Catholic Commentary
The Ascension of the Lord and the Apostolic Mission
19So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.20They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
Mark 16:19–20 describes Jesus's ascension to heaven and his session at God's right hand as the enthroned Lord, followed by the apostles' immediate proclamation of the Gospel everywhere with Jesus actively confirming their message through accompanying signs. The passage presents Christ's exaltation not as withdrawal but as the basis for universal apostolic authority and his continued covenantal presence with the Church.
Christ's ascension to the throne does not withdraw him from the world—it unleashes him everywhere at once, working through every missionary who dares to speak his name.
Mark 16:19 — "The Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God."
Mark's Gospel is famously compressed and urgent — the word euthys ("immediately") drives its action from the very first chapter — yet here the narrative slows to a majestic halt. The double title ho Kyrios Iēsous ("the Lord Jesus") is significant: Kyrios (Lord) is the Greek rendering of the divine name YHWH in the Septuagint, and its application here signals that the one ascending is not merely a teacher or wonder-worker, but the divine Son in his full, glorified identity. Mark uses it sparingly in the body of the Gospel; its solemn placement at the moment of the Ascension is a deliberate theological climax.
The phrase "was taken up" (anelēmphthē) is a divine passive — God the Father receives the Son. The same verb appears in Acts 1:2, 11, and 22, as well as 1 Timothy 3:16 ("taken up in glory"), linking this moment to the broader New Testament kerygma of exaltation. The Ascension is not a disappearance or an abandonment; it is an enthronement. The phrase "sat down at the right hand of God" (ekathisen ek dexiōn tou Theou) echoes Psalm 110:1 — "The LORD says to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool" — the most-quoted Old Testament text in the entire New Testament. To sit is to reign; to sit at the right hand is to share in divine sovereignty. The session at the right hand is not a posture of rest but of active, royal intercession and governance. Christ does not ascend to become passive; he ascends to become Lord of all history.
This verse is also the culmination of Mark's Christological arc. Throughout the Gospel, characters ask "Who is this?" (4:41). At Caesarea Philippi, Peter confesses him as Messiah (8:29). At the crucifixion, the centurion declares "Truly this man was the Son of God" (15:39). Now, at the Ascension, heaven itself answers every question: he is the enthroned Lord, seated where only God sits.
Mark 16:20 — "They went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs."
The apostles' response is immediate and total: ekeinoi de exelthontes ekēryksan pantachou — "they going out preached everywhere." The word ekēryksan is drawn from the Greek kēryx, the herald or town crier who announces a royal decree. This is proclamation, not mere persuasion; it carries the authority of the one whose message it is. Pantachou — "everywhere" — is a deliberate echo of the universal commission in vv. 15–16: "Go into all the world." The apostles do not hesitate, deliberate, or qualify; they simply go.
The theological nerve center of v. 20 is the phrase tou Kyriou synergountos — "the Lord working with them." The present participle synergountos ("co-working," "cooperating") is arresting. Though Christ has ascended, he has not withdrawn. The Ascension changes the mode of his presence, not the reality of it. He is now universally present, not locally limited. The signs (sēmeia) that follow are not independent apostolic wonders; they are the Lord's own ratification (bebaiountos, "confirming," "making firm") of the word proclaimed. The word and the signs belong together: the miracle attests the message; the message interprets the miracle.
Mark ends with the single word Amēn — the Hebrew term of solemn affirmation, rooted in ʾāman ("to be firm, reliable, trustworthy"). It is the Church's first liturgical response to the Gospel, a response of faith and surrender to all that has been proclaimed. The Gospel that began with "the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God" (1:1) ends not with a period but with an Amen — an open door through which every reader must walk.
Catholic Tradition on the Ascension and Apostolic Mission
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the Ascension marks the irreversible entry of Christ's humanity into divine glory (CCC 659) and that it "is inseparable from the Resurrection" (CCC 660). Christ does not abandon the world but "fills it" (pleróō) with his glorified presence (cf. Eph. 4:10). St. Leo the Great, in his celebrated Ascension sermon, captures this paradox: "What was visible in our Redeemer has passed over into the sacraments" (Sermon 74). The absence of Christ's physical body is the condition for the universal availability of his sacramental body — the Church.
The phrase "sat at the right hand of God" receives sustained attention from St. John Chrysostom, who notes in his Homilies on Hebrews that Christ's seated session is simultaneously priestly and royal: he intercedes as our High Priest (Heb. 7:25) while reigning as Lord of all. This dual role underlies Catholic teaching on Christ as the one eternal Mediator (CCC 480, 662).
The missionary imperative of v. 20 is the scriptural anchor for the Church's understanding of herself as apostolic. The Dogmatic Constitution Lumen Gentium (LG 19–20) traces the episcopal succession directly to this apostolic sending. The signs that confirm the word are not relics of a past age; Vatican II's Ad Gentes (AG 12) affirms that the Church's mission continues to be authenticated by works of charity, healing, and holiness — the signs of the Kingdom — in every generation. Pope St. John Paul II, in Redemptoris Missio (RM 20), quotes this Markan commission directly as the permanent charter of the Church's evangelizing mission.
Mark 16:19–20 confronts the contemporary Catholic with two uncomfortable truths and one liberating promise. The first truth: Christ has ascended — he will not appear visibly to do what he has commissioned us to do. The age of the apostles is not past; it is ours. Every baptized Catholic participates in the apostolic mission not as a spectator but as a sent herald. The second truth: "everywhere" (pantachou) admits no safe exceptions. The workplace, the family dinner table, the comment section, the hospital room — all are missionary territory.
The liberating promise is synergountos: the Lord works with us. Catholic parishes and individuals who feel the weight of a secularizing culture, dwindling resources, or personal inadequacy are invited to remember that apostolic fruitfulness is not a human achievement to be engineered but a divine work to be cooperated with. Practically, this means prioritizing daily prayer (especially the Liturgy of the Hours and the Rosary, which meditate on the Ascension as a Glorious Mystery), receiving the sacraments frequently as the primary arena of Christ's active presence, and speaking the faith aloud — not eventually, but now.
Commentary