Ascension And Heaven

Glorificatio Domini nostri Iesu Christi resurgendo et ascendendo completa est. Resurrectionem ipsius Paschae Dominico celebravimus: ascensionem hodie celebramus. Festus nobis dies uterque. Ideo enim resurrexit, ut nobis exemplum resurrectionis ostenderet; et ideo ascendit, ut nos desuper protegeret. Habemus ergo Dominum et Salvatorem nostrum Iesum Christum prius pendentem in ligno, nunc sedentem in caelo. Pretium nostrum dedit, cum penderet in ligno; collegit quod emit, cum sedet in caelo. Cum enim omnes collegerit, quos utique per tempora collegit, in fine temporis veniet, et, quomodo scriptum est: Deus manifestus veniet; non quemadmodum primo venit occultus, sed sicut dictum est: manifestus. Occultum enim eum oportebat venire, ut iudicaretur; manifestus autem veniet, ut iudicet. Si enim prius manifestus veniret, iudicare manifestum quis auderet? Quando quidem dicit apostolus Paulus: Si enim cognovissent, numquam Dominum gloriae crucifixissent. Sed si ille non occideretur, mors non moreretur: trophaeo suo diabolus victus est. Exsultavit enim diabolus, quando hominem primum seducendo deiecit in mortem. Primum hominem seducendo occidit: occidendo novissimum, de laqueis primum perdidit. Facta est ergo vera victoria Domini nostri Iesu Christi, cum resurrexit et ascendit in caelum; impletumque est quod audistis, cum Apocalypsis legeretur: Vicit leo de tribu Iuda. Ipse leo dictus est, ipse agnus dictus est; leo propter fortitudinem, agnus propter innocentiam; leo quia invictus, agnus quia mansuetus. Et iste agnus occisus morte sua vicit leonem, qui quaerit quem devoret. Dictus est enim diabolus leo feritate, non virtute. Apostolus quippe ait Petrus: Vigilare nos oportet adversus temptationes, quia adversarius vester diabolus circuit quaerens quem devoret. Sed quomodo circuit, dixit: Sicut leo rugiens circuit, quaerens quem devoret. Quis non incurreret in dentes leonis huius, nisi vicisset leo de tribu Iuda? Contra leonem leo, contra lupum agnus. Exsultavit diabolus, quando mortuus est Christus, et in ipsa morte Christi est diabolus victus; tamquam in muscipula escam accepit. Gaudebat ad mortem, quasi praepositus mortis; ad quod gaudebat, inde illi tensum est. Muscipula diaboli, crux Domini; esca qua caperetur, mors Domini. Ecce surrexit Dominus noster Iesus Christus. Ubi est mors, quae pependit in ligno? Ubi est insultatio Iudaeorum? ubi est typhus et superbia caput ante crucem agitantium et dicentium: Si Filius Dei est, descendat de cruce? Ecce plus fecit, quam illi insultando exigebant; plus enim est de sepulcro resurgere, quam de ligno descendere. Iam vero quanta gloria est, quod ascendit in caelum, quod sedet ad dexteram Patris? Sed hoc oculis non videmus, quia nec pendentem in ligno vidimus, nec resurgentem de sepulcro aspeximus. Totum hoc fide tenemus, oculis cordis intuemur. Hodie enim, sicut audistis, fratres, Dominus noster Christus ascenit in coelum: ascendat cum illo cor nostrum. Audiamus Apostolum dicentem, Si consurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens: quae sursum sunt sapite, non quae super terram. Sicut enim ille ascendit, nec recessit a nobis: sic et nos cum illo ibi jam sumus, quamvis nondum in corpore nostro factum sit quod promittitur nobis. Ille jam exaltatus est super coelos. Neque enim propterea nobis desperanda est perfecta et angelica coelestis habitatio, quia dixit, Nemo ascendit in coelum, nisi qui descendit de coelo, Filius hominis qui est in coelo. Sed hoc dictum est propter unitatem, qua caput nostrum est, et nos corpus ejus. Cum ascendit in coelum, nos ab illo non separamur. Qui de coelo descendit, non nobis invidet coelum: sed quodam modo clamat, membra mea estote, si ascendere vultis in coelum. In hoc ergo ipsi interim roboremur, in hoc votis omnibus aestuemus. Hoc meditemur in terris, quod computamur in coelis. Tunc exuturi carnem mortalitatis, nunc exuamus animi vetustatem. Facile corpus levabitur in alta coelorum, si non premat spiritum sarcina peccatorum. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, Sermo CCLXIII Source: Migne PL 38 1209

The glorification of our Lord Jesus Christ by resurrection and ascension is complete. We have celebrated His resurrection at the Dominical Pasch, today we celebrate His ascension. Both are feast days for us. For He rose that He might provide for us an example of the resurrection, and He ascended that he might protect us from above. We thus have first the hanging of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on the cross, then His sitting in heaven. Our price He paid when He hung on the cross; He then gathers what he bought when He sits in heaven. For when He has gathered all, those whom through time he gathers, so will come the end of time, and as it is written, 'God shall come openly,' 1 not as at first when He came hidden, but as it is said: 'openly'. For it befitted Him to come hidden that He might be judged, and openly He shall come that He judge. If before He had openly come who would have dared judge Him? Whence the Apostle Paul says, 'If they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' 2 But if He had not been slain, death would not have died, nor would His trophy be the devil conquered. For the devil exulted when having seduced the first man he cast him down into death. The first man seducing he killed, but killing the new man he lost the first from his traps. The true victory of the Lord, then, was when He rose and ascended into heaven, and it was fulfilled what you have heard said in the Apocalypse, 'The lion from the tribe of Judah conquered.' 3 The lion which is spoken of is the lamb, the lion on account of fortitude, the lamb on account of innocence; the lion because he is unconquered, the lamb because he is meek. And this lamb being slain with His death conquered the lion, the lion who sought to devour him, for it is said that the devil is a savage lion, not one with virtue. The Apostle Peter says that we should be vigilant against temptations, 'because your adversary the devil goes around seeking whom he may devour.' And how he goes around, he tells: 'like a lion roaring' he goes around, seeking whom he may devour. 4 Who would not fall into the jaws of this lion if the lion from the tribe of Judah had not conquered? A lion against a lion, against the wolf a lamb. The devil exulted when Christ died and by that same death of Christ the devil was conquered, as if in a mousetrap he took the food. He was rejoicing at death like one who is the chief of death, and at what he rejoiced he was caught. The trap of the devil is the cross of the Lord, the food that seized him the death of the Lord. Behold, our Lord Jesus Christ rose. Where is death, for which he hung on the cross. Where are the insults of the Jews? Where is the boasting and pride and the shaking heads before the cross, and the saying of: 'If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross.' 5 Behold, He shall do more, more than your insults demand; He will rise from the tomb, He whom you would have come down from the cross. And then how much glory there is that He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father? But this we do not see with our eyes, because nor do we see Him hanging on the cross, nor rising from the tomb. All this with faith we hold to, seeing with the eye of the heart. For today, as you have heard, brothers, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. Let us lift up our hearts with Him. Let us hear the Apostle saying, 'If you are resurrected with Christ, seek the things above, where Christ is sat at the right hand of God. Attend to what is above, not to things of the earth.' 6 For as He ascended and does not withdraw from us, so even we are already there with Him, although not yet in our body, which is promised us. Already He is exalted above heaven. Be let us not despair of the perfect and angelic habitation of the heavens, because He said, 'No one ascends into heaven unless he descends from heaven, the son of man who is in heaven.' 7 But this is said for unity, by which He is our head, and we His body. When He ascends to heaven, we are not separated from Him. He who from heaven descends does not begrudge us heaven, but He cries out, 'Be my members if you wish to ascend to heaven.' In this, then, let us for the time be strengthened, in this let us be warmed by every vow. This let us meditate on the earth while we think on the things of heaven. Then we shall have sloughed off mortal flesh, now let us strip off the old soul. Easily the body may be lifted up into heaven, if it is not pressed down by the burden of a sinful soul. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Sermon 163 1 Ps 49.3 2 1 Cor 2.8 3 Apoc 5.5 4 1 Pet 5.8 5 Mt 27.40 6 Col 3.1-2 7 Jn 3.13