Forty days after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus ascended into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father where He intercedes for us and rules over his Kingdom that will never end.
Jesus’ ascension is a key element and the final part of the Paschal Mystery of Christ.
By ascending into Heaven as man, both body and soul, Jesus opens Heaven so that our resurrected bodies can enter Heaven and be reunited with our souls when Jesus comes again.
Jesus’ ascension into Heaven is affirmed in the creeds and meditated on as a Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.
The Solemnity of the Ascension of Our Lord is celebrated 40 days after Easter Sunday and is a Holy Day of Obligation for Catholics. In some areas, the feast is transferred to the following Sunday.
Jesus leads humanity into Heaven:
He unlocked the gates of Heaven for our bodies and souls:
When they had gathered together they asked Him, “Lord, are You at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the Earth.” When He had said this, as they were looking on, He was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
Acts 1: 6-9
The Ascension takes place after a time of transition:
Jesus’ humanity ascending into Heaven is our future:
The Ascension of the Lord marks the fulfillment of salvation that started with the Incarnation. After He had instructed his disciples for the last time, Jesus was taken up into Heaven. He, however, “was not separated from our condition”; indeed, in his humanity, He took man with Him into the intimacy of the Father and thus revealed the final destination of our earthly pilgrimage. As He descended from Heaven for us, and for us suffered and died on the Cross, so for us He rose and ascended to God, who, therefore, is no longer far away.
Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli, 20 May 2012
The mystery of Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven is underrated:
Jesus’ Ascension fulfills the Jewish expectation of Heaven:
“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.” Christ’s body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. 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. 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. 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.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 659
Catholics celebrate the day Jesus left the Earth:
Celebrating our goal and destiny:
Celebrating the Ascension on the Mount of Olives:
The Truth, Goodness, and Beauty of the Catholic Church
Having a vision of eternity:
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