In today’s readings we hear two accounts of Jesus’ ascension, one from the beginning of Acts and one from the very end of Matthew’s Gospel. In both, we hear Jesus tell the Eleven that they will spread the Good News throughout the world…”to the ends of the Earth,” “to all nations.” The reading from Acts goes further to say that this will happen after they receive the Holy Spirit. At the end of the Acts reading, Jesus ascends to our Father as the Disciples stand and stare upwards…it seems to take the words of the two angels to break the spell, so to speak. Certainly, Jesus gave the Eleven a mission. However, reading the passage from Acts makes it clear that Jesus was not speaking just to the Disciples standing with Him…how could the Eleven possibly spread the Gospel to the entire world in their lifetimes? No, Jesus was speaking to all of us, His words to the Disciples two thousand years ago are given to us today. We have the same mission that they did. How are we doing? Are we staring into space, waiting for Jesus to return and make everything right? Or are we actively spreading the Gospel? If we aren’t doing as good a job as we’d like to, what is holding us back? Next week we’ll celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Disciples. Although we received the Spirit at baptism, it isn’t a one-time thing. If we’re not satisfied with our efforts to be Jesus’ disciple, now would be a great time to pray for a new outpouring of the Spirit in our lives. Jesus told us at the end of Matthew’s Gospel that He would be with us always to help.