Ascension of the Lord

One thing, in particular, is puzzling to me about the Ascension of the Lord. St Luke has two accounts of the same mystery with one happening at the end of his Gospel (Lk 24: 50-53) and the other at the start of the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1: 3-11).  These two do not match up completely and you would have thought, that since one was a sequel to the other, a single mention narrative would be sufficient. On reflection I think of it this way - the first account is Jesus farewell to the apostles as he returns to the Father. This fills the disciples with joy as they realize in this  Jesus' divinity: "And they worshipped him." (Lk 24: 52) The second account is a prompt to mission and a reminder that Jesus will return in glory: "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." (Acts 1: 11) The message is the same for us today. We should rejoice that Jesus Christ is indeed fully human and fully divine and that his mission of salvation has been accomplished through the resurrection. At the same time, we should be mindful of our own role in continuing that same mission. In other words, let us not stand staring into space longing for the Lord's return rather we should get on with sharing the Gospel with others as missionary disciples secure in the sure and certain hope that Jesus will return in due course to join us with himself for eternity: "And just as it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him." (Heb 9: 27-28)