Monday, March 18, AD 2024 10:49pm

Saint Augustine on the Ascension

Today our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven; let our hearts ascend with him. Listen to the words of the Apostle: If you have risen with Christ, set your hearts on the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God; seek the things that are above, not the things that are on earth. For just as he remained with us even after his ascension, so we too are already in heaven with him, even though what is promised us has not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.

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. He showed this when he cried out from above: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? and when he said: I was hungry and you gave me food. Why do we on earth not strive to find rest with him in heaven even now, through the faith, hope and love that unites us to him?

While in heaven he is also with us; and we while on earth are with him. He is here with us by his divinity, his power and his love. We cannot be in heaven, as he is on earth, by divinity, but in him, we can be there by love.

He did not leave heaven when he came down to us; nor did he withdraw from us when he went up again into heaven. The fact that he was in heaven even while he was on earth is borne out by his own statement: No one has ever ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven. These words are explained by our oneness with Christ, for he is our head and we are his body. No one ascended into heaven except Christ because we also are Christ: he is the Son of Man by his union with us, and we by our union with him are sons of God.

So the Apostle says: Just as the human body, which has many members, is a unity, because all the different members make one body, so is it also with Christ. He too has many members, but one body. Out of compassion for us he descended from heaven, and although he ascended alone, we also ascend, because we are in him by grace. Thus, no one but Christ descended and no one but Christ ascended; not because there is no distinction between the head and the body, but because the body as a unity cannot be separated from the head.

 

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Thursday, May 25, AD 2017 1:51pm

[…] SAINT AUGUSTINE ON THE ASCENSION […]

Anzlyne
Anzlyne
Thursday, May 25, AD 2017 6:20pm

Since we live near the Omaha archdiocese I was able to attend the Ascension liturgy on the actual holy day. The idea of a “holy” day, of sanctified time according to the feasts and seasons God has revealed to us in Scripture and Tradition has lately (30- 40 years) been dropped by Church Teaching Authority
In our tri-diocese area what is a holy day of obligation in one part of the metro area is put off for the convenience of attending on Sunday in the other two dioceses…Sioux City and Sioux Falls…fulfilling two obligations in one so to speak. It is confusing for people growing up on diocesan borders who have family and friends in the other parts of the area– explain to your kids the what and why of a “holy day”!
The very idea of holy days, of liturgical meaning to time is degraded. It is increasingly easy to doubt the Church.
Instead of sanctifying time, just seem to go more and more with the secular flow.
🙁 We can’t have Ascension be the beginning of the novena leading to pentecost unless we shorten our nine day prayer to seven.
Actually the recognition of the feasts and seasons established by God is formative of Faith. What a slide–the formal departure from a God centered Church calendar which posits “obligation” to worship as God as taught us, to a “come when you can, if you don’t mind too much. And we will do the mass as fast as we can”.

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