Forty days after his Resurrection from the dead, Jesus ascended, Body and Soul, into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of God the Father. From there, He intercedes for mankind and rules over his Kingdom that will never end.
Jesus’ ascension into Heaven 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 for men so that their resurrected bodies can enter Heaven and be reunited with their souls when Jesus comes to judge the living and the dead.
After ascending into Heaven, Jesus is no longer visibly present in the world but his actual presence remains in the Eucharist, and He continues to work through the ministry of his Church on Earth.
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:
The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had ordered them. When they saw Him, they worshiped, but they doubted. Then Jesus approached and said to them, “All power in Heaven and on Earth has been given to Me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”
Matthew 28: 16-20
The Ascension takes place after a time of transition:
The Ascension completes the work of our redemption:
Jesus’ humanity ascending into Heaven is our future:
The meaning of this final gesture of Jesus is twofold. In the first place, ascending on high, He clearly reveals his divinity: He returns to where He came from, that is, to God, after having fulfilled his mission on Earth. Moreover, Christ ascends into Heaven with the humanity He has assumed and which He has resurrected from the dead: that humanity is ours, transfigured, divinized, made eternal. Therefore, the Ascension reveals the “most high calling” of every human person, called to Eternal Life in the Kingdom of God, kingdom of love, light and peace.
Pope Benedict XVI, Regina Caeli, 21 May 2006
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
Imitating Jesus by loving what He loves:
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