Today, in Italy and other countries, we celebrate Jesus' Ascension into heaven, which took place forty days after Easter. We contemplate the mystery of Jesus leaving our earthly space to enter the fullness of God's glory, taking our humanity with him. That is, we, our humanity, enter heaven for the first time. Luke's Gospel shows us the reaction of the disciples before the Lord who "parted from them and was taken up into heaven" (24:51). There was no pain or bewilderment in them, but "they prostrated themselves before him; then they returned to Jerusalem with great joy" (v. 52). It is the return of those who no longer fear the city that had rejected the Master, that had seen the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter, had seen the dispersion of the disciples and the violence of a power that felt threatened.
Since that day, it has been possible for the Apostles and for every disciple of Christ to dwell in Jerusalem and in all the cities of the world, even in those most troubled by injustice and violence, because above every city there is the same sky and every inhabitant can look up with hope. Jesus, God, is a real man, with his human body is in heaven! And this is our hope, this is our anchor, and we are firm in this hope if we look up to heaven.
In this heaven dwells that God who revealed himself so close that he took on the face of a man, Jesus of Nazareth. He remains forever the God-with-us - let us remember this: Emmanuel, God-with-us - and he does not leave us alone! We can look up to recognise our future before us. In the Ascension of Jesus, the Crucified Risen One, there is the promise of our participation in the fullness of life with God.
Before parting from his friends, Jesus, referring to the event of his death and resurrection, had said to them: "Of this you are witnesses" (v. 48). That is, the disciples, the apostles are witnesses of Christ's death and resurrection, on that day, also of Christ's Ascension. And indeed, after seeing their Lord ascend to heaven, the disciples returned to the city as witnesses joyfully proclaiming to all the new life that comes from the Risen Crucified One, in whose name "conversion and the forgiveness of sins will be preached to all peoples" (v. 47). This is the witness - given not only in words but also in daily life - the witness that every Sunday should leave our churches to enter during the week into homes, offices, schools, meeting places and places of entertainment, hospitals, prisons, homes for the elderly, crowded places for immigrants, the outskirts of the city... This is the witness we must bear every week: Christ is with us; Jesus has ascended into heaven, he is with us; Christ is alive!
Jesus has assured us that in this proclamation and testimony we will be "clothed with power from on high" (v. 49), that is, with the power of the Holy Spirit. Herein lies the secret of this mission: the presence among us of the risen Lord, who with the gift of the Spirit continues to open our minds and hearts, to proclaim his love and mercy even in the most refractory environments of our cities. It is the Holy Spirit who is the true architect of the multiform witness that the Church and every baptised person gives in the world. Therefore, we can never neglect recollection in prayer to praise God and invoke the gift of the Spirit. In this week, which leads us to the feast of Pentecost, let us remain spiritually in the Upper Room, together with the Virgin Mary, to receive the Holy Spirit.
[Pope Francis, Regina Coeli 8 May 2016].