ORDER OF PREACHERS
The Dominican Family
Trinidad & Tobago

THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD

This feast celebrates Christ’s going up to heaven in his risen and glorified body, forty days after His resurrection (Lk 24:50; Acts 1:9). Jesus Christ is “true God and true Man.” This statement implies that the event of the Incarnation of the Son of God does not mean that Jesus Christ is part God and part man, nor does it imply that he is the result of a confused mixture of the divine and the human (CCC. 464). The fifth ecumenical council describes this understanding as “hypostasis” [or person] (ib. 468). Thus everything in Christ’ human nature is to be attributed to his divine person. (One person with two natures.) When Jesus ascended into heaven the human nature ascended also. As a result of this the work of redemption comes to an end. Hence, this act of God sets the path-way for all humans to ascend into heaven.

This is why the refrain in today’s responsorial psalm joyously sings. “God goes up with shots of joy; the Lord goes up with trumpet blast.” (Ps. 46: 2-3). This joy is shown by the disciples when the writer of the Gospel shows that. “They worshipped Him and then went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God”. (Lk 24: 52) Why were they so joyous? The disciples were joyous because they saw before their eyes the unfolding of God’s promises of salvation. So for them God was not a con artist. Furthermore, they know now without a doubt that there is a human being in the person of Jesus Christ in heaven.

“Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?” (Ac 1:11). “Standing here” symbolizes procrastination. The “two men in white” (ib.10) would urge the disciples to move on because “this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen him go there.” (ib.11). No procrastination for the disciples because they were witnesses “not only in Jerusalem but throughout Judea and Samaria, and indeed to the ends of the earth.” (ib.8).