In the early 1970’s, a movie was
released called “The Poseidon Adventure.”
A cruise had capsized, and Gene Hackman’s character is attempting to
take approximately eight or so people to the stern of the ship because he
ascertained that that would be the best place for rescue. Although I did not care for his character
that much—I felt his character was arrogant and obnoxious at times—he did
portray, in a sense, a type of Christ.
The stern of the ship was the only part of the ship out of the water;
therefore, they were ascending to where the propellers were, although they did
not know with certainty that they would be rescued. Ascension Sunday is the day the Church
celebrates Jesus’ Ascension to the Father.
In the past, I never understood how important Christ’s Ascension is. I knew it was important, but it never had an
impact upon me. In the back of my mind,
I felt that it would have been better if He remained on earth. Of course, God knows better, knows what is
best for us. Therefore, I want to touch
upon some of the importance of the Ascension.
Unlike the movie, Christ’s Ascension
is a guarantee that humanity is in the presence of God; and, because Jesus is
the Head of the Church, we know that those who the Church is comprised of will
also be in His presence. Although due to
the presence of sin in us it causes many to fear dying, we have the
Hope—because of our desire to be in the image of Christ and our working towards
that endeavor—and faith that we are promised that destination.
Paragraph 661 of the Catechism states:
“This final stage (the Ascension) stays closely linked to the first, that is,
to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who ‘came from the Father’ can
return to the Father: Christ Jesus (cf. Jn 16:28). ‘No one has ascended into heaven but he who
descended from heaven, the Son of man” (cf. Eph 4:8-10). Left to its own natural powers, humanity does
not have access to the ‘Father’s house,’ to God’s life and happiness (Jn 14:2).
Only Christ can open to man such
access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where
he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.”
The Incarnation means so much. To think that the Son of God—God—would
condescend to become man in order that He could bare His back to His creatures
so that they could scourge Him, mock Him, spit upon Him, and crucify Him
astounds me. What love God must have for
us that He would humble Himself to that extend.
How many times have I gotten irate just because I felt someone was
disrespectful of me? Since God loves all
of humanity that much, who am I to hate what He loves? Lord, have mercy; help me. Left to its own
natural powers humanity cannot love that much; therefore, it “does not have
access to the ‘Father’s house,’ to God’s life and happiness.” Getting back on topic…
Paragraph 662 of
the Catechism tells us that “the lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and
announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and
eternal Covenant, ‘entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands … but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf’ (He
9:24). There Christ permanently exercises his
priesthood, for he ‘always lives to make intercession’ for ‘those who draw near
to God through him’ (He 7:25). As ‘high
priest of the good things to come’ he is the center and the principal actor of
the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven” (He 9:11; cf. Rev 4:6-11).
First
of all, in order to increase our faith, which is of things unseen. Hence our
Lord said (Jn 16) that the Holy Ghost shall come and convince the world … of justice (through the Church), that is, of
the justice of those that believe, as
Augustine says (Tract. xcv. super Joan.): For even to put the faithful beside the unbeliever is to put the
unbeliever to shame; wherefore He goes on to say (10): ‘Because I go to the Father; and you shall see Me no longer’: —For ‘blessed are they that see not, yet
believe.’ Hence it is of our justice that the world is reproved: because ‘you
will believe in Me Whom you shall not see.’
Secondly, to uplift our hope: hence He says (Jn 14:3): If I shall go and prepare a place for you, I
will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am, you also may be.
For by placing in heaven the human
nature which He assumed, Christ gave us the hope of going there; since wheresoever the body shall be, there shall
the eagles also be gathered together, as is written in Mt. 24:28. Hence it is written likewise (Mic. 2:13): He shall go up that shall open the way
before them. Thirdly, in order to
direct the fervor of our charity to heavenly things. Hence the Apostle says
(Col. 3:1-2): Seek the things that are
above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the things
that are upon the earth: for as is said (Mt. 6:21): Where your treasure is, there is your heart also. And since the Holy Ghost is love-drawing us up
to heavenly things, therefore our Lord said to His disciples (Jn 16:7): It is expedient to you that I go for, if I
go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but, if I go, I will send Him to
you. On which words Augustine says (Tract. xciv. super Joan.): You cannot
receive the Spirit so long as you persist in knowing Christ according to the
flesh. But when Christ withdrew in body,
not only the Holy Ghost but both Father and Son were present with them
spiritually.[2]
This Son of God—God—the One who came
to bare His back to His creatures, ascends to the Father in order to intercede
for the same. What a God we serve!
From Paragraphs 665-667, we learn: “Christ’s
ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’ humanity into God’s heavenly
domain, whence he will come again (cf. Acts 1:11); this humanity in the
meantime hides him from the eyes of men (cf. Col 3:3). Jesus Christ, the
head of the Church, precedes us into the Father’s glorious kingdom so that we,
the members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being with him forever. Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of
heaven once and for all, intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who
assures us of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”[3]
Because we are speaking of Jesus
ascending into heaven, this begs another question: Where is heaven? God is spirit, so where is “heaven”? Paragraph 2794-2796 explains: “This biblical
expression does not mean a place (‘space’), but a way of being; it does not
mean that God is distant, but majestic. Our Father is not ‘elsewhere:” he transcends
everything we can conceive of his holiness. It is precisely because he is thrice-holy that
he is so close to the humble and contrite heart. ‘Our Father who art in heaven’ is rightly
understood to mean that God is in the hearts of the just, as in his holy
temple. At the same time, it means that
those who pray should desire the one they invoke to dwell in them (St.
Augustine, De serm. Dom. in monte 2,
5, 18: PL 34, 1277). ‘Heaven’ could also
be those who bear the image of the heavenly world, and in whom God dwells and
tarries (St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech.
myst. 5:11: PG 33, 1117). The symbol
of the heavens refers us back to the mystery of the covenant we are living when
we pray to our Father. He is in heaven, his dwelling place; the Father’s house
is our homeland. Sin has exiled us from
the land of the covenant (cf. Ge 3), but conversion of heart enables us to
return to the Father, to heaven (Jer 3:19–4:1a; Lk 15:18, 21). In Christ, then, heaven and earth are
reconciled (Cf. Isa 45:8; Ps 85:12), for the Son alone ‘descended from heaven’
and causes us to ascend there with him, by his Cross, Resurrection, and
Ascension (Jn 3:13; 12:32; 14:2–3; 16:28; 20:17; Eph 4:9–10; Heb 1:3;
2:13). When the Church prays ‘our Father
who art in heaven,’ she is professing that we are the People of God, already
seated ‘with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ and ‘hidden with
Christ in God’ (Eph 2:6; Col 3:3); yet at the same time, ‘here indeed we groan,
and long to put on our heavenly dwelling’ (2 Cor 5:2; cf. Phil 3:20; Heb 13:14).
[Christians] are in the flesh, but do
not live according to the flesh. They spend their lives on earth, but are
citizens of heaven.” This is because of
Baptism, where we are baptized into Christ and He in us. If we are in Him, we are sharing His nature. If we are sharing His nature, then we desire
that God’s will be our will and that we live a life that coincides with Christ,
in Whom we dwell. Because the Spirit of
Christ dwells in us, our souls groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.
In Paragraph 1067, the Church
teaches us: “…It was from the side of Christ as he slept the sleep of death
upon the cross that there came forth ‘the wondrous sacrament of the whole
Church.’ (cf. St. Augustine, En. in
Ps. 138, 2: PL 37, 1784–1785). For
this reason, the Church celebrates in the liturgy above all the Paschal mystery
by which Christ accomplished the work of our salvation.)
There is much more that the Church
teaches us regarding this, but it would be too extensive to put it here. To put it simply, Jesus is Man, and He is
with the Father. He is also Head of the
Church; and, where the Head goes, the Body must follow. An important thing to keep in mind: Because
the Head is holy, the Body must also be holy.
If the Head lived a holy life, the Body must live a holy life. It is not just about getting to heaven; it is
about becoming the image of the Head. It
is then that we are in heaven.
In one of his sermons on the
Ascension, St. Leo the Great tells us that Christ’s Ascension has given us
greater privileges and joys than the devil had taken from us: “…Truly great and
unspeakable was their (the Apostles and the other disciples present at the
Ascension) cause for joy when, in the sight of the holy multitude, above the
dignity of all heavenly creatures, the Nature of mankind went up, to pass above
the angels’ ranks and to rise beyond the archangels’ heights, and to have Its
uplifting limited by no elevation until, received to sit with the Eternal
Father, It should be associated on the throne with His glory, to Whose Nature
It was united in the Son. Since then,
Christ’s Ascension is our uplifting, and the hope of the Body is raised. Where the glory of the Head has gone before,
let us exult, dearly-beloved, with worthy joy and delight in the loyal paying
of thanks. For, today, not only are we
confirmed as possessors of paradise, but have also in Christ penetrated the
heights of heaven, and have gained still greater things through Christ’s
unspeakable grace than we had lost through the devil’s malice. For us, whom our virulent enemy had driven out
from the bliss of our first abode, the Son of God has made members of Himself
and placed at the right hand of the Father, with Whom He lives and reigns in
the unity of the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever.”[4]
From St. Augustine, we learn: “All
the events, then--of Christ’s crucifixion, of His burial, of His resurrection
the third day, of His ascension into heaven, of His sitting down at the right
hand of the Father--were so ordered that the life which the Christian leads
here might be modeled upon them, not merely in a mystical sense, but in
reality. For, in reference to His
crucifixion it is said: ‘They that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh, with
the affections and lusts’ (Gal 5:24). And
in reference to His burial: ‘We are buried with Him by baptism into death’ (Ro
6:4). In reference to His resurrection:
‘That, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life’ (Ro 6:5). And, in reference to His ascension into heaven
and sitting down at the right hand of the Father: ‘If you then be risen with
Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand
of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth. For you
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God’ (Col 3:1-3).”[5]
Lactanius, a fourth century
Christian apologist, in his The Epitome of the Divine Institutes, connecting
the Ascension with a prophecy of Daniel, writes: “…at length, on the fortieth
day, He returned to His Father, being carried up into a cloud. The prophet
Daniel had long before shown this, saying, ‘I saw in the night vision, and,
behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
Ancient of days; and they who stood beside Him brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him a kingdom, and glory,
and dominion, and all people, tribes, and languages shall serve Him; and His
power is an everlasting one, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that
which shall not be destroyed.’ Also
David in the [110th] Psalm: ‘The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at
my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool’.” Although it may often appear that Christ is
not reigning, this reassures us that He is.
St. Leo tells us that the Ascension
renders our faith more excellent and stronger: “As therefore, at the Easter
commemoration, the Lord’s Resurrection was the cause of our rejoicing, so the
subject of our present gladness is His Ascension, as we commemorate and duly
venerate that day on which the Nature of our humility in Christ was raised
above all the host of heaven, over all the ranks of angels, beyond the height
of all powers, to sit with God the Father. On which Providential order of
events we are founded and built up, that God’s Grace might become more
wondrous, when, notwithstanding the removal from men’s sight of what was
rightly felt to command their awe, faith did not fail, hope did not waver, love
did not grow cold. For it is the
strength of great minds and the light of firmly-faithful souls unhesitatingly
to believe what is not seen with the bodily sight, and there to fix one’s
affections where you cannot direct your gaze. And from what source should this
godliness spring up in our hearts or how should a man be justified by faith if
our salvation rested on those things only which lie beneath our eyes? Hence, our Lord said to him who seemed to
doubt of Christ’s Resurrection, until he had tested by sight and touch the
traces of His Passion in His very flesh, “Because you have seen Me, you have
believed; blessed are they who have not seen and yet have believed.’ In order, therefore … that we may be capable
of this blessedness, when all things were fulfilled which concerned the Gospel
preaching and the mysteries of the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the
fortieth day after the Resurrection in the presence of the disciples, was
raised into heaven, and terminated His presence with us in the body, to abide
on the Father’s right hand until the times divinely fore-ordained for
multiplying the sons of the Church are accomplished, and He comes to judge the
living and the dead in the same flesh in which He ascended. And so that which till then was visible of our
Redeemer was changed into a sacramental presence (the Eucharist) that faith
might be more excellent and stronger, sight gave way to doctrine, the authority
of which was to be accepted by believing hearts enlightened with rays from
above.”[6]
There is so much more to the
Ascension, that this doesn’t even wipe the dust off. I just hope that it helps a little. I want to conclude with an excerpt from a
daily motivation reading:
“The Ascension of Christ speaks to
us of greatness. It immunizes us against the false moralism that regards
mankind as beneath contempt. It teaches us reverence and restores to us the joy
of being human. When we reflect on all this, the thought automatically presents
itself that the Ascension of Christ is the canonization of a world view that
has become unpopular. It is concerned with the quality of being human, not with
the strata of the universe. It is concerned with God and the human race, with
the essential worth of the human being, not with the stars in their place. This
insight should not tempt us, however, to consider Christianity as being
entirely dissociated from the world or to turn faith into a simple matter of
sentiment. Beyond a doubt there exists a proper and meaningful relationship
between faith and the whole created world, to which, incidentally, the
discarded view of the world can be a guide. It is not easy to explain this
because our power of imagination has been altered by our technological use of
the world. It will help us perhaps if we recall the classic depiction of
Christ’s Ascension as it is represented in Byzantine icons. A row of olive
trees silhouetted along the horizon that separates heaven from earth makes it
quite clear that the Ascension took place from the Mount of Olives. They are
thus a direct reminder of the night of Gethsemane: the place that witnessed
Christ’s anguish becomes the place that gives birth to our confidence. The
reinstatement of mankind is accomplished precisely in that place where the
drama and humiliation of death were overcome by Christ’s interior agony. It is
there that the true ascent of the human race begins.”[7]
May Ascension Sunday strengthen our
faith and encourage us on our journey to the Fatherland.
[1] Leo
the Great, Leo the Great, Gregory the
Great, 1895, 12a, 137.
[3]
Catholic Church, Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 2nd Ed., (Washington, DC: United States
Catholic Conference, 2000), 173–174.
[4] Leo
the Great, Leo the Great, Gregory the
Great, 1895, 12a, 187.
[5]
Augustine of Hippo, St. Augustin: On the
Holy Trinity, Doctrinal Treatises, Moral Treatises, 1887, 3, 254–255.
[6] Leo
the Great, Leo the Great, Gregory the
Great, 1895, 12a, 188.
[7]
Joseph Ratzinger, Co-Workers of the
Truth: Meditations for Every Day of the Year, ed. Irene Grassl,
(San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1992), 151.
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