“As he blessed them, he parted from them and was taken up to heaven. They did him homage and then returned to Jerusalem with great joy.” That is a curious and surprising passage. We would have expected the opposite. We would have expected the apostles to be left confused and sad. But instead of sorrow we find great joy. Why? Because the Lord had given them a hope and a mission.
What was that hope? It was the hope of life beyond this world, it was the hope of heaven. We are usually content to focus on the here and now and rarely think about our final goal. It’s been said that everyone wants to go the heaven, but no one wants to die. It fearful to face the unknown. The great “theologian,” Woody Allen said, “It’s not that I’m afraid to die. I just don’t want to be there when in happens.” Most of us have that attitude. Centuries ago, growing up in Trenton’s Italian parish, I learned a little Italian rhyme addressed to our Blessed Mother that goes, “Maria! Maria! Portami via ma piu’ tardi che sia!” (Mary, Mary, take me away, but as late as can be.) We prefer the here and now, but Jesus offers us the hope of something more, something new, something better.
After his Resurrection, Our Lord appeared to the apostles only ten times over the course of forty days. Why only these periodic encounters? St. Thomas Aquinas tackled this question and explained that in order to reveal the glory of his Resurrection, Jesus did not want to live with the apostles constantly as he had done before, lest they think that he rose to the same life as before. He goes on to say that Jesus “had risen in the same flesh but was not in the same state of mortality as they.”
The apostles had to be convinced of a different presence of Jesus—that he would be present to them in a new and powerful way, in a way that only God could be close to them.
For the apostles and us, the Ascension is not a feast of “farewell” but of “fulfillment.” At the right hand of the Father, Jesus does not distance himself from us but intercedes for us. He does not abandon us. He did not ascend to disappear far away into an inaccessible heaven. Let’s remember that Our Lord ascended in his risen, glorified, but human body, a body that retained the wounds of his crucifixion, reminders of what he underwent for love of us. In his humanity he knows and understands our experience of life. He knows life’s struggles and temptations. He knows what it means to be rejected and falsely accused. He experienced physical pain. Now he gives us hope that there is a new life beyond that experience.
The Lord said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled…I go to prepare a place for you.” But when that hope is realized, what will that life be like? What can we expect?
What are our usual images? Pearly gates? Floating along on a cloud in a flowing robe, with a trumpet, a harp? Floating by relatives and friends—“Oh, there’s Joe! I worked with him at the Department of Taxation until he moved to Florida. At funerals I hear about the deceased, now playing a perfect game of golf, or Nonna now cooking her superb Sunday sauce or gravy for expectant angels [in Trenton, it’s “gravy”] or Uncle Joe, an avid gambler, now enjoying an eternal poker game in the sky. Such images might be consoling to some, but they hardly do heaven justice. Theologians speak of the “beatific vision.” But it is not merely a vision of God but a union with God.
In his book, The Faith Explained, Fr. Leo Trese describes heaven in this way: “As the soul enters heaven, the impact upon it of the Infinite Love that is God would be so shattering as to annihilate the soul, if God himself did not give to the soul the strength it needs to endure the happiness that is God...It is a happiness that nothing can take from us. There are other joys that will be ours—the company of our glorified Savior Jesus and of our Mother Mary, the angels, and saints, including our own family members and friends. But these joys will be only the tinkling of little bells compared to the crashing symphony of God’s love that beats upon us.” [p.185]
But perhaps St. Paul expressed it best: “Eye has seen, ear has not heard, nor has it even entered into the mind of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.” [1 Cor 2:9]
The Lord also gave the apostles and us, a mission. The mission is precisely to share the hope that is ours with others, to take a sincere interest in the spiritual welfare of others—so that amid the stresses and burdens of life they too can have hope. We need this hope more than ever in our society. As we mourn the tragic deaths of so many innocents, don’t we need the hope that the Lord does not abandon us; he continues to love, to forgive and bring us new life. May we be faithful to our mission to build a culture of hope and a civilization of love.
