https://youtu.be/QGLnOUpzVR4?si=QxNCG5mWQaxjsGLk The Church remembers the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ on the Thursday of the sixth week after Easter. The Ascension of our Lord is a very important and powerful part of the story of Redemption. Let’s dive in. Luke writes at the beginning of the Book of Acts that the Ascension took place forty days after the Resurrection of Christ, who presented himself alive to them by many proofs after he suffered, spoke about the kingdom of God, and gave instructions to the apostles through the Holy Spirit. This sets the scene – let's zoom in a bit closer. Firstly, there is a mighty Trinitarian argument embedded here. Because while Luke here assures us that Jesus proved he was alive, he also says he gave instruction through the Holy Spirit. How? Did the Spirit descend before Pentecost somehow? How was he teaching them through the Holy Spirit before the Spirit descended on Pentecost? We look to the Gospel of John for our answer, which will also reorient our perspective on the Resurrection. “I will not leave you as orphans,” Jesus promises in Jn. 14, “I will come to you.” In context, he is speaking of the Holy Spirit. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever — the Spirit of Truth…the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.” (Jn. 13:16-17, 26). The Spirit, coming in the name of Christ, therefore bears His Name. This is why St. Paul could say, “The Lord is the Spirit” in 2 Cor. 3:17. This shared essence was articulated by the Church fathers with the Greek homousian, or the Latin consubstantialis. In the Gospel of John, Jesus teaches about his Resurrection in these terms at the Farewell Discourse. Paul’s discourse on the Resurrection in 1 Cor. 15 also speaks of it in spiritual terms -- His natural body was raised a spiritual body. A spiritual body, it must be noted, with all the characteristics necessary for proof that this indeed is the same Jesus Christ crucified who was raised, as opposed to a disembodied spirit. Just as Jesus promised in the Farewell Discourse recorded by John, he returned to them, and taught them many things before his Ascension, promising he would always be with them: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Mt. 28:18-20). John’s Gospel indicates that Jesus was a “life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45), recording Jesus merely breathed on them. “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (Jn. 20:22-23).” Luke’s parallel likewise says that “in His name repentance and forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed to all nations, beginning in Jerusalem” (Lk. 24:46-47). A few potentially contradictory details of note. First, Jesus here commands them to disciple the nations i.e. the Gentiles — and yet, it would be some years before Peter would baptize the first Gentile into Christ. Second, Jesus said “receive the Holy Spirit” — and yet, Luke records him saying just before His Ascension, “in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 1:5) -- as if they had not yet received it by that time. We can infer, then, that since they had not yet received the promise of the baptism, or indwelling, of the Holy Spirit, the manner in which they had received instruction “through the Spirit” during the period between Resurrection and Ascension was in fact directly from the person of Jesus Christ Himself. Included in that instruction was the command to wait in Jerusalem “for the gift the Father promised” (Acts 1:4), that is, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In order for the Paraclete to come to dwell within each of the disciples, Jesus would himself have to depart from them, so that he may be in a position to send it, according to Jn. 16:7. The disciples would have remembered this, and therefore known from Jesus’ instructions about the promise of the Holy Spirit that his departure was imminent. Inferring this, the disciples then ask him an important question: “Lord, will you at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?” They are referring to a promise he had made earlier about the “regeneration: “At the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” (Mt. 19:28). This “throne” promise, in fact, is the prophecy of Daniel 7: “thrones were set in place and the Ancient of Days took his seat...the court was seated and the books were opened…” So the disciples were asking if their thrones were set in place and if they were about to be seated to render judgment over a restored Israel. In expecting this, they also expected the following: “one like a Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory, and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshipped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed...the Ancient of Days came and pronounced judgment in favor of the holy one son the Most High, and the time came when they possessed the Kingdom.” The Apostles, therefore, almost certainly knew, with a great sense of anticipation, that Jesus had assembled them there to witness the glorious fulfillment of this vision. Jesus answers them soberly, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you.” He is saying to the disciples: “your part in the vision — your thrones, and your possession of the Kingdom, etc — comes at when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in, and empower, you.” But for now, it was time for Jesus to fulfill His part, since He had promised many times and in many places that they would “see the Son of Man coming on the clouds with great power and glory” as Daniel had long ago foretold. Lo and behold, “after he had said this, they watched as he was taken up, and a cloud hid him from their sight.” The New Testament in many places identifies this moment with Jesus’ exaltation to the throne of God, summarized with characteristic simplicity by Mark: “The Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God.” (Mk. 16:19). It was, in fact, the Ascension that fulfilled the prophecy of the Son of Man coming on the clouds. Some Christians are accustomed to thinking, perhaps because they were taught, that this prophecy has not been fulfilled yet. But this is based on a reversal of the prophetic image: those who say the “Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” is the promise of the descent of the Lord from heaven to earth, neglect the crucial detail that the prophecy of Dan. 7 actually speaks of the Son of Man ascending from earth to heaven and being led in to the presence of the Most High. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. As for the Lord’s return, two angels appeared beside the apostles after the Ascension to say, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven will come back in the same manner you saw him go into heaven.” What was the manner in which they saw him taken up? “A cloud hid him from their sight.” In other words — the the Lord would be henceforth hidden. This is why they asked, “Why are you staring at the sky?” The rhetoric here implies, “Why bother searching the skies for something that is hidden? For he will likewise return in a hidden manner.” In so many places, Jesus spoke of his coming as hidden, like a thief in the night. In the Farewell Discourse, however, he unveiled the mysterious matter to his faithful disciples: He would come to be with them forever in the Paraclete. There is another important detail for our understanding of the “manner” in which Jesus ascended and would return: the clouds themselves. What are these clouds, hiding the form of Christ? Since heaven is described in the Bible as a temple, the clouds are likened to the smoke of temple incense, and called the glory of the Lord. These are the clouds of the Transfiguration: “a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased: listen to him.” (Mt. 17:5). Note that the cloud is bright, implying fire (we tend to forget that fire was the primary form of terrestrial light in Biblical times). In Exodus 19:18, “Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the Lord had come down upon it in fire.” The presence of the Lord in the cloud is known as the Shekinah glory, a smoking cloud by day and light of flaming fire by night. This glorious presence is exactly what Isaiah promised would be given to Zion in the days of Christ (Is. 4:5). For all their brightness, the glory clouds also hide the Lord like a shroud: “he made darkness his cloak around him” (Ps. 18:11); “clouds and darkness surround him…fire goes before him” (Ps. 97:2-3). The clouds of heaven, then, envision the fire and smoke of burnt sacrifices as icons of the Holy Spirit. Paul describes Jesus as a burnt offering in Eph. 5:2, who “handed himself over for us as a sacrificial offering to God for a fragrant aroma” — consumed by the fire of the Holy Spirit. Similarly, the Book of Hebrews details how Christ’s self-offering fulfilled the type of the Day of Atonement sacrifice. After the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies to present the blood of the sacrifice, he appeared a second time to proclaim salvation to the people, and then he would burn the offerings outside the camp. These correspond to Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension. When the author of Hebrews says, “let us therefore meet him outside the camp” (Heb. 13:13), he is suggesting that we too offer ourselves like Christ as a burnt offering — to be consumed by the flames of the Holy Spirit, rising up to heaven in the glory cloud. In this way, the holy ones also “come on the clouds” with him (Zech. 14:5; 1 Thess. 3:13; Rev. 19:11-14) — those who, through baptismal resurrection, are “like the angels in heaven” (Mt. 22:30) whom the Son of Man sends out for the great harvest (Lk. 10:2) with the trumpet blast of the gospel of resurrection (1 Cor. 15:52). In Rev. 10, this scenario is envisioned as the descent and shout of the archangel (1 Thess. 4:16), where the opened scroll of the gospel is given to John, and he is called to evangelize the nations. The open scroll is a symbol of the “mystery of God fulfilled” (Rev. 10:7), which Paul said was “revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets…that through the gospel the nations are heirs [together with Israel], members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 3:6). This was the way by which “all Israel [would] be saved” (Rom. 11:26) and how Jesus would restore the Kingdom of Israel (Acts 1:6). They would all, therefore, constitute that “great cloud of witnesses” (Heb. 12:1) coming with the Son of Man on the clouds in the unity of the Holy Spirit, that bright flame illuminating the cloud. This then explains what the two angels meant when they said, “he will come back in the same manner you saw him go into heaven” — that is, in the glory cloud. In the very next chapter, these words come true: “when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like a mighty rushing wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw tongues like flames of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:1-4). The rich indwelling of the Holy Spirit is how Jesus “comes to be glorified in his holy ones” (2 Thess. 1:10), in other words. John’s way of saying it is that Christ appears in those who, because they are able to see him as he is, truly imitate him (1 Jn. 3:2). Paul speaks of it in terms of childbirth until Christ is formed in the disciple (Gal. 4:19), becoming conformed to the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29); and being transformed into his image from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18) — this is the passage where he explicitly invokes the consubstantiality of the Son and Spirit with the words “the Lord is the Spirit,” showing that the indwelling of the Spirit and the indwelling of Christ are the same. Lastly, Paul identifies man as the “glory of God” in 1 Cor. 11:7. We can therefore understand the glory clouds as pertaining to the Holy Spirit, and the unity thereof subsisting in the communion of saints. We might be accustomed to thinking “he will come back in the same manner you saw him go into heaven” refers not to Pentecost and the Life of the Spirit, but the Second Coming. The context, as we have seen, doesn’t allow for such a narrow interpretation. The Farewell Discourse is especially explicit that the Parousia of the Lord was in the Paraclete — a Paracletian Parousia, if you will. The Ascension, therefore, fulfills Daniel’s vision, and Jesus’ promise, of the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven. It also signaled to the disciples the manner in which he would return on Pentecost and onward, in the baptismal, fiery cloud of the Holy Spirit when He would be glorified in them as He was glorified in the Father and the Father in Him, as He had taught at the Last Supper (Jn. 13:31-32) — and this in turn would fulfill the rest of Daniel’s vision where the saints receive their share in the Son of Man’s dominion, reigning unto eternal life (Rom. 5:21) in His Kingdom. As the Ascension signaled the “manner in which he would return” to the 1st century disciples, it should signal the same to us: he did not leave us as orphans, but comes to us in the Holy Spirit. As he made this promise at the Last Supper, this may be understood as a Eucharistic promise as well. When Our Lord Jesus Christ vowed to the seven Churches of Revelation two thousand years ago that He was coming soon, three of these promised comings — to Ephesus, Pergamum, and Laodicea — are explicitly Eucharistic: “to the one who overcomes” in Ephesus, “I will grant the right to eat from the tree of life”; “to the one who overcomes” in Pergamum, “I will give the hidden manna”; “if anyone hears my voice” in Laodicea “and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him.” The voice here is the voice of the Lord as the Spirit, as he closed each letter to each church with the signature, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Churches.” Hence, the early Church celebrated their Eucharist not simply by eating bread and wine, for bread and wine does not a Eucharist make; but with supplications and prayer through the Holy Spirit, and the prayerful post-communion proclamation of the Real Presence with the Aramaic “Marana tha,” which means “The Lord has come!” (Didache 10:6). These are the prayers of the faithful, those who hear the voice of the Spirit and open the door, and by the Spirit’s power, overcome — Our Lord never fails to come to those who, calling on his name, answer his call; or to enter in to those who open the door when he knocks (Rev. 3:20). Everything that is the Father’s belongs to the Son; we belong to the Father, and the Son is glorified in us (Jn. 17:10). Since we have God for a Father, we are his heirs and joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:16-17) — and Christ is heir of all things (Heb. 1:2). “Everything belongs to you…the world or life or death, or the present or the future: all belong to you, and you to Christ, and Christ to God.” (1 Cor. 3:21-23). All things beneath Christ’s feet are also beneath our own, for “God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might display the surpassing riches of his grace, demonstrated by his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:6-7). Since the Lord was so gracious to give us these gifts, may we live our lives in such a way as to be worthy of what we have received from him: hearing his voice, opening the doors of our heart to him, seeing him in all people as He taught us to, and loving them as he loved us all. We offer ourselves to our Father through the all-consuming fiery Holy Spirit of Love in the name of the Son who went before us as a burnt offering at his Ascension. May our prayers arise as the clouds of incense (Ps. 141:2). Amen. You're currently a free subscriber to Seán McMahon. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.
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Thursday, May 29, 2025
Feast of the Ascension 2025
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