One of the most privileged parts of priesthood is giving the last rites and being present as someone takes their final breaths.
In those moments, all the unimportant stuff falls away. No one spends their last moments reminding the family to cut the grass every week or change the furnace filter once they’re gone. Those things matter in ordinary life, but suddenly they seem completely irrelevant. Usually, it’s not even the person dying who says much. It’s the family gathered around them. And what gets said is almost always simple and deeply meaningful: “I love you.” “Thank you.” “You can be at peace.” “Go join your beloved.”
No matter how many times I witness those moments, they still hit me like a ton of bricks. And honestly, they make me wonder what my own last words will be someday. I just hope they’re something repeatable. Because if you looked through my recent text messages, it would not be very inspiring. Imagine the priest dies and his final recorded words are: “👍”… or “ok”… or “your lawn mower is fixed.” Maybe just a random gif. You’d all be sitting at the funeral thinking, Father’s final earthly message was about small engine repair.
Today, on the feast of the Ascension, we hear the final words of Jesus before He ascends into heaven. And these are not the desperate last words of someone dying. They’re more like the words of a parent preparing a child for a new stage of life. Like dropping your kid off at college. Or handing the car keys to a sixteen-year-old for the first time. It’s not “goodbye forever.” It’s: “I know we need to be separated in this way for your good, but here’s what you need to remember.”
What does Jesus tell them?
First: “I am with you always, until the end of the age.” In other words, you are never alone.
Second: He tells them to go into the whole world and make disciples. Their faith is not supposed to stay private or hidden away. It’s meant to be shared.
Then in Acts of the Apostles, Jesus tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit. And when they start asking when He’s finally going to fix everything once and for all, Jesus basically says: “That’s not your concern right now. Your concern is to be My witnesses.”
And not just to the people they like. He specifically mentions Samaria; a people they distrusted and looked down on. In other words, nobody is excluded from hearing the Gospel. Everyone deserves the chance to encounter Christ.
Now, when parents give advice, kids usually roll their eyes and think, “Yeah, yeah, I know. Can I go now?” Honestly, the Apostles weren’t much different. Matthew tells us that even after seeing the risen Jesus, some still doubted. They didn’t fully understand yet. But here’s the important part: even with their doubts, they still worshipped Him. They stayed close to Him. They kept showing up.
Eventually, through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, those same fearful and hesitant Apostles became bold witnesses who changed the world. Christ’s command did not end with them. His command to “go and make disciples of all nations” now belongs to us too. A lot of people think evangelization is reserved for priests, bishops, missionaries, or professional church people. And yes, spreading the Gospel is my full-time job. But it’s yours too.
One of the reasons so many people don’t know Christ is because ordinary Christians underestimate the power of their witness. They don’t realize how much simple kindness, peaceful faith, genuine joy, and ordinary conversations can open hearts to God. The Church is not struggling only because of a shortage of priests or bad homilies. We also have a shortage of visible Christian witness. Too often, Christians blend into the culture so completely that nobody can tell the difference.
But every baptized person has received the Holy Spirit and has been given the mission to bring Christ into the world. And God usually does this through ordinary life. Through parents raising children. Through friendships. Through workplaces. Through neighbors. Through people trying to live faithfully and joyfully right where God has placed them.
The Ascension reminds us that we are not supposed to just sit around waiting for Jesus to come back someday. We are supposed to use this time to help bring others closer to Him.
So today, let’s pay attention to Christ’s final words. Let’s thank God for the people who shared the faith with us. Also, let’s recommit ourselves to sharing that faith …not by being pushy or obnoxious, but through joyful witness, sincere friendship, and the way we carry ourselves in the world. And finally, let’s deepen our prayer lives, because without prayer our witness becomes empty words.
Christ has ascended into heaven. But He has not abandoned us. He is still with us. And now He sends us out to help others find Him too.
