Feast of the Ascension a chance to reflect on 'letting go' to grow in faith, says Maine priest

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"And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight" (Acts 1:9).

Today, 40 days after Easter, is known as the "Feast of the Ascension," "Ascension Thursday," and "Solemnity of the Ascension of Jesus Christ." It's a commemoration of Jesus Christ's bodily ascension into heaven following His resurrection from the dead.

For Fr. Kyle Doustou, a priest of the Diocese of Portland and pastor of the Resurrection of the Lord parish in Old Town, Maine, the verses describing the Ascension also allude to something else: growing up and letting things go. 

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"I will never forget the day my parents dropped me off at the seminary to begin my studies for the priesthood back in 2007," Doustou told Fox News Digital. 

At the time, he was 19 years old, and had never spent more than a week away from his home in Maine. Initially, Doustou found himself "very excited" to begin studies in philosophy and theology far from home at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.

Fr. Kyle Doustou of Maine recounted his initial fear just before beginning seminary far from home — noting that Jesus' disciples likely felt similarly as they saw their friend ascend into heaven and leave them on earth.   (iStock/Courtesy Fr. Kyle Doustou)

After his parents left, Doustou recalled "looking out my window at a strange city and I was overcome with a sense of panic. All of the newness that I had been looking forward to with excitement suddenly seemed terrifying, and I felt very sad and very alone," he said. 

Distraught, Doustou called his grandmother — who gave him a surprising message.

"She sighed and said, ‘Well, Kyle, it’s time to grow up,'" he said. 

And while "that hurt to hear," Doustou now concedes that "she was right." 

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"Growing up can be one of the hardest things we do. It involves a lot of letting go … letting go of things, people, ideas, comforts," he said.

"But this letting go is crucial for our growth. I cannot help but think of this dynamic as we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord," he said. 

Forty days after His resurrection on Easter Sunday, Jesus ascended into heaven. The Feast of the Ascension is observed 40 days after Easter each year. (iStock)

While Ascension Thursday is a "a joyous feast day for us," Doustou imagines that the disciples who were present for the ascension felt "more of a sense of loss." 

"For years they walked with the Lord, lived with Him, and learned from Him; their entire worlds came crashing down when He died only to be restored again when He came back to them after His resurrection," he said, noting that Scripture states Christ "presented Himself alive to them by many proofs after He had suffered, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God (Acts 1:3)."

Being a witness to the miracle of the resurrected Christ "sounds wonderful, doesn't it?" said Doustou. 

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"Who wouldn't want that to end? And yet, that’s what this feast commemorates: Jesus was taken up into heaven and out of their sight, and they could do nothing but look up and stare at the sky."

Jesus "was gone," he said. "The sense of loss must have been profound. What were they going to do? Why did it have to be this way? Wouldn’t it have better if Jesus had just remained?" 

"The sense of loss must have been profound. What were they going to do? Why did it have to be this way? Wouldn’t it have better if Jesus had just remained?"

"We could ponder this for awhile and imagine a world where a two-thousand-year-old Jesus is walking around, telling parables, performing miracles, and doing all of the same things we hear about in the Scriptures, but I think today’s feast day asks us to reflect upon Jesus’ presence in the world in a new way: in and through a body of believers, His Church," said Doustou. 

For the church to grow into a body of believers, "the disciples would need to let go of Him, at least in the way that they were used to having Him, and in doing so they would be free to grow up and to begin the work of the Great Commission that Jesus entrusted to them." 

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With the preaching, teaching, baptizing and other works of mercy, along with their celebration of the Eucharist, "the disciples could make the Lord known to all peoples for all generations," he said. 

He continued, "What a wonderful mystery! If they had held on to Him, they would not have been able to make Him known to us in our own day."

The disciples, in the absence of the physical Christ on earth, were emboldened to "make the Lord known to all peoples for all generations," said Doustou, particularly through the Eucharist.  (iStock)

The Ascension, said Doustou, "is an opportunity to consider what we might be holding on to or what we may need to let go of in order to grow up in our faith."

This could include "a bad habit, or a sinful behavior, or some kind of attachment to people and things," he said. 

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"Whatever it may be, if we are going to proclaim Jesus risen from the dead and authentically pass on the faith to future generations, we have to be free," Doustou noted. 

"May the Ascension of the Lord help us to let go of what passes away and to hold on to what eternally endures."

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