And yet, although Jesus had failed to win the hearts of his fellow countrymen, he had wholly succeeded in his mission.  For he had come from Heaven to achieve something vastly greater than the conversion of Palestine.  He had come to face and master in his own Person, the power of evil, so that in his greater power his followers everywhere might accomplish that same mastery in their own hearts and lives, replacing hatred with love; falsehood with truth; callousness with compassion; immorality with purity; and love of self with love for God.  His own victory over evil was achieved on the Cross and was proclaimed by his Resurrection.

During the following 40 days he appeared to his Apostles and completed his training of them in preparation for the worldwide task on which he was about to send them.  So on Ascension Day he returned to Heaven and resumed his place in that eternal and supernatural life which is the background of the Universe, and thus he was able to assure his disciples of his continual Presence with them, even to the end of the world.

We sometimes speak of Our Lord’s ministry as lasting only three years.  It is truer to say that it has already lasted around 2000 years.  That is why St Luke in his preface to the Acts of the Apostles describes the Gospel which bears his name, as an account, not of all that Jesus did and taught, but rather of all that “he began to do and teach, until the day when he was taken up…” (RSV Catholic edition, Acts 1:1, our emphasis).  For the Ascension marked the transition between the close of his public ministry in Palestine and the commencement of his ministry throughout the world in the new age of the Holy Spirit.  And St Luke gave practical expression to that truth by making the Ascension the link between his Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles.