Message from the Pew

From Ashes to Ascension

Our journey to Easter does not begin on Easter Sunday, it begins weeks earlier on Ash Wednesday, when we receive ashes and begin the season of Lent. During those forty days, we walk a path of prayer, sacrifice, and reflection. Each Friday of Lent, many of us gathered at Holy Spirit for the Stations of the Cross, the volunteers helped us to remember Christ’s suffering and His journey to Calvary. These moments help us slow down, reflect, and prepare our hearts.

Then comes Holy Week, the most sacred time of the Church year. On Holy Thursday, we remember the Last Supper, when Jesus gave us the gift of the Eucharist and showed us how to serve one another. Soon after, we remember His Passion, and then at last, we celebrate the great joy of Easter Sunday, when Christ rises from the dead.

After such a long and meaningful build-up, from ashes to the empty tomb, it might feel like things begin to quiet down after Easter. The music softens, routines return, and the excitement of that great day settles. But Easter Season continues, our focus turns toward the Ascension of the Lord.

The Ascension is not a letdown after the great build-up of Lent and Easter, it is the next step in Christ’s mission. After rising from the dead, Jesus spent time with His disciples, teaching them and strengthening their faith. At the Ascension, He returned to the Father, not to leave His followers behind, but to open the way to Heaven and show us the destiny prepared for all who believe.

For the disciples, this moment may have felt bittersweet. Watching Jesus ascend could have felt like a loss. Yet the true message of the Ascension is one of hope and purpose.

The journey from Ash Wednesday, through the Fridays of Stations of the Cross, to Holy Thursday, Easter, and finally the Ascension, is not only something we remember in church, it reflects the pattern of our own daily lives.

There are times in our lives like Ash Wednesday, when we recognize our weaknesses and are called to begin again. There are moments like the Stations of the Cross, when we carry burdens, face struggles, and walk difficult roads. Like Holy Thursday, we are reminded to serve others with humility, whether at home, at work, or in our community.

Then come our Easter moments, times of joy, relief, healing, or new beginnings, when hope returns after hardship. And finally, the Ascension reminds us that we are not meant to keep our faith to ourselves. Just as Jesus entrusted His mission to His disciples, He entrusts it to us in our everyday lives.

We live this mission when we offer kindness to someone who is struggling, forgive when it is difficult too, stand up for what is right and bring hope into places that feel uncertain.

The Ascension reminds us that Christ is not gone, He is present with us in a new way, Christ reigns in glory at the right hand of the Father and entrusts His mission to us. So rather than being a letdown after the long journey let Easter remind us that Christ is risen and The Ascension tells us to now go and live it every day.

God Loves you.

Joe Marateo