Yes, Prime Minister was a much loved television comedy in the late 1980s. One episode saw the fictional Prime Minister, Jim Hacker, explain his technique for heading off tricky questions from over-enthusiastic journalists. ‘If’, he advised, ‘they ask you a question you don’t want to answer, you say: “that’s not the question” and then tell them your message.’ I experience something similar during the Easter season. The message the Church has is that the celebration of Easter is fulfilled by the Ascension and Pentecost and not finished by midnight on Easter Sunday or sometime on Bank Holiday Monday! However, the world moves on much more quickly than the religious seasons and often misses important insights that might strengthen our faith, hope and love.

The Ascension is not a ‘stand-alone’ feast and the first hint of this is given by the repetitions found in the readings from Acts and the Gospel. It’s not just because both texts are attributed to St Luke who, like every good teacher, gets in a bit of revision as often as he can. The themes in these two readings join together the Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost as a movement which gives birth to the early Church, whose members go forth as witnesses to the risen Jesus. The account of the Ascension may seem strange to us as it is a spiritual event in the life of Jesus. His disciples, though, had to be witnesses and so needed a historical event to experience and to understand what happened and be prepared for Pentecost. A cloud in scripture signifies the presence of God whilst ‘heaven’ remains hidden from sight as something established but not yet fulfilled on earth.

To be witnesses to the risen Jesus the disciples need to be ‘clothed with power from on high’ (Luke 24:49) and as Jesus states in the Gospel of St John, if he does not ascend into heaven the Holy Spirit cannot come (John 16:7). The Ascension is essential to our mission as the Church, for we too need to be ‘clothed with power from on high’. The transmission of the Spirit is seen in some of the well-known figures from the Old Testament. Joshua inherited the Spirit from Moses and he ‘… was full of the spirit of wisdom for Moses had laid his hands on him’ (Deuteronomy 34:9). Likewise, Elisha asked for a double share of Elijah’s prophetic Spirit and this mantle was given to him (2 Kings 2:9). The Holy Spirit was given to the disciples at Pentecost and is given to us through our baptism and confirmation, so we are able to continue evangelising and build up the Church. Given that, Easter gives us strength to meet the challenges of our time.

The insight we can gain through the whole Easter season is by understanding the inseparable movement of the Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost – in sporting terms, Easter’s hat-trick! This brings into our awareness the need we have for the Holy Spirit, who brings us the presence of Jesus now ascended into heaven. Although his disciples would experience the Ascension as a moment of great strength, they also needed what was to come – ‘power from on high’. The Gospel tells us that the disciples returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were in the Temple praying. We have the blessing of the witness of these disciples whose first-hand experience of Easter transformed them. We too are in Church praying, hopefully with great joy, and also waiting for the Lord to renew and transform us through the ‘power from on high’.

The Ascension is not an ending but the continuation of the reign of God from Jesus’ presence with the Father in the glory of heaven. Jesus is now with God in glory and his presence will continue to be with us through the Holy Spirit. St Paul talks about our lives being hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). He thinks of this in terms of putting on a new self, by living a Christian way of life. In this image the deepest foundations of our lives now are rooted in the story of Christianity. This is a ‘being with Christ’, now in heavenly glory, through the power of the Holy Spirit who inspires us. Without the Ascension, we are not able to move onto Pentecost and become the joyful ‘Easter people, with alleluia as our song’ that will lift people to love God and one another. Happy Easter on this feast, for Pentecost and beyond!