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:
He said to them, “Go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents [with their hands], and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into Heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.
Mark 16: 15-20
The Ascension takes place after a time of transition:
Jesus’ humanity ascending into Heaven is our future:
Jesus took his place. After having undergone the humiliation of his Passion and Death, Jesus took his place at the right-hand of God; He took his place with his eternal Father. But He also entered Heaven as our Head. Whereupon, in the expression of Leo the Great, the glory of the Head became the hope of the body. For all eternity Christ takes is place as the firstborn among many brethren: our nature is with God in Christ. And as man, the Lord Jesus lives for ever to intercede for us with Father. At the same time, from his throne of glory, Jesus sends out to the whole Church a message of hope and a call to holiness.
Pope John Paul II, Homily, 24 May 1979
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
A day in the life of an EWTN friar:
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