Believing in this affirmation: you and I already are with “one foot” in Heaven. Celebrating the time of the Ascension of the Lord, the Church brings us to contemplate in Christ our triumph there in Heaven.
It is fundamental that we know Christ in order that we may know the hope that he gives us, upon discovering the riches of the glory that is the inheritance of the saints and the immense power that excercises in favor of those that believe. These riches are not something to seek in the future, but to live already here – today and now – in the sacred liturgy in which we are with Him, the High Priest, glorifying the Father. It would be so good if we could celebrate with intensity and not simply attached to the rites, but rather the mystery that is revealed to us in each celebration.
In each of the doors of Heaven, in which we enter with Christ glorified, is open. With the Spirit that is given to us, we can rejoice with the Father that sees his Son returning with the sons He adopted.
And in this countless joy, Jesus gives us this mission: “God into the whole world and announce the Gospel to every creature!” If on one side we are with Him in glory, through the other we are in the history of what is the leader, for He is the Lord of history. What is more that we may not know, He drives the universe and leaves us with the mission of with Him, putting all His enemies under His feet. The enemy is all species of evil. Announcing from the Gospel takes from the world the power of evil and leads it to create, already here on Earth, a “New Heaven and a New Earth.”
The Ascension of Jesus does not mark the end or a “turning of the page”. He continues living and present, for we are united to Him. He is the head that attracts His body to the Father, vivifying it through the Holy Spirit. The Ascension puts Him in the center of our life and our history. Jesus is the Lord of all things, He is the keystone that we rejected by the builders. He is elevated joined to the Father, with that which becomes in his vivifying humanity – fount of the river of life.
In the Ascension, Christ does not disappear. On the contrary, He begins to show himself. Therefore the angels say: “He is going to return in the same way that we saw Him leave for Heaven.” He is always coming. He brings the captives, that we are, to the new world of His Resurrection and pours out over humanity His gifts, His Spirit.
His Ascension is a progressive movement. His Ascension is in order that we may arrive at the state of human perfection, to the measure of Christ in his fullness. The movement of the Ascension will only remain complete when all the members of His body will be attracted to the Father and vivified through the Spirit.
The liturgy is the movement of His coming. In Jesus, there is a return to the Father in each liturgy celebrated. We celebrate the joy of the Father upon seeing the return of the beloved son of the parable. He does not return alone, but returns in the flesh bring the adopted children: “Here I am, with the children that God gave me.” Each son has the face of the beloved Son. The Father welcomes all the children. We share in the eternal liturgy.
Already we are with one foot in Heaven. We are “one body” in Jesus. Therefore, we have a part in our Heaven. He upon leaving the world, on the day of the Ascension, did not raise to the Heavens to flee our human condition, but to give us the certainty that He will lead us to the glory of immortality.
My brother, listen to what the two angels said to the disciples: “Why do you look to the sky?” Now is the time to do what Christ did. It is the hour of our mission. We are not alone. we have the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we send ourselves to the mission and we anounce that our nature already is there in Heaven with Christ our brother. Let us go conquering Heaven each day that passes.
Padre Bantu Mendonça
Fr. Bantu Mendonça Katchipwi Sayla is a priest for the Diocese of Tubarão, Angola