One of the features I like about S. Stephen’s as a building, is the east window, above the High Altar, depicting the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Ascension is important, because it concludes Jesus’ work of atonement, which he achieved through his life, death, resurrection and ascension. The atonement has sometimes been described as the At-one-ment with God. S. Athanasius once wrote, ‘God became man, so that man could become God’, he was merely echoing the words of the first Letter of S. Peter, where the Apostle writes that we are ‘partakers in the divine nature’. As Christ brought God into the world through his incarnation, through his ascension he takes our humanity into the presence of God. Christ opens heaven for all who believe in him, fulfilling the hope of the resurrection, he goes to prepare a place for us, as the Gospel of S. John reminds us, ‘that where I am you may be also’.
Christ takes his one eternal sacrifice of his body and blood into heaven. Christ who died once and for all upon the cross for the sins of the world, and was raised triumphant from the dead, continually intercedes for us as our great high priest, before his heavenly father. Through the Mass, we are united to the work of Christ in heaven, for our Lord makes himself present upon our Altar on earth, so that we through the hands of his priest, may offer in union with Christ the one eternal sacrifice of himself. Through the Ascension, we are assured of the kingship of Christ, the king of kings and lord of lords. Christ ascends to take his throne as king of heaven and earth, and he calls us to make the reality of his kingdom known to all peoples and nations. Before his ascension, Christ commands his apostles to ‘go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit’. The Ascension reminds us that all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ.
Although Jesus ascended into heaven and he does not leave us desolate, but promises us, ‘I am with you always to the close of the age’. He fulfils that promise through the gift of the Holy Spirit, he continues to speak to us through the scriptures and the living tradition of the One Holy Catholic and apostolic Church, and continues to unite himself to us through the Blessed Sacrament, and through the other means of sacramental grace. The ascension reminds us that the Church belongs to him, and not to us. This is something we need to remind ourselves of, as we see the church torn with division, afflicted with heresy, and compromised by contemporary secularism, our Lord reminds his faithful that they are his Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against her. Our Lord will return to be our judge, we are challenged as we reflect upon this mystery to be faithful to him and his teaching.
The Ascension reminds us that we must set our minds on heaven, as the collect from the Book of Common Prayer reminds us ‘may we also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell’. Our pilgrimage through life as Christians is directed towards heaven, Christ shows us the way, leads us on the way and is the way. S. Therese of Lisieux once wrote, ‘all the way to heaven is heavenly, for Christ is the way’. May this holy thought sustain us as we journey through Eastertide and Ascension with our Lord, and as he journeys with us on our pilgrimage through life.
Yours in Christ,
