“While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him” (St. Augustine of Hippo)
As We Await His Return
When Jesus warned the Jews about their sinfulness saying, “I am going away and you will look for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going you cannot come” (John 8:21), He was referring to the life of heaven. But the earthly minded Jews could not understand such heavenly reference and so responded, “He is not going to kill himself, is he,” (John 8:21-22).
Today, we celebrate the mystery that highlights the perfect union between the human and divine natures of our Savior, Jesus Christ. The Ascension of Christ into heaven is the going up to heaven of Christ’s risen and glorified body, forty days after his resurrection. Following the Ascension, Jesus exists in a corporeal form with the Father outside time and space, concluding the work of our redemption and the pledge of our own eventual ascension into heaven.
In the Gospel we read, “So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). Christ’s body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection. “Jesus’ final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand” (CCC 659).
Did Jesus abandon creation when he ascended? Not really. “Christ is now exalted above the heavens, but he still suffers on earth all the pain that we, the members of his body, have to bear” (St. Augustine of Hippo). He reassures us saying, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If there were not, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be” (John 14:2-3). Hence, it is very consoling to know that “While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him” (St. Augustine of Hippo).
Fr. Augustine Ariwaodo