eyes: we shall no longer separate them. Such will be the hallmark of our faith and our love. But that is not all: we too, as the Church, people gathered by him and with him, will share in his divine authority. We will, however, take great care not to regard authority as something distinct from love: God is and always will be love alone! And we with him, following the example of the crucified Jesus!

“‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,’ Jesus tells the Twelve. He does not say this so that they may obey blindly, but so that they may know him, and have in him the same trust that our Father deserves. By trusting him, we can love him and obey him out of love, and the first obedience is this: to be bearers of his Gospel everywhere. We have no other wealth to offer to people than this. Material wealth disrupts brotherhood, clouds friendship, and gives rise to envy and jealousy, covetousness and greed.

The only wealth that is not harmful, but which, on the contrary, brings humanity and goodness to maturity in everyone, young and old, men and women, is precisely the Gospel, the Word that Jesus never ceased to try to sow within us. This is the wealth that can go round the world, and truly change it. The Gospel will be accompanied by baptism: a concrete act in which both God’s love and man’s will are expressed. God pours out upon the baptised person his life of communion and holiness, and man commits himself, above all, to renouncing everything offered by the world that is under the power of the evil one.

Before disappearing from the apostles’ sight, Jesus promises to be ever-present in their lives until the fulfilment, until the fulfilment of the kingdom and of all the Father’s goodness. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus had already experienced this: as soon as their eyes could no longer see him, he became more present than ever in their hearts, to the point of giving them the strength and joy to return to Jerusalem despite the darkness of the night and the fatigue of the climb.

We never see Jesus with our own eyes, and yet, knowing that he sits at the right hand of the Father, his Word with all its teachings is a constant source of strength and joy within us. We shall spread love, forgiveness, and the desire for communion and peace, which fill the earth with joy. Jesus, risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father, is truly present and at work in his Church, of which we are unworthy members.