The Ascension is one of the most important holidays in the entire liturgical calendar, and is right up there with Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. It is a joyous day, celebrating the imminent coming of the Holy Ghost, the birth of the Church, and the spread of Christendom throughout the world, and it reminds us to look forward to the Second Coming of Christ in glory.
However, it is a sort of bittersweet holy day for the Church. Up to this point in the year, we have been celebrating Christ's presence with us during His Nativity, Baptism, public ministry, Passion, and Resurrection. Today, we celebrate His return to the heavenly country where He takes His seat at the right hand of the Father, reigning and interceding for us with Him. However, this necessarily means that Christ is no longer present with us on earth.
While this is indeed a joyous time, with Christ taking His rightful place in glory that He abandoned for thirty years for us, it is still a cause of sorrow. The Apostles felt this sorrow, as Our Lord recognized: "But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart" (Jn. 16:5-6). Christ is still present with us, but He is farther away. He is not as immediately and clearly present in our midst. We have cause for joy but also a bit of sorrow.
However, the sorrow present in the Ascension gives way to the hope present in the holiday. Recognizing His Apostles' sorrow at the Last Supper, Our Lord says: "Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you" (Jn. 16:7). Our Lord does not abandon us, but He gives us further hope. At His Last Supper, He instituted the sacraments of Holy Orders and the Eucharist and promised the coming of the Holy Ghost. He knew that to leave us with nothing would mean that we would surely fall away, so He made His going away to our benefit by giving us the Spirit by Whom He says greater works than these we will do (Jn. 14:12).
Through His Ascension, we also have the hope of the resurrection of the body. Not Christ's Resurrection, but our own. After the Ascension, two angels appeared to those gathered with Him, and told them: "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 1:11). The Ascension, the returning of Christ into glory, is the sign of the promise given to us of His eventual return, and with His return our final salvation and redemption.
This Ascensiontide, let us recall the going up of Christ, but let us not mourn the Ascent of our Lord. Rather let us take joy in His present glory, anticipate the coming of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost, and look forward to His coming again and our resurrections, as we say with the Psalmist "God is ascended with a shout, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Alleluia!"
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