Christ the Cornerstone

Christ, ascended to the Father, remains close to us

One of the high points in our observance of the Easter season is the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. Here in our archdiocese, as in most dioceses through the United States, we will celebrate this great feast on Sunday, May 16.

The Lord’s ascension into heaven is reported in Sunday’s first reading (Acts 1:1-11): “When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight. While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going, suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them. They said, ‘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’ ” (Acts 1:9-11).

As this citation from sacred Scripture makes clear, the disciples were not equipped to handle the Lord’s departure from them in this way. They feared that they were once again being left alone to face a world that was hostile to Jesus and to them, and they were effectively paralyzed—gazing at the sky. The two angels (men dressed in white garments who suddenly stood beside them) rebuked them by saying that Jesus would “return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11).

This is one more example of the “both/and principle” that is so prevalent in Catholic theology. The Lord’s ascension into heaven is both a going and a coming. It is both a returning to the Father’s right hand, and a pledge to remain close to us always.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI offers the following reflection on the Lord’s ascension in his book Jesus of Nazareth (Part Two, Epilogue):

The departing Jesus does not make his way to some distant star. He enters into communion of power and life with the living God, into God’s dominion over space. Hence he has not “gone away,” but now and forever by God’s own power he is present with us and for us.

“Heaven” is not a geographic location. It is a communion, the state of being united with God and with all the angels and saints who share in the divine life, the beatific vision. When we say that Jesus “ascended,” we use a spatial image to describe a transcendental mystery, something that is beyond the limits of space and time. Jesus did not go away. He came closer. He is both seated at God’s right hand, and with us here and now by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Gospel reading for the Solemnity of the Lord’s Ascension (Mk 16:15-20) makes it very clear that even after he was “taken up to heaven and seated at the right hand of God” (Mk 16:19), he collaborated with his disciples, working with them and confirming their ministry “through accompanying signs”

(Mk 16:20). Far from abandoning them (or us), Jesus is really present now and always in word, sacrament and service to all members of God’s family. Once again, Pope Benedict affirms that “ascension does not mean departure into a remote region of the cosmos but, rather, the continuing closeness that the disciples experience so strongly that it becomes a source of lasting joy.”

Pope Francis has repeatedly said that “closeness” and “accompaniment” lead to the joy of the risen Christ. If we walk with Jesus, recognizing him in the faces of all our sisters and brothers, especially the poor and marginalized, we will find happiness beyond our hearts’ expectations. The Lord does not abandon us by his ascension into heaven. He remains with us—in powerful new ways—to accompany us in the joys and sorrows of our individual and communal journey to our heavenly home.

In the second reading for the Ascension (Eph 1:17-23), St. Paul prays:

“May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call, what are the riches of glory in his inheritance among the holy ones, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him 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” (Eph 1:18-21).

Jesus is both far above us and closer to us than we can possibly imagine. May our hearts be enlightened and filled with joy at the real presence of the risen Lord in word, sacrament and service to all. †