Tuesday, July 3, 2018

109. “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).


“And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32).

YOUCAT 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
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"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 24:31John 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 10:41Mark 16:12Luke 24:15John 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 7:56Luke 9:34-35; Lk 24:51; Exodus 13:22Mark 16:19Psalm 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 9:1Galatians 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

IN BRIEF

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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