He Ascended Into Heaven

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.”  (Mark 16:19)

 
“He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”   --- The Nicene Creed

 
“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.”  The Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 666

The Ascension of Our Lord into Heaven is celebrated either on the fortieth day (Thursday) after Easter Sunday or on the Sunday that follows the fortieth day.  The Ascension is the subject of the Second Glorious Mystery and is recounted in St. Mark’s Gospel (16:19), St. Luke’s Gospel (24:50-53), and Acts of the Apostles (1:6-12).  

 
The Ascension of Our Lord is a promise and a prediction.  Jesus will lead us to Heaven if we follow him.  

 
“In Christ ascended into Heaven, the human being has entered into intimacy with God in a new and unheard-of way; man henceforth finds room in God for ever,” said Pope Benedict XVI in his Homily for the Feast of the Ascension in May 2009.

The Ascension of Our Lord brings to mind an earlier episode in Jesus’s life and another Mystery of the Rosary, the Finding in the Temple (Fifth Joyful Mystery).  When St. Joseph and Our Blessed Mother finally find young Jesus in the Temple, he says:  “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?”  (Luke 2:49).   After completing his Earthly mission, Jesus must be in his Father’s house in Heaven.  

 
The Ascension of Our Lord also brings to mind another episode in Jesus’s life, his Discourse at the Last Supper.   To reassure them, Jesus tells his apostles:  “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You have faith in God; have faith also in me.  In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be”  (John 14:1-3).  Later on, Jesus tells his apostles, “I came from the Father and have come into the world. Now I am leaving the world and going back to the Father” (John 16:28).   

 
Jesus also predicts his Ascension to others as well.  After being betrayed and arrested, Jesus taken before the Sanhedrin.  Under questioning by the High Priest, Jesus makes a prediction about his Ascension.   “Jesus said to him in reply, “You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven’”  (Matthew 26:64).   

The Second Glorious Mystery is the fulfillment of Jesus’s earlier predictions about his Ascension.  It is also a prediction of his future return.  After Jesus ascends into Heaven, two angels appear to the astonished apostles and make one of the most memorable statements in Sacred Scripture:  “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 1:11).  

 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church offers further explanation about Jesus’s Return.  In paragraph 681, The Catechism states:  “On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history.”  

Jesus also predicts his Triumphant Return.  At the Last Supper, he tells his apostles, “And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming upon the clouds of heaven with power and great glory”  (Matthew 24:30).  

 
At his Ascension, Jesus ascends into Heaven but he is not gone from his Church.  He has not left his Apostles as spiritual orphans cast out to carry on his ministry without guidance, direction or assistance.  Ten days later, he sends the Holy Spirit down upon the Apostles and the Blessed Mary Ever Virgin to empower them in continuing his mission on Earth.  

St. Augustine tells us:  “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”  (Sermo de Ascensione Domini) https://www.vatican.va/spirit/documents/spirit_20010525_agostino_en.html  

 
Jesus is taken up to Heaven but he is not taken from us.  He is with us in the Most Blessed Sacrament.  He is with us in the Holy Spirit.  As he tells us in St. Matthew’s Gospel “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (28:20).