“What a piece of work is man!” Shakespeare has Hamlet say these words. Yet in the play Hamlet is filled with hatred, betrayal, and murder. We see that man is truly in a fallen state. In today’s feast, we see what man was really meant for and what a piece of work he really should be. In the humiliation of the Passion, Pilate showed Christ to the crowd after his beatings and proclaimed for all ages, “Behold the Man.” This is what man looks like as a result of our sins. Christ ascends on high as a reward for the humiliation of the cross. Today we can say “Behold the Man!” of a risen and ascended Savior. This is what we were created to be. In the resurrection, we see man filled with glory. In the ascension, we see Christ in his human nature exalted, not only in heaven, but also at the right hand of the Father. Christ did not go to heaven to leave us here alone on earth as orphans. Instead, his ascension is an occasion of hope. Christ has gone before us into heaven and so we know we are called there. Until that time, we must prepare ourselves for this hope to which we are called by living charity. We must keep our gaze fixed on the ascended Christ as the beacon of what it is promised to us at the end of our lives. Behold, the new man renewed by Christ himself.