Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, A

Below you can find the Meditation of His Beatitude Patriarch Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord, A, Thursday, May 14, 2026. 

In these words that the Risen Lord speaks as He takes leave of His disciples and returns to the Father, there is a small conjunction that carries a strategic meaning. 

We are at the final verses of the last chapter of Matthew’s Gospel, and Jesus says: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples…" (Mt 28:18–19). The conjunction, ‘therefore’, indicates, a consequence: something new has happened, so a new effect follows from it.

What has happened? 

Jesus rereads the events of Easter as the moment when all authority was given to Him, in heaven and on earth. 
First we note that this authority was given to Him: the Risen One does not proclaim Himself Lord, but it is the Father who constitutes Him Kyrios, Lord of history and of the cosmos. It is an authority born from relationship, not from personal conquest. 

It is also an Easter authority: not the authority of the kingdoms of this world (cf. Mt 20:25), but the authority of the One who conquered death by giving life; and for this reason, His authority bears the definitive character of self-giving love.  

Ultimately, it is an authority that unites heaven and earth, meaning, there is no longer anything out of His reach; therefore, no distance, no darkness, no periphery is excluded from His presence. 
The authority of the Risen One is the sovereignty of love that has passed through death and can now reach every creature. 

This sovereignty is evident in the passage through a term that, in the original language, appears four times: the word “all”: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Mt 28:18), “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Mt 28:19), “all that I have commanded you” (Mt 28:20), “I am with you always” (Mt 28:20). 

This fourfold repetition does not describe a power that dominates, but a power that fills: it is the fullness of the Paschal life that now embraces the cosmos, reaches every people, illuminates every word of Jesus, and accompanies every day of history. 
The “all” of the Risen One is life brought to its fullness: a sovereignty that does not oppress but generates life; does not exclude but embraces; does not restrict, but expands. 

It is at this point that the “therefore” we mentioned at the beginning comes into play. 

Since the Risen One’s lordship is universal, and since His gift of love is for everyone, therefore the disciples can set out and bring the gift of this new beginning to all. 

Their mission springs from fullness: the disciples do not wield power, but share in a life that now overflows and spreads to all peoples. 

It is therefore important to emphasize this: the missionary mandate (“Go therefore…”) is not a human task, but an action that takes place within Christ’s eschatological sovereignty. 
In other words, the disciples do not go “before” Jesus reigns, but they can go because Jesus already reigns; they do not prepare the Kingdom, but they act within the Kingdom inaugurated by Easter. 

If the Kingdom has already been inaugurated by the Risen One, then our mission is to make it known, to bear witness to it, and to make it accessible. Matthew expresses this with three verbs: to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach (Mt 28:19)…

This Meditation was originally published on the Website of the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. Please click here to read the full text.