{"id":25576,"date":"2010-05-13T07:35:44","date_gmt":"2010-05-13T11:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/05\/ascension-thursday-what-is-chu\/"},"modified":"2010-05-13T07:35:44","modified_gmt":"2010-05-13T11:35:44","slug":"ascension-thursday-what-is-chu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2010\/05\/ascension-thursday-what-is-chu\/","title":{"rendered":"Ascension Thursday: What is the Church’s teaching?"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Ascension<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the consistent, clear teaching of the Church, that
\nis, what has been taught down through the ages, about the Ascension of the Lord? What does it
\nmean for the Lord to “ascend” to the right hand of God the Father? Does he actually go up into the heavens? <\/p>\n

The Gospel
\nof Luke tells us that Jesus blessed his disciples and then “parted from them and
\nwas taken up to heaven.” And the Acts of the Apostles tells us that the
\ndisciples witnessed the Lord’s ascension. So, the Scripture relate to us that
\nJesus’ ascension was a public act which we too, follow according the Father’s
\nwill.<\/p>\n

Let me be crystal clear about the teaching: the ascension of the Lord is
\nnot only concerned with Christ’s humanity; the ascension of the Lord is also
\nabout our humanity ascension to God’s right hand in glory.<\/p>\n

You will want to read–NO, you must read and re-read Credo for Today<\/i> by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (Benedict XVI) pp 90-94. It is the best of the Church’s contemporary theological reflections on this point of our faith.<\/p>\n

Pope Saint Leo the Great (+461)
\ntaught, “Truly it was a great and indescribable source of rejoicing when, in
\nthe sight of the heavenly multitudes, the nature of our human race ascended over
\nthe dignity of all heavenly creatures, to pass the angelic orders and to be
\nraised beyond the heights of archangels. In its ascension it did not stop at
\nany other height until this same nature was received at the seat of the eternal
\nFather, to be associated on the throne of the glory of that One to whose nature
\nit was joined in the Son” (from a homily on 1 June 444).<\/p>\n

And just a year later Saint Leo says, “This Faith, reinforced by the Ascension of the Lord and
\nstrengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit, has not been terrified by chains,
\nby prison, by exile, by hunger, by fire, by the mangling of wild beasts, nor by
\nsharp suffering from the cruelty of persecutors. Throughout the world, not
\nonly men but also women, not just immature boys but also tender virgins, have
\nstruggled on behalf of this Faith even to the shedding of their blood. This
\nFaith has cast out demons, driven away sicknesses, and raised the dead” (from a homily on 17 May
\n445).<\/p>\n

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/i> we read, “This final stage stays
\nclosely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the
\nIncarnation. Only the one who ‘came from the Father’ can return to the Father:
\nChrist Jesus. ‘No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from
\nheaven, the Son of man.’ Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have
\naccess to the ‘Father’s house’, to God’s life and happiness. Only Christ can
\nopen to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too
\nshall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us” (661).<\/o:p><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is the consistent, clear teaching of the Church, that is, what has been taught down through the ages, about the Ascension of the Lord? What does it mean for the Lord to “ascend” to the right hand of God the Father? Does he actually go up into the heavens?  The Gospel of Luke tells … Continue reading Ascension Thursday: What is the Church’s teaching?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[2102,1891],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25576\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}