Far from being a largely irrelevant...

Far from being a largely irrelevant item in terms of Christian experience, the ascension is that facet of the Christian mystery that is most near to those living the life of faith. St. Paul, in emphasizing his relationship to Christ in the present, declared, “even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way” (2 Cor 5:16). Like him, believers of every age have no need to hanker after the earthly presence of Jesus in the Palestine of two thousand years ago. He has gone. He is risen, and has been exalted and glorified, and is Lord of all time and space. There is no point in gazing upward, as the heavenly messengers remind both the apostles and the generations who would profit from their witness (Acts 1:11). Faith and hope have now to be busy about other matters, even as Christians, then and now, await his return at the end of time, and the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5, 11).