He communicates to us His Body, the Church, the grace and strength to live in Him. As the letter to the Hebrews says: He always lives to make intercession for them (7:25). He is our eternal High Priest, our Mediator with the Father. This is very true: because Christ has ascended to the Father to prepare a place for us, we have hope of eternal life with Him in heaven.Įxalted at the right hand of the Father, Christ intercedes for us with the Father. Pope Saint Leo the Great taught that at the Ascension, the glory of the Head became the hope of the Body. Christ, the Head, is never separated from His Body, the Church. He acts through the Holy Spirit in the Church and in our souls. Through the Holy Spirit, Christ continues to be with us, sanctifying us and giving us life. He is always close to us.Ĭhrist sends us the Holy Spirit. Though Jesus’ earthly and visible presence in the world ends, He remains with us in an invisible way. He said: It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you: but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). On the eve of His Passion, Jesus had told the apostles that it was to their advantage that He go away. With His Ascension into heaven, the Lord Jesus is now present to us in a new way. Recall the words of Jesus at the end of Matthew’s Gospel: And lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age (Matthew 28:19). Otherwise, after the Ascension, the disciples would not have returned to Jerusalem with great joy, as Saint Luke tells us (24:52). He has not abandoned us or left us orphans. It is important to understand that the Ascension does not mean that Jesus has departed from us. He passed into the glorified state in God. He no longer belongs to the world of corruption and death that conditions our earthly life. We believe that Jesus’ earthly life reached its culmination when He passed from this world to the Father. We profess our faith in this glorious mystery when we say in the Nicene Creed: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. ![]() This Sunday, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord.
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