The Book of the Holy Rosary: Part III, Chapter IV. The Ascension of Jesus into Heaven
The Holy Scripture Narrative
“And eating together with them, He commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but should wait for the promise of the Father, which you have heard (saith He) by My mouth. For John indeed baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. And leading them out to Bethany, He blessed them.
“They therefore who were come together, asked Him, saying: Lord, wilt Thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? But He said to them: It is not for you to know the times or moments which the Father hath put in His own power; but you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the uttermost part of the earth. And when He said these things, while they looked on, He was raised up; and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they were beholding Him going up to heaven, behold two men stood by them in white garments. Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come as you have seen Him going into heaven” (Acts i.)
“Brethren,” says St Augustine, “the last words of a parent about to go down into the grave are wont to be listened to with breathless attention, and the last words of the Lord Himself, who is about to ascend up to heaven, are not to be despised.”
“In the spirit of His might,” writes St Peter Damian, “Jesus, the Saviour, descending into hell, burst the brazen gates, and broke the iron bars (Cant. iii. 6; Ps. cvi. 16). At the acclamation of the angels crying out, ‘Lift up your gates, ye princes,’ the spirits that had fallen through pride answer with an ignorant disdain, ‘Who is this King of glory?’ Here are the beginnings of the one who said in his heart, ‘There is no God;’ ‘I know not the Lord, and I will not let Israel go.’ The angels of peace confidently answer, ‘The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle,’ as if they would have said, ‘strong’ to confound your strength, ‘mighty’ to destroy your might, ‘in battle,’ in that battle, to wit, in which single-handed He put to flight all the powers of the air. Returning again from the prison with the standard of victory, He raised again His human body. And on appearing to present to His Father the sheep which had been lost, He hears again the alternate chant of the angels, ‘Who is this King of glory?’ and the reply from their united choirs, ‘The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.’ Of a truth the Lord of hosts had wrought a mighty work by His resurrection, such as He had not done before, in the redemption of a slave, and in the making him a son in the place of a slave. But on the great and most illustrious day of the Ascension, when, in the sight of His disciples, He was taken up into heaven, that most august and venerable company came to meet the Redeemer, and the whole host of the angels, as well they that do His bidding as they that stand by the throne, came to meet the Son, and, filled with wonder at His Ascension, exclaimed, ‘Who is He that comes from Edom with dyed garments from Bosra, walking in the multitude of His strength?’ (Isa. lxiii. 1). For seeing the crimson stains of blood still upon Him, they wonder at His patience and at the cruelty of the Jews, who were not afraid to condemn the Son of God to the ignominy of the Cross, and they add, ‘walking in the multitude of His strength,’ that is, not merely in His strength, but in the multitude of His strength; for what strength can be greater than that which has redeemed a servant to place him for ever at the right hand of God” (Sermon on the Ascension of the Son and the Assumption of the Mother).
If such be the acclamations of joy with which the whole august company of the holy angels greeted the Ascension of their Lord in His human nature, what, it will naturally be asked, will be the corresponding sentiments of the company of believers upon earth. For the thought can escape no one that the gain of the holy angels in having henceforward the presence of Jesus, the High Priest who was crucified in Jerusalem, among them, is, in a certain sense, the loss of the company of believers, among whom He ceases to be, in the same manner as before, visibly present—the bright cloud having now received Him out of their sight. How is it that the loss of the visible presence of Jesus from the company of the faithful comes to be esteemed by them a glorious mystery? St Augustine shall give the answer:—“Attend, my brethren, to what St John says:—‘If you loved me you would rejoice because I say I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I; and because I have spoken these things sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth, it is expedient to you that I go away, for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come unto you; but if I go I will send Him unto you” (John xiv. 28, and xvi. 6).
“I speak somewhat plainly on account of those of us who are rather slow of understanding, and all who do understand I entreat to have patience. ‘If ye loved Me?’—what does this mean? ‘If ye loved Me ye would rejoice that I go to the Father.’ What else can ‘If ye loved Me’ mean except that Ye do not love Me? What is it, then, that you do love? Clearly the body which you see! For you are not willing that it should depart out of your sight. If ye loved Me? What is properly meant by Me? ‘In the beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,’ as St John says. If, therefore, you loved Me in the way in which all things were made by Me, you would rejoice that I go to the Father. Why? Because the Father is greater than I. Whilst ye continue to see Me on earth, the Father is greater than I. I will depart out of your sight; your mortal flesh, which I assumed on account of your being subject to death, shall be taken out of your sight. Ye shall begin not to see the clothing which I have taken through humility, for it shall be raised up to heaven, that you may learn from thence what you have to hope for.’ It was thus that He brought them to understand how Christ was the Word of God, very God of very God, by whom all things were made. For with this understanding they could not have been filled, except their love for His visible bodily presence had been taken away. And hence it was that He said to them, ‘If ye loved Me ye would rejoice because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.’ In this respect is He less than the Father, because He became man that He might espouse the Church to Himself, but as being God He is equal to the Father. Wherefore, away with the desires of the flesh. As if He had said to His apostles, ‘You are not willing to let Me go (just as a man is not disposed to let his friend go away from him, seeming as if he would say to him, ‘Stay awhile with us, for it does us good to see you’), still it is notwithstanding better for you that you should cease to see the outward form, and that you should begin to meditate upon the invisible Godhead.
Outwardly, then, I shall remove Myself away from you, but inwardly I shall fill you with Myself.’ For, we may ask, is it according to the flesh, and with His flesh, that Christ enters into the heart? Clearly no; it is according to His Godhead that He holds possession of the heart. According to the flesh He speaks to the heart through the eyes, and His admonitions are from without; but He Himself dwells within, in order that we may be inwardly converted and restored to life by Him, and thus be moulded and formed by Him, for He is the indwelling Pattern that God has made inherent in all things” (Sermon cclxiv.)
The Ascension of Jesus into heaven is thus a glorious mystery to the company of believers upon earth, notwithstanding that it is in point of fact His reception into the bright cloud which hides Him from their sight. For if we love Him, we shall, as He Himself says to us, rejoice that He is gone to His Father, for His Ascension is the proof that in the Godhead He is, with the Holy Spirit, the co-equal of the Father.
St Paul, speaking of the Mystery of the Ascension, says, “Wherefore He saith, Ascending up on high, He hath led captivity captive, and hath given gifts to men” (Eph. iv. 8, and Ps. lxvii. 19). The saying of Jesus Himself, above quoted, explains these words of St Paul: “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away the Paraclete will not come unto you, but if I go I will send Him unto you.” The mission of the Holy Ghost, which is the subject of the succeeding Mystery, follows from the Ascension of Jesus into heaven. He has not merely led captivity captive, as St Augustine says, and then cast off His captives. Mark the words: “He has given gifts to men.” Do thou, then, O believer! open thy bosom and receive the gift of thy happiness (Sermon cclxi.) It is, then, manifestly very expedient for the company of believers on earth that Jesus should have ascended, as we shall have occasion to see more at length in considering the next Mystery—the mission of the Holy Ghost, which has followed from His going to the Father. The Mystery of the Ascension possesses further essentially the character of glorious. “The form of a man, which Christ assumed to Himself,” says St Augustine, “was glorified on two separate occasions — the first when He rose again on the third day from the dead, and the second when He ascended into heaven in the sight of His disciples.” The glorification of Jesus was completed by His Resurrection and Ascension; for He rose again to give us a proof that the dead shall rise, and He ascended that He might be our Protector from above.” The Ascension of Jesus into heaven is also the joy and glory of the company of believers upon earth, because in it the nature of man is exalted above every creature. “God,” says the Apostle, “who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by His prophets, last of all in these days hath spoken to us by His Son, who, being the brightness of His glory, and the figure of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, having made purgation of sins, sitteth on the right hand of the Majesty on high, being made so much better than the angels, as He hath inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels,” continues St Paul, “said He at any time, Sit on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool? For He took not on Him the nature of the angels, but of the seed of Abraham” (Heb. i.)
Hence, the whole company of believers is daily saying in the profession of its faith, “He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father, from thence He shall come again to judge the living and the dead.”
“Call to mind the Psalm” (Ps. lvi. 6), says St Augustine, “to whom are these words said, ‘Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens?’ Of whom can this be said?—of God the Father? But God the Father was never humbled. ‘Be Thou exalted!’ Thou who wast shut up in the womb; Thou who wast fashioned in that which Thou hadst made; Thou who wast laid in a manger; Thou who wast fed at the breast; Thou who sustainedst the world, and wast yet carried about by Thy Mother; Thou whose greatness the aged Simeon acknowledged while he held Thee an infant in his arms; Thou whom Anna saw suckled at the breast and confessed Thy omnipotence; Thou who sufferedst hunger and thirst for our sakes; Thou who wast weary and enduredst all things for us;
Thou who wast subject to sleep, and yet never slumberedst in keeping watch over Israel; in a word, Thou whom the Jews bought but could not possess; Thou who wast seized, bound, scourged, crowned with thorns, suspended on the cross, pierced with a spear, wast dead and buried; be Thou exalted above the heavens, be Thou exalted because Thou art God. Thou that wast suspended upon the Cross, take Thy seat in the heavens.”
The Mystery of the Ascension is also full of consolation to the company of believers in their pilgrimage over the desert of this life. “In My Father’s house,” says Jesus, “there are many mansions; if not, I would have told you; behold I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also” (John xiv. 2). Jesus is not merely raised to glory from His humiliation, but, in His state of glory, He is mindful of all those who are on their pilgrimage to Him, and is preparing a place for them. “Wherefore it behoved Him,” says St Paul, “to be in all things like unto His brethren, that He might become a merciful and faithful High Priest before God” (Heb. ii. 17).
The Mystery of the Ascension, it should, however, also be remembered is full of the most striking warnings to the whole company of believers. “If the word spoken by angels,” reasons St Paul, “held good, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? which, having begun to be declared by the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him” (Heb. ii.) “Into the city whose light is the glory of God, and the Lamb the lamp thereof,” it is expressly written, “That there shall not enter into it anything that defileth, or that worketh abomination, or maketh a lie” (Apoc. xxi. 27). We cannot carry our vices, or our worldly desires, or anything else which is of this world, into the kingdom where Jesus now sits at the right hand of God. Therefore, as St Paul says, “Let us learn betimes to set our hearts only on the things above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God.”‸