 |
The Archdiocese of Cincinnati Main Page || The Catholic Telegraph || Live Letters index |
Live
Letters Ascension of the
Lord |
The Catholic Telegraph
May 25, 2001The feast of the Ascension marks the end of Jesus’ earthly mission. He now returns to His heavenly Father. But what Jesus accomplished during His years on earth still has to be applied to humanity. That’s the task of the Church, and so the feast of the Ascension is concerned, at least in part, with the mission of the Church. That’s why the second reading from the first chapter of Ephesians (provided for year A) is permitted on this feast in all three years of the cycle. That’s also why the optional reading for year B is also from Ephesians (chapter 4) and is also about the Church.
But there is another aspect to the feast of the Ascension, i.e., the permanence of redemption. It is that aspect that we hear about in the optional reading that is offered for year C, from The Letter to the Hebrews.
This reading is from the section of Hebrews in which the author is demonstrating the superiority of Jesus’ priesthood and sacrifice to what had been available under Jewish law. (Recall that the purpose of Hebrews was to offer encouragement to Jewish converts who were growing weary under the demands of the Christian faith.)
The reading is composed of two sections. In the first section the author is contrasting the sacrifice of Christ with the rite of the Jewish Day of Atonement, the only day when the high priest entered the Holy of Holies of the Jerusalem temple. Jesus’ sacrifice is not offered in a reproduction of heaven (like the sanctuary was), but in heaven itself. He actually appears before God to intercede for us. Likewise, His sacrifice was not one that had to be repeated every year. It was a one-time event that marked a definitive turning point in human history ("at the end of the ages"). If Jesus’ sacrifice had to be repeated, it would mean that He had to keep dying over and over again. (Note how carefully structured the passage is: not made by hands ... but heaven itself; not repeatedly ... but once and for all.) Now comes a parallel with ordinary people: just as each of us dies once and then faces judgement, so also Jesus dies once (for our sins), but He comes back not to face judgement but to bring salvation.
The next section of the reading is from the section of Hebrews in which the author draws practical consequences from his comparison of Jesus and the Old Law. The sacrifice of Jesus makes it possible for us to enter the heavenly Holy of Holies with Him. We should be confident about our future access to heaven since we have there in Jesus "a great priest over the house of God." Having been cleansed in the waters of baptism, we can approach God with trust. The commitments we made at baptism and the reliability of Him to Whom we made the commitments make it possible for us to live in unwavering hope.
Today’s feast, as illuminated by this reading from Hebrews, teaches us that there was an end to the visible, earthly life of Jesus. At a certain point His redemptive ministry among us reached a conclusion, and He returned to where He had come from. But the salvation He merited for us persists because the self-offering of Christ persists in the presence of His heavenly Father in heaven. The sacrifice of Jesus was not time-bound or only partially effective like the sacrifices of the Jerusalem temple. It was a "once for all" offering of Himself that will continue forever.
The mission of the Church is to proclaim the sacrifice of Christ and make it accessible for men and women of other times and places. But what the Church proclaims and offers is not a new sacrifice, not a new ministry on Jesus’ part, but the same self-gift, the same self-offering that He made during His earthly life now continued and universalized in heaven. The salvation that the Church offers is not only the saving action of Jesus in the historical past, but also the saving gift of Himself for His human brothers and sisters in the heavenly present.
Christ has left the spotlight at the center of the earthly stage on which He played out the redeeming events of His earthly life. But He continues to control the action of the drama from the timeless sanctuary of heaven.
In view of all this, we are called to confidence, to trust, and to hope. If we maintain the contact with the living Christ that began for us in baptism, the outcome of our earthly life is guaranteed. We will enter the sanctuary of heaven with Jesus to spend an eternity of happiness with Him there. We belong there because that’s where our priest is, and a priest and his people belong together.
Christ died for our salvation. In response to His death, His heavenly Father brought Him back to life, to a new kind of life that will never end. Christ is still living for us, still loving us, still liberating us. That’s what we celebrate on the feast of Ascension.
###
Conversation Questions
How do I express confidence in Christ’s ongoing redemption?
Which parts of my life in Christ require repetition? Which parts are unchanging? Why?
###
Main Page
|| The Catholic Telegraph || Live Letters index
Copyright © 2001 Archdiocese of Cincinnati.