Thursday 14 May 2015

Solemnity Of Ascension Of Jesus Christ


Today May 14, 2015 is the Solemnity of Ascension or as we wull always sat 'Ascension Thursday'. The feast is celebrated all over the world today and its a Hily day of Obligation. 
Forty days after His Resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven body and soul. The period between his Resurrection and Ascension, He gave the primacy He had promised to Peter, as we read in John 21. The many events between His resurrection and ascension preclude the theory that He ascended on Easter. His ascension actually took place forty days from Easter.  His ascension does not mean that heaven is somewhere up in space. This was a way of making clear that He was leaving the present mode of existence. St. Paul in Colossians 3:1 urges us to live our lives now as if we had already died, had risen, and had ascended with Him. In a mystical sense we have done that, in that our Head has done that. In the physical sense it is still in the future. Ten days after His Ascension is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit - PENTECOST.
He ascended to receive the glory due to Him as conqueror of sin and death (Philippians 2:8-11); to be our Mediator, Comforter, and Advocate with the Father (Hebrews 9:24); to send the Holy Spirit as He had promised at the Last Supper (John 16:7); and to prepare a place for us as He also promised (John 14:2). All these he promised and had ascended to do. He really fulfilled all the promises for He is a faithful God.
Now He is seated at the Father's right hand, which means that, as He said, "all power has been given to Me in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). He always had that power as God, but now He exercises it as man, as King of the Universe, with His Mother beside Him as Queen of the Universe.

After resurrection on Easter night,  His presence has been felt on earth. Remember His appearance to the Apostles in Upper Room and at the second time because Thomas doubted His presence.   As God He is everywhere, but not as man, though He is present on earth most widely in the Holy Eucharist, even as man.
Besides His real bodily presence in the Eucharist, Christ is present on earth in other, lesser ways. Vatican II explained the various forms of presence, in the Constitution of the Liturgy: "Christ is always present to His Church, especially in liturgical actions. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass in the person of the Priest (celebrating mass); 'He is the same one, now offering by the ministry of priests, who then offered Himself on the Cross (citing the Council of Trent);, But He is most greatly present under the Eucharistic species. He is present by His power in the Sacraments, (Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders and Matrimony) so that when anyone baptizes, confirms, Christ Himself baptizes. He is present in His word, for He speaks when the Sacred Scriptures are read in the Church. He is present, finally, when the Church prays and sings the Psalms, songs, He who promised 'Where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in their midst'"(Matthew 18:20).
Taken from  the knowledge of The Basic Catholic Catechism
PART FOUR: The Apostles' Creed VI-VIII
Sixth Article: "He ascended into heaven; He sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty".

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