The Ascension of the Lord (A)
Dear
brothers and sisters,
As we
celebrate today the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ to the right hand of the
Father, Holy Mother Church presents for us two principle articles of the Christian
faith: the divine authority of Christ and the Last Judgment. The two are, of
course, connected to each other and to today’s solemnity when the “Lord Jesus, the
King of glory, conqueror of sin and death, ascended to the highest heavens, as
the Angels gazed in wonder.”[1]
Today, he “mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;” the “great king over all the
earth” now “sits upon his holy throne” (Psalm 47:6; 47:3; 47:9).
One
might say the Lord returned to the Father in much the same way that he came to
the earth: quietly, unexpectedly, and without much fanfare. What is more, in Saint
Luke’s account of the Ascension, he “looks backward to its Old Testament
foreshadowings and to Jesus’ prophesied return at the end of time.”[2]
Because of the cloud upon which he ascended, we know that “everywhere creation
offers obedient service to its Creator. The stars indicated his birth; clouds
overshadowed him in his suffering, received him in his ascension, and they will
accompany him when he returns for the judgment.”[3]
The
cloud is an ancient image found repeatedly throughout the pages of the Old
Testament that reveals
the hiddenness
of God who, in his very hiddennes, is close to us and exercises his power for
us; who is always beyond our reach and yet always in our midst; who eludes our
every attempt to lay hold of him and manipulate him, but by that very fact
exercises a providential rule over us all.[4]
Is it any wonder, then, that the
Apostles simply stood there “looking intently at the sky as he was going,” for
in the mystery of the cloud the Lord Jesus revealed the fullness of his divine
power (Acts 1:10)? He made this explicitly clear when he said to his Apostles, “All
power in heaven and earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18). Having ascended to his heavenly throne, the
Father “put all things beneath [Jesus’] feet and gave him as head over all
things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all
things in every way” (Ephesians 1:22-23).
The Eleven were overcome with wonder and awe, with faith and hope, with a desire to be with their Lord, to follow him who said, “I am with you always (Matthew 28:20)” Is this not our desire as well? Do we not wish that we could have been present with the Apostles, to see with them the Risen Lord ascend to his glory? Do we not, too, wish to be with Christ the Lord? Is it any wonder, then, that they stood there gazing intently at the sky?
The Eleven were overcome with wonder and awe, with faith and hope, with a desire to be with their Lord, to follow him who said, “I am with you always (Matthew 28:20)” Is this not our desire as well? Do we not wish that we could have been present with the Apostles, to see with them the Risen Lord ascend to his glory? Do we not, too, wish to be with Christ the Lord? Is it any wonder, then, that they stood there gazing intently at the sky?
 |
The Ascension of Christ, historiated initial
‘C’, Italy, 15C
(State Library of Victoria, RARES 096 IL I) |
The medieval manuscripts perhaps
portray this best. They show the Apostles gathered together outside with a
cloud above them at the top of the image. From out of the bottom of the cloud
extend two feet with nail marks and sometimes the hem of a robe. Jesus has just
told them, “I am with you always” and then he goes up with the cloud. How were
they to make sense of this? Does his Ascension not contradict his words?
It is for this very reason that the Church reminds us today that Jesus “ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”[5] Moreover, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit active through the Apostles and their successors, the Lord Jesus is present to every person in every time and in every place, in a heretofore unimagined way; he is present to us all – not just to a few – in the Holy Eucharist. Today, then, with the Apostles, “we rejoice that Christ our Savior has taken his place at the right hand of the Father, because where he has gone, we hope to follow.”[6]
Here we come to the Last Judgment, for we know, as the angels announced, “this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). When he comes again, he will come to judge the living and the dead, to judge us according to the measure of our love; we will be judged on how closely our hearts resemble his most Sacred Heart. Those whose love is worthy will be brought into the presence of the Father, into what we call heaven, to dwell with him forever.
We cannot forget that at the moment of our deaths, we will each stand before the throne of God and face our particular and individual judgments, which will be made known at the Resurrection of the Dead. We will be judged both for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, all in accord with the double command of the love of God and the love of neighbor.
It is for this very reason that the Church reminds us today that Jesus “ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.”[5] Moreover, through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit active through the Apostles and their successors, the Lord Jesus is present to every person in every time and in every place, in a heretofore unimagined way; he is present to us all – not just to a few – in the Holy Eucharist. Today, then, with the Apostles, “we rejoice that Christ our Savior has taken his place at the right hand of the Father, because where he has gone, we hope to follow.”[6]
Here we come to the Last Judgment, for we know, as the angels announced, “this Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). When he comes again, he will come to judge the living and the dead, to judge us according to the measure of our love; we will be judged on how closely our hearts resemble his most Sacred Heart. Those whose love is worthy will be brought into the presence of the Father, into what we call heaven, to dwell with him forever.
We cannot forget that at the moment of our deaths, we will each stand before the throne of God and face our particular and individual judgments, which will be made known at the Resurrection of the Dead. We will be judged both for what we have done and for what we have failed to do, all in accord with the double command of the love of God and the love of neighbor.
The thought of being judged by
the Lord often inspires a certain fear in many people as they consider the
prospect of death and the way they have lived. But the image of the Last
Judgment “is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope… [I]t is an
image that evokes responsibility, an image, therefore, of that fear that … has
its place in love.”[7] When we
stand before the throne of God, justice and mercy will meet in the gaze of
Christ Jesus.
When we look at least upon his face, we will know his power and his judgment. As I have said before,
When we look at least upon his face, we will know his power and his judgment. As I have said before,
Before his gaze all
falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and
frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our
lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the
pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives becomes
evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us
through an undeniably painful transformation “as through fire” [I Corinthians
3:15]. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears
through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus
totally of God. In this way the interrelation between justice and grace also
becomes clear: the way we live our lives is not immaterial, but our defilement
does not stain us forever if we have at least continued to reach out towards
Christ, towards truth and towards love… At the moment of judgment we experience
and we absorb the overwhelming power of his love over all the evil in the world
and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.[8]
When we
stand before his face, we will know that his power is the power of love, of
love that is stronger even than death. The Seraphic Doctor tells us that Jesus
took his body with him “so that, seated at the right hand of Majesty, he might
show to the glorious face of his Father the scars of the wounds which he
suffered for us.”[9] This is
why the angels gazed on in wonder and why the Apostles stood there staring into
the sky. Jesus took his body with him so that we, too, might one day look upon
the signs of his love.
At the same time, since Jesus took his fleshly body with him when he ascended, it means that humanity
At the same time, since Jesus took his fleshly body with him when he ascended, it means that humanity
has entered into the
inner life of God in a new and hitherto unheard of way. It means that man has
found an everlasting place in God. Heaven is not a place beyond the stars, but
something much greater, something that requires far more audacity to assert:
Heaven means that man now has a place in God.[10]
Let us, then, pray with Saint Bonaventure
that,
Believing, hoping
and loving with all [our] heart, with [our] whole mind, and with [our] whole
strength, may [we] be carried to you, beloved Jesus, as to the goal of all
things, because you alone are sufficient, you along are good and pleasing to
those who seek you and love your name.[11]
Where he
has gone, may we soon quickly follow. Amen!
[1] Roman Missal, Preface: Ascension I.
[2]
William S. Kurz, Catholic Commentary on
Sacred Scripture: Acts of the Apostles (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker
Academic, 2013), 34.
[3]
Saint Bede the Venerable, Commentary on
the Acts of the Apostles, 1.9b. In Thomas C. Oden, et al, eds., Ancient
Christian Commentary on Scripture, New Testament Vol. V: Acts (Downers
Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press, 2006), 11.
[4]
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Dogma and Preaching, Matthew J. O’Connell,
trans. (Chicago, Illinois: Franciscan Herald Press, 1985), 62.
[5] Roman
Missal, Preface: Ascension I.
[6]
Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli Address, 21 May 2006.
[7] Ibid., Spe salvi, 44.
[8] Ibid.,
47.
[9]
Saint Bonaventure, The Tree of Life,
38. In Ewert Cousins, trans., The
Classics of Western Spirituality: Bonaventure: The Soul’s Journey into God,
The Tree of Life, The Life of St. Francis (Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press,
1978), 162.
[10]
Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Dogma and Preaching, 62-63.
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