In words from the Collect for the Ascension Day: “we do believe thy only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens.” And from the Preface for the Ascension Day: “in their sight he ascended up into heaven to prepare a place for us; that where he is, thither we might also ascend and reign with him in glory.” Finally from the Acts of the Apostles: “While they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight.”
The only-begotten Son of the Father was made man in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary; there he took our flesh and nature so that he Who had been One Person with one nature, now became One Person made known in two natures, divine and human. He was born and named Jesus (The LORD is our salvation). As the new Israel and the new Adam, he lived for us; he taught us; he revealed the Kingdom of God to and for us; as our Representative and Substitute he died for us, was buried, was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven.
Apostles and disciples witnessed his crucifixion, death and burial. But no-one witnessed his bodily resurrection – except perhaps the angels. Yet many disciples with the apostles met the risen Lord Jesus in the forty days from Easter Day. They certainly knew that he was alive, yet alive in a new and exalted form.
Since no apostle or disciple would be able to see the Lord Jesus when he had ascended into heaven and when he was seated at the right hand of the Father in the glory of heaven, a select number were given the high privilege of seeing his Ascension -- of watching him, as far as the human eye would allow, ascend into heaven. On that hillside heaven was powerfully represented by the Shekinah, the cloud of glory, which the Israelites had known in the wilderness and Solomon had known at the dedication of the Temple. Further, two messengers from heaven, assuming a kind of human form, confirmed that Jesus had truly ascended and would come again at the end of the age to complete the Father’s will.
Let us be clear of mind. The Ascension of the Lord is the festival which places the crown on the previous festivals. The Lord who descended from heaven to perform his revealing and redeeming work has now ascended into heaven. The Lord, who did for us what we could never in millions of ages do for ourselves, has returned with his perfected huyman nature and body to the sphere from which he came. By his ascension the Lord shows that he is truly the resurrected One, truly the new Adam, truly the One Mediator between God and mankind.
Had there been no Ascension there would have always been the suspicion that though resurrected he was not exalted. Thus this Festival is one of great joy and encouragement and hope. No wonder the Church sings Psalm 24 on this day. The Lord of hosts, the King of glory, even the Lord Jesus Christ is not only risen but ascended and exalted. He has begun his session for us in heaven. He will send the Paraclete. Praise be unto him, the crucified, risen and glorified Son of the Father.
So as we proclaim the Ascension on this day we extinguish the Paschal Candle to signify that he is no longer visiting his disciples on earth but he is now at the right hand of the Father, our exalted Prophet, Priest and King, who through the Spirit is with and in all his faithful, baptized people, even as they are with him.
In liturgical time, we the people of God now wait ten days for the promise of the same Lord Jesus to be fulfilled, when he will send the Paraclete, the Spirit who comes in his name with his graces, virtues and gifts. We walk in faith, hope and charity, watching and praying, between The Feast of the Ascension and the Feast of Pentecost, Whit-Sunday.
--Peter Toon
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