Because of the ascension of Jesus in His human nature, man now has a place in God Himself

The Solemnity of the Ascension Sunday May 20th, 2012

Out of all the Major Feast days that we celebrated throughout the year, today’s feast is probably the most misunderstood. Many misunderstand this feast day as the day that Jesus Christ left earth and ascended to heaven and so we are waiting around for Him to come back some day at the end of the world. Still others reject the idea of a three storied universe consisting of hell, earth and Heaven and so they reject the idea of our Lord ascending in a heaven above the clouds; after all we have been above the clouds and there isn’t a heaven there.

In order to clarify these misunderstandings we have to try to understand what in biblical language “lifted up” or “taken up” into heaven means, even though we can never totally grasp it meaning on this earth. In the Old Testament, To be lifted up, or taken up has to do with enthronement of a King. This surely helps us in our understanding. Jesus’ being lifted up or taken up as to do with His enthronement as the King of kings. The Father brings Jesus to himself; but not as a kind of journey into the sky, but by exalting Jesus in His human nature and giving Him kingship over all the earth. Jesus, the crucified and risen man is now truly Lord over all God’s creation. Surely as the second Person of the Blessed Trinity Jesus was always exalted, but now He is exalted as well in His human nature as a man.

But what about the cloud? The gospel mentions a cloud takes Him from sight. The cloud doesn’t mean a cumulus nimbus or some other type of cloud but is here actually a sign of God’s closeness to his people. When the Israelites left Egypt the sign of God’s closeness to them, his protection over them was the pillar of cloud that lead them through the desert; the cloud descended over the meeting tent and upon Mount Sinai again signify God was “closed” to His people, actually among them.

The cloud then means as well that Jesus is still with His people but at the same time his majesty and power is veiled from us; in other words, we cannot bring Him down to our level and make Him fit our ideas, we can’t manipulate Jesus, God. Jesus is still very close to us, closer to us than we are to ourselves, but yet as God, He remains beyond our reach. He must come to us, to our level and lift us up, we cannot in our pride lift ourselves to His level or ascend to Him.

By the way, this is why in the Sacred Liturgy we must return to the use of veils when dealing with the worship of God and His mysteries, especially the mystery of His true presence among us. Veils can come in many forms; like a chalice veil, or the veil of language, such as Latin or with words said in a whisper…some words are too holy to be said aloud. It’s actually good then that we don’t understand every word of the Mass, because we can never understand the Mystery of the Mass totally. The veil can also be the position of the priest, such as when the priest offers Mass standing in the “ad orientem, ad Deum” position; standing toward God and not facing the people, but instead facing God because he, the priest, is speaking to the face of God on behalf of the people.

Veils, like the cloud that took Jesus from sight, remind us that we can’t pull God down to our level of understanding, but that we must depend on Him to elevate our understanding of Him; they remind us that we can never totally grasp God, and we can never totally grasp the mystery of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass or the Holy Eucharist. The veil prevents us from profaning the Mysteries of God by looking upon them with secular eyes, that is looking at them and treating them as ordinary realities instead of sacred realities…The veil reminds us that God remains beyond our “sight” and so cannot be manipulated by us; He is the Creator and we are His creatures and we must approach Him with Holy fear, with our “sandals removed.” Again this applies in special way with regards to the Holy Mass…We must not try to bring the Sacred Liturgy down to our level, we must let it raise up us to the level of God. Isn’t this what happened so many times to the Sacred Liturgy after Vatican II (and is still happening); we tried to bring the Liturgy down to our level; we removed the veils, not just the chalice veil but the veils such as the Latin, the veil of silence and of lower tone of voice, the veil of the position of the priest, and even the veil which allowed only consecrated hands to touch the Holy Eucharist and the Sacred Vessels and enter the Sacred space of the sanctuary… in all of this, we tried to bring God and the worship of Him down to our level, instead of allowing God lift us up by worshiping Him in the Sacred Liturgy according to His dictates.

Back to the Ascension. So what is then the real meaning of Christ’s ascension into heaven? The ascension means and points to the truth that in Christ, all of human nature, the human nature that we all share, has through Christ, entered into the inner life of God in a way it never had before, in a way it could never have before. By Christ’s ascension, Man has now found an everlasting place in God. In other words, heaven is not a place somewhere above the clouds or at the edge of the universe, but it is something much greater…heaven means that because of the ascension of Jesus in His human nature, man now has a place in God Himself; heaven is to be one with God, sharing in His Divine Life.

Because Jesus, who was God eternally, became one of us, took on the fullness of human nature, suffered and died as one of, rose from the dead and then ascended to the Father making his human nature one with the Father, now all of us, who share His human nature, can have the possibility to enter into God and become one with God. Heaven again is not a place; heaven is a Person…Jesus Himself is what we call heaven. We can then only, only enter into heaven to the extent that we encounter Jesus and enter into Him. In this sense, as Pope Benedict once said, “in this sense, “ascension into heaven” can be something that we can experience in our everyday lives.

And it is the Holy Mass that makes this experience possible for us. Because the holy Mass makes Jesus present to us in His human nature in the Holy Eucharist, we can be raised up to God. Jesus is closed to us at Holy Mass; He is with us in His human nature as a man in His body; yet, Jesus remains veiled from our sight. So we can only approach Him, and see Him through the eyes of faith. Nonetheless, at the Holy Mass Heaven truly become present to us in the Person of Jesus, who becomes truly present to us in His human nature, which is exalted, raised up to the right hand of the Father. At Holy Mass before us He is lifted up anew and draws us to Himself through Holy Communion so we, with Him, through Him and in Him, can also be lifted up to God and become one with God in our human nature as well.

But for this to happen, we must imitate Jesus. Before He was lifted up to God, Jesus was as a man first lifted up on the cross. Jesus as a man was exalted to the right hand of the Father because he was humble and obedient even to death, death on the cross. In His total self-abasement, He was lifted up and now becomes the way for all who follow Him to be lifted up with Him in glory. We too then must humbly surrender ourselves and offer ourselves in obedience shown by our own sacrifice of love before the Lord in order to be lift up…who ever humbles himself will be exalted. We cannot lift ourselves up in our pride to God, for whoever exalts Himself will be humbled. This is why we must be on our knees before the Lord truly present in the Holy Eucharist, we must be on our knees to show forth our humility, our self abnegation, self emptying before the Lord, especially as we receive Him…this is why we must be made pure by frequent reception of the Sacrament of Confesssion…Oh Lord I am not worthy…

What hope that the ascension brings to us…what joy it should instill in our hearts. God is still with us because Jesus is still with us in His human nature in the Holy Eucharist. And so the Eucharist is the way for us to enter into God… God has a place for us in Himself….God has a place for you and me in Himself…. The Eucharist is our hope because the Eucharist is our “Heaven.” Heaven is not out there somewhere, or up their some where…Heaven is right here in our midst because Jesus is right here in our midst, how exciting and awesome is that!!!!.

At this Holy Mass and every Holy Mass, in our communion with Jesus, if we approach with faith, humbly on our knees in adoration, trusting in his love for us, and loving Him above all other creatures, giving our selves to him in love, then we too through Him will be “exalted” “lifted up” and become one with God…better know as Heaven. And this oneness with God can begin to happen right now at this Holy Mass and every Holiness Mass that we approach humbly, reverently, with pure hearts, minds and souls, and with faith, hope and love, pouring our self out in love to the God who poured out and continues to pour out Himself in love to Us... Holy Mary, cause of our Joy, pray for us!