Pastor’s Corner 01.06.2025
Jesus’ Ascension is our connection to heaven
This Sunday we celebrate the solemnity of our Lord’s Ascension, which took place forty days after his Resurrection of Jesus. We recount with joy the day when Christ completed his earthly mission and returned to the Father took His place at the right hand of the heavenly Father. Time moves fast, it seems we just began our Paschal celebrations and now this pivotal liturgical season is almost drawing to a close.
Christ completed the Father’s work on earth as a mission of obedience to the will of God. Its purpose was and is to bring eternal life to every human being. We may ask: how do I feel about Christ’s obedience unto death, how does it touch me, and what role do I play in the mystery being celebrated on Ascension of the Lord?
Each Sunday we profess through the Creed, "He ascended into Heaven." Christ’s Ascension was the culmination of God’s Divine plan for Christ Jesus – his return to his Father with his “Mission Accomplished." Ascension is the grand finale of all Jesus’ words and works done for us and for our salvation. It is a culmination, but not the conclusion. As Jesus is now with God in glory, so Jesus is with us now in Spirit: "Lo, I am with you always." The feast of the Ascension celebrates one aspect of the Resurrection, namely Jesus’ exaltation. Jesus did not wait 40 days to be glorified at God’s right hand. That had already happened at his Resurrection. The focus of this feast is the Heavenly reign of Christ. The Lord is now "seated at the right hand of the Father" as we profess in the Nicene Creed, meaning He alone is in control of the continuing plan of salvation through the Holy Spirit, unrestricted by time, space or culture. Thus, in the Paschal Mystery, Jesus' passion, death, Resurrection, Ascension and the sending of the Holy Spirit form one unbroken reality which is to be understood by Faith. The Ascension means that Jesus, His salvific suffering for our Salvation completed, is with his Father in glory. Being seated at the right hand of the Father is the fulfillment of “the prophet Daniel’s vision concerning the Son of Man: ‘To him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed’” (CCC #664).
I wish us all a meaningful feast of the Ascension of our Lord!