The Feast of the Ascension
Sunday, May 24th, 2020
The theme of today’s Sunday Mass is probably about the most obvious reality of Christianity that even non-Christians would agree on: whatever we might say about Jesus - he is not here! Walking around the earth in any case. Nor is his tomb full of decaying bones, or of reliquaries filled with his bones and flesh. No, definitely: Jesus is not here.
Our problem begins when we start considering this a disadvantage. Surely Jesus would have been much better off rising from the dead - and then sticking around for a few millennia: at least until our time, so we too could see what the apostles saw, not to mention perhaps have avoided a war or two, had universal peace, the prevention of sickness etc etc. And certainly everyone would have been Christian.
The trouble is of course if Jesus had done so none of these things would have happened. For certainly these ideas show a great overestimation of the reasonableness and self-control people might suddenly develop if Jesus was around like he was in the time of the apostles. Already now we are Christian - and yet so often we still act unreasonably, nastily: we are hardly recognisable as Christians sometimes. Even when Jesus was around it was the same. His very disciples gave demonstrated cases of squabbling, selfishness, arrogance, distrust - and blanket cowardice. As it is these very things which cause wars and other troubles - no I don’t really think Jesus sticking around would have made a difference at all. Don’t forget: he was not followed by most, and was publicly humiliated and executed by some. So that plan would have been a definite failure. And it seems that God agrees. For Jesus didn’t stick around did he? He ascended to the Father.
It's good to be clear about what that means. It doesn’t mean the spirit of Jesus went to the Father. Nor does it mean Jesus abandoned us. As the Catechism makes clear in numbers 665-667: “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).” In other words, in his Ascension the Risen Jesus goes body and soul up to heaven.
Second: “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 for ever.” From the day of the Ascension, the Church is present in heaven with God the Father - specifically, the head of the Church. Baptised into him now, we already have a certain spiritual presence at the right hand of the Father. And where the head has gone, so we the body will follow - while united with him.
And finally: “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.” Having returned to the Father, Jesus brings all his concern for us to the Father, and intercedes for our every concern as the perfect High Priest with the perfect sacrifice. This is why every prayer of Jesus is heard, and why he can do so many extraordinary things for us, and those people we bring him.
For that’s our end of the bargain. Not just to stick with him. But out of compassion to bring to him all these others around us, who aren’t united to Christ.
