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Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 109
Ave Maria series
109 What does it mean to say
that Jesus ascended into heaven?
With Jesus, one of us has arrived home with God and remains
there forever. In his Son, God is close
to us men in a human way. Moreover,
Jesus says in the Gospel of John, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). [659-667]
Embroidery above: Sacred
Heart of Jesus in Saint Nicholas' Church, Ghent, Belgium.....70.....109
In the New Testament, the Ascension of Christ marks the end
of forty days during which the risen Lord was especially close to his
disciples. At the end of this time,
Christ, together with his whole humanity, enters into the glory of God. Sacred Scripture expresses this through the
images of “cloud” and “heaven” or sky.
“Man”, says Pope Benedict XVI, “finds room in God.” Jesus Christ is now with the Father, and from
there he will come one day “to judge the living and the dead”. Christ’s Ascension into heaven means that
Jesus is no longer visible on earth yet is still present.
“Men of Galilee, why do you stand
looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was
taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into
heaven.” Acts of the Apostles 1:11
[659-667]
"HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER"
659 "So
then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and
sat down at the right hand of God."(Mark 16:19.)532 Christ's
body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and
supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys.( Compare Luke 24:31; John 20:19,26.)533 But
during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and
teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance
of ordinary humanity. (Compare Acts of the Apostles1:3; Acts 10:41; Mark 16:12; Luke 24:15; John 20:14-15; Jn 21:4.)534 Jesus'
final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine
glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time
forward at God's right hand.( Compare Acts 1:9; Acts 2:33; Acts 7:56; Luke 9:34-35; Lk 24:51; Exodus 13:22; Mark 16:19; Psalm 110:1.)535 Only
in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul
"as to one untimely born", in a last apparition that established him
as an apostle.(
1 Corinthians 15:8; compare 1 Cor 9:1; Galatians 1:16)536 —Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition
660 The
veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in
his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: "I have not yet ascended to the
Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and
your Father, to my God and your God."(John 20:17.)537 This
indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ
and that of the Christ exalted to the Father's right hand, a transition marked
by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension. --CCC
661 This final stage stays closely linked
to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the
one who "came from the Father" can return to the Father: Christ
Jesus.( Compare John 16:28.)538 "No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended
from heaven, the Son of man."(John 3:13; compare Ephesians 4:8-10.)539 Left to its own natural powers humanity does
not have access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness.( John 14:2.)540 Only Christ can open to man such access that
we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head
and our Source, has preceded us.( Roman
Missal, Preface of the Ascension: "sed
ut illuc confideremus, sua membra, nos subsequi quo ipse, caput nostrum
principiumque, praecessit.")541 –CCC
662 "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will
draw all men to myself (John 12:32)."542 The lifting up of
Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into
heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and
eternal Covenant, "entered, not into a sanctuary made by human
hands. . . but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of
God on our behalf (Hebrews 9:24)."543 There Christ
permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to make
intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him (Hebrews 7:25)".544 As "high priest
of the good things to come" he is the center and the principal actor of
the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven (Hebrews 9:11;
compare Revelation 4:6-11).545 –CCC
663 Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father:
"By 'the Father's right hand' we understand the glory and honor of
divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of
one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his
flesh was glorified (St. John Damascene, Defide orth. 4,2:Patrologua Graeca 94,1104C)."546 –CCC
664 Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the
inauguration of the Messiah's kingdom, 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 (Daniel 7:14)."547 After this event the
apostles became witnesses of the "kingdom [that] will have no end" (Nicene
Creed).548 --CCC
665 Christ's Ascension marks the definitive entrance of
Jesus' humanity into God's heavenly domain, whence he will come again (compare Acts of the Apostles1:11); this humanity in
the meantime hides him from the eyes of men (compare Colossians 3:3). --CCC
666 Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into
the Father's glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in
the hope of one day being with him for ever. --CCC
667 Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of heaven
once and for all, intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who assures us
of the permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit. –CCC
JA JP JT
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