Through most of the year the lectionary offers us the opportunities to reflect on the elements of the Christian life – the life of virtue, the imitation of Our Lord, Our Blessed Mother, the saints. On other occasions, such as today, when we celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord, we are afforded the opportunity to focus on the nature of Christ himself. In more complex terms, the feast of the Ascension offers us an opportunity for a Christological reflection.
In the Gospel today we read:
he led them out as far as Bethany,
raised his hands, and blessed them.
As he blessed them he parted from them
and was taken up to heaven.
He “was taken up to heaven;” to contemplate this mystery we can take the help of the words of St. Paul in his epistle to the Ephesians (4:9):
When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth
In this verse St Paul instructs us in an element that we affirm every Sunday when we recite the Creed, “he descended to the dead.” But this is not the only descent that Our Lord undertook, for, as St Paul once again teaches, in the letter to the Philippians (2: 6-8) Jesus Christ:
who, though he was in the form of
God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.
Let us count the number of times that Our Lord descended, which St. Paul correctly points out, was an acceptance of humbling: He was coequal with God, and yet he consented to take human form, and the form of a slave. And as if this was not enough, he humbled himself further still, by accepting not just death, but a shameful death, crucified naked – like a criminal – on the cross.
At this point, my dear brothers and sisters, we can appreciate more fully the nature of Christ. From before time began, Our Lord was of nature divine. Yet, by consenting to take on human form, he also fully accepted our human nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ, therefore, was, and remains, both divine and human. It was not that he was human and because he led a beatific life became divine. Or that he was divine and did not become fully human, and therefore did not fully suffer temptation or indeed pain. Our Lord was fully human and fully divine.
And it was because he was of human nature, that when he suffered obediently on the cross, died, was resurrected, and then ascended into heaven, that he was able to restore our human nature that had been defiled by the sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. After the Fall, we were unable to enter heaven, no matter how virtuous our lives. The Creed teaches us “He descended into hell.” The hell He descended into was the place that held all the virtuous, including St. Joseph, who had died before Our Lord. No matter how virtuous their lives, because of the stain of original sin, they could not enter the presence of God and awaited their deliverance through the Messiah. This Our Lord did with His resurrection and restored to us the possibility of entering heaven.
My dear brothers and sisters, Our Lord entered heaven, not in spirit alone, but in flesh! In so doing, He made it possible for us to enter heaven with our flesh. At the end of time, when we will be resurrected, it will not be a resurrection of our souls alone, but a resurrection of our whole selves, body and soul. It is because we know that we will be reunited with our bodies, and be able to live in the presence of God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – that we can spend our lives here on earth suffering for not following the rules of the wicked.
My dear brothers and sisters, we live in a time when to follow a virtuous Christian life is, very often, to be last in an earthly scheme of things. And while I am not saying that we should be last, I am also saying that if it is that we are last in the course of following a Christian life, then we should be sure that we will receive eternal reward for our troubles, while those who act as if Our Lord has not ascended into heaven, to prepare a place for us by His side, will repent (eternally) for their shortsightedness.
And so, my dear brothers and sisters, let us take to our hearts the assurance of Our Lord and His commandment that we heard in the acclamation of the Gospel today:
Go and teach all nations, …
I am with you always, until the end of the world.
May Our Lord bless you, and may you have a blessed feast of the Ascension.
(This homily was first preached to the faithful at the parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa on 1 June 2025.)
(Image reference: Prague – “The Ascension of the Lord”, František Sequens, second half of the 19th cent., Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, Prague.)
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