Many people have asked me this question, often with a quiet hope in their voice: “Where is Jesus now?” It’s a question that reveals not doubt, but love — a heart that wants to know where the Lord who walked among us has gone, and how we can still meet Him. The good news is that Jesus has not left us alone. His Ascension did not mean His absence, but the beginning of His presence in a new and deeper way.
After His Resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples for forty days, speaking to them about the Kingdom of God. Then, as the Gospels tell us, He was “taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). To sit at the Father’s right hand means that Jesus now reigns in glory — not far away, but in the eternal presence of the Father, interceding for us. From there, He sees us, loves us, and continues His saving work through His Spirit and His Church.
But Christ is not confined to heaven’s throne. In a mysterious and real way, He is also with us. Before ascending, He promised, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We encounter Him in prayer, in Scripture, and especially in the Eucharist, where His Body and Blood are truly present. Every time we receive Communion, heaven touches earth — we receive the same Jesus who was born in Bethlehem, who died and rose for us, and who now reigns forever.
And there is another place where Jesus dwells: in every human heart that welcomes Him. He lives in the poor, the suffering, the forgotten, and in all who love as He loved. When we forgive, when we serve, when we pray — He is there. So if you ask where Jesus is now, the answer is both wondrous and near: He is in heaven, and He is here, living in the midst of His people, waiting to meet you in every act of faith and love.
Christ’s Ascension is not His departure but His homecoming — and He draws us with Him. May we live each day knowing that the One who reigns in heaven also walks beside us, unseen but deeply present.
— Fr. John Matthew, for Christian Way
