2 June 2019 - to the throne of heaven

Today's Readings (for the Ascension)

(Audio)

God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy;
the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.

We witness Jesus ascending. Let us add our shouts of joy. Let us our own music join the trumpet blasts.

As he blessed them he parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.

The Ascension is something that we may not understand immediately. It seems as though a withdrawal on the part of Jesus is not something to celebrate. But for the disciples, even before they have the gift of the Holy Spirit, and even before they have a complete understanding, it is a cause to rejoice.

They did him homage
and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
and they were continually in the temple praising God.

In the Ascension the victory of Christ is made explicit. It is the great homecoming after the hard fought battle against the enemies of sin and death. It is preparation for the sending of the Spirit.

in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.

In the Ascension itself we also receive the promise of the second coming.

"Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
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."

The full awesomeness is the Ascension is revealed once Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit from the Father on Pentecost. Now we see the truth of the promise he made when he was lifted up that he would be with us always even unto the end of the age (see Matthew 28:20). The Father seated him "im at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come." Yet he is not distant from us because in Christ we have been "raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places" (see Ephesians 2:6).

Because the head ascends, united to a human nature, the body is now also able to enter heaven in our union of love with him. As Augustine writes:

While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

This is our great hope today. It changes everything. If we allow Jesus to renew our minds, the earthly reality of the liturgy will grow transparent to the heavenly reality, into which we ourselves are brought by the ascending King of heaven.