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This Sunday is the Feast of the Ascension (transferred from Thursday to Sunday in our Diocese and in many others). We profess that the Risen Christ ascended into heaven after his Resurrection. What is the significance of this for Christ Jesus and for us, his Church which is united to him?
First, the Risen Christ takes his transformed and Risen human nature, body and soul, into the dimension (so to speak) of Heaven. Heaven transcends space and time. It is neither "up" nor "down," and it is not a "location" as we think of it but rather like another dimension, "the invisible world."
Pope Francis says:
"The Lord’s Ascension means that Christ has not gone far away from us, but that now, thanks to the fact that he is with the Father, he is close to each one of us forever."
"He is no longer in a specific place in the world as he was before the Ascension. He is now in the lordship of God, present in every space and time, close to each one of us." (General Audience, Wednesday, 17 April 2013)
If Christ had remained only in our dimension, this visible world, he could not have been Lord of both heaven and earth in his humanity. He is already the "Son of God from Heaven," as the Second Person of the Trinity; through his Resurrection and Ascension he is now also "the Man of Heaven." As the Catechism says, "The Father's power ‘raised up’ Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son's humanity, including his body, into the Trinity." (#648). Our human nature cannot be raised up in dignity and glory any higher than this!
When Jesus ascends into heaven, he enters heaven as our Great High Priest. In the Jewish worship offered in the Temple, the High Priest would enter annually into the inner sanctum, the Holy of Holies, on the Day of Atonement to offer the blood sacrifice of animals for the sins of the People. The author of the Letter to the Hebrews compares Jesus’ entry into heaven to this entry of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies. The Ascended Christ brings his own Sacrifice on the Cross for our sins before God and opens the way for us to follow him to heaven. (See Hebrews 4:14; 9:11; 10:19,20)
In heaven Christ is our Priest. He presides over the Heavenly Liturgy (worship) which includes the angels and saints and all the blessed of heaven. As Priest he offers his One Sacrifice, once offered on the Cross, i.e. himself in his Body and Blood. The Catechism (#1187) says about this Heavenly Liturgy:
"The liturgy is the work of the whole Christ, head and body. Our high priest celebrates it unceasingly in the heavenly liturgy, with the holy Mother of God, the apostles, all the saints, and the multitude of those who have already entered the kingdom."
Christ also makes intercession for us in heaven. (See Hebrews 7:25) This is why at our Sunday Mass, at the time of the Intercessions, we say we are joining our Intercessions with those of Christ.
When we celebrate our Eucharist on earth, we spiritually ascend to heaven, to participate by faith in the Heavenly Liturgy with Christ. I have learned a great deal about this "ascension in the liturgy" from an Orthodox Priest and Liturgical scholar, Fr. Alexander Schmemann. He writes:
"But the liturgy of the Church is always...a lifting up, an ascension. The Church fulfills itself in heaven in that new aeon which Christ has inaugurated in His death, resurrection and ascension, and which was given to the Church on the day of Pentecost as its life..." (For the Life of the World, p.42)
The U.S. Bishops say much the same thing about Christ’s Presence in the Eucharist:
"Christ does not have to leave where he is in heaven to be with us. Rather, we partake of the heavenly liturgy where Christ eternally intercedes for us and presents his sacrifice to the Father and where the angels and saints constantly glorify God and give thanks for all his gifts." ( "The Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Eucharist: Basic Questions and Answers," USCCB, June 2001)
(The above section on the Heavenly Liturgy is taken from my former blog "Father’s Wrings & Weblog," from the entry "The Eucharist: Door to Heaven." For the entire entry see HERE)
