HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN

 A REFLECTION FOR ASCENTIONTIDE

“It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord holy Father almighty, everlasting God:  through Christ our Lord.  Who, after his most glorious Resurrection, manifestly appeared to all his Apostles, and in their sight ascended up into heaven, to prepare a place for us; that where he is, thither we might also ascend, and reign with him in glory.”

Our Lord prepared himself for his public ministry by fasting in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights.  We follow his example and prepare ourselves for our Redemption through his Passion and Death, by observing the same fast of forty days and forty nights from Ash Wednesday until noon on Holy Saturday.  If we accept the traditional time of the Resurrection as 7:00am (dawn) on Easter Sunday, we can calculate there were forty hours from the time of his death at 3:00pm on Good Friday until his rising.  Just as God purged the world from its sins by the Great Flood of forty days and forty nights, another forty days and forty nights have now passed between Easter Sunday and Ascension Day, a period of rejoicing that the bonds of death have been broken and that mankind has been restored to grace.

But now this time of joy is coming to an end, and we approach the bittersweet glory of our Lord’s Ascension into heaven.  For mankind undoubtedly there is an element of sadness at this important event:  the Son of God had walked in our midst for thirty-year years, teaching, healing, and sanctifying.  These years were surely the highlight of human history.  But now he warns his Apostles that he must leave them, and it seems that our time of living in the real presence of our Saviour must be over.  And yet, there is a promise of comfort in our Lord’s words: “A little while, and ye shall not see me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see me, because I go to the Father.” Naturally, the Apostles were curious to know what this meant and so they questioned him further.  And without giving them any specific explanation, our Lord repeated his message that his departure should not be the cause of despair: “Ye shall weep and lament… but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." 

We could interpret our Lord’s words solely in the light of his future Second Coming.  After all, when our Lord disappeared into the clouds, two Angels appeared to the Apostles to confirm this explanation: “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.”  And yet our Lord seems to be alluding to something more than this, and that God’s presence would return to mankind even before the world’s end.  “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”[1]  We know of course that soon after his Ascension into heaven, the Saviour would send down the Holy Ghost at Pentecost:  “I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth.” But it is not a stretch to apply our Lord’s words of comfort not only to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, but also to his Real Presence hidden under the form of bread in the Holy Eucharist, “whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.”