June 1, 2025

Solemnity of the Ascension  

Our Exaltation and Consolation 

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio 

Trying to understand Our Lord’s ascension can be quite perplexing. We should not think of it as an ending, with Jesus taking some kind of journey into space. Pope Benedict said that the Ascension was not a departure into “a remote region of the cosmos” or that Our Lord made his way to some distant star. That would be a very sad understanding.  
 
Our Lord ascended to the realm proper to God, a realm that is beyond time and space, a realm not bound by earthly limitations. He ascended to take his place at the right hand of the Father, a symbolic way of describing Our Lord’s exaltation and authority to oversee and govern the whole life of the Church anywhere at any time.
 
I’d like to highlight two of the Ascension’s consoling truths. The first is that it points us to heaven the goal of our entire life, a goal we should never allow to slip from our consciences. Because heaven is beyond our understanding, we tend to describe it in earthly terms.  
 
During “words of remembrance” at funerals I hear about the deceased,  
 

• Uncle George playing that perfect game of golf for all eternity.  
• Nonna Graziella giving the saints a taste of her exquisite meatballs,  
• Cousin Millie who couldn’t carry a tune finally singing with the angelic choirs.  
• or Uncle Joe, an avid gambler in an eternal poker game always winning!  
   

Such images might be consoling but they do heaven no justice. When we close our eyes to our world, we open them to God’s new world.  
 
St. Paul was given a glimpse of heaven. All he could say of it afterward was “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it entered in the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.’  
 
What will that life be like? What will we do in heaven? Will we become bored? Would it be like being in Our Lady of Sorrows Church for all eternity…with me in the pulpit? Now there’s a scary prospect! Actually, that would be a great suffering and suffering has no place in heaven. Fr. Roland Knox said that trying to describe heaven is “like wanting to play the works of Wagner on the teeth of a comb.”
 
Fr. Leo Trese says, “If we have the least understanding of heaven, we must see that it is worth living for, working for, and suffering for. We must see, too, that the only certain path to Heaven lies over the sometimes rugged but never impassable road of a good life. Surely…only a fool would gamble with the such a heritage, even for a moment, by mortal sin.”  
 
The second consoling truth is that the Ascension, the Lord’s exaltation, did not undo his Incarnation. Jesus enters heaven with his humanity. In the Letter to the Hebrews, we read:
 
“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” How consoling it is to remember that Jesus understands our struggles: the doubts we have, our feelings of abandonment, our physical pains, our disappointments, feelings of loneliness, our struggle with grief. Doesn’t this help us in our prayer? For when we pray, we are praying to One who understands us fully.  
 
O Lord Jesus, ascended to heaven’s glory at the Father’s right hand, I confess I don't often long for heaven. I'm a creature of this world and crave worldly things, not heavenly ones. Forgive my forgetfulness. Help me overcome my indifference and my sloth. Help me grow in a desire for heaven, for earthly things will pass away. You have promised never to abandon your Church. Let me always search for your hand to guide me, and find in you, the way, the truth, and the life!