ARTICLE
VI
"
He Ascended Into Heaven, Sitteth At The Right Hand Of God The Father Almighty
"
Importance
Of This Article
Filled
with the Spirit of God, and contemplating the Blessed and glorious Ascension of
our Lord, the Prophet David exhorts all to celebrate that splendid triumph with
the greatest joy and gladness: clap your hands, all ye nations: shout unto
God with the voice of joy. . . . God is
ascended with jubilee. 1
The
pastor will hence learn that this mystery should be explained with the greatest
diligence; and that he should take care that the people not only perceive it
with faith and understanding, but that they also strive as far as possible,
with the Lord's help to reflect it in their lives and actions.
First Part of this
Article:
"
HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN "
With
regard, then, to that exposition of this sixth Article, which has reference
principally to this divine mystery, we shall begin with its first part, and
point out its force and meaning.
"
INTO HEAVEN "
This,
then, the faithful must believe without hesitation, that Jesus Christ having
fully accomplished the work of Redemption, ascended as man, body and soul, into
heaven; for as God He never forsook
heaven, filling as He does all places with his Divinity.
"
HE ASCENDED "
The
pastor is also to teach that He ascended by His own power, not being taking up
by the power of another, as was Elias, who was carried to heaven in a fiery
chariot; 2 or, as the prophet Habacuc, 3 or Philip, the deacon, 4 whom were born through the air by the
divine power, and traversed great distances.
Neither
did He ascend into heaven solely by the exercise of His supreme power as God,
but also by virtue of the power which He possessed as man. Although human power alone was insufficient
to accomplish this, yet the virtue with which the blessed soul of Christ was
endowed was capable of moving the body as it pleased, and His body, now
glorified, readily obeyed the behest of the soul that moved it. Hence, we believe that Christ ascended into
heaven as God and man by His own power.
"
SITTETH AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD THE FATHER ALMIGHTY "
The
words He sitteth that the right hand of the Father form the second part
of this Article. In these words we observe a figure of speech; that is, a use
of words in other than their literal sense, as frequently happens in Scripture,
when accommodating its language to human ideas, it attributes human affections
and human members to God, who, spirit
as He is, admits of nothing corporeal.
"
AT THE RIGHT HAND "
As
among men he who sits at the right hand is considered to occupy the most
honorable place, so, transferring the same idea to celestial things, to express
the glory which Christ as man has obtained above all others, we confess that He
sits at the right hand of the Father.
"
SITTETH "
To
sit does not implied here position and posture of body, but expresses the firm
and permanent possession of royal and supreme power and glory which He received
from the Father, and of which the Apostle says: Raising him up from the dead, and setting him on his right hand
in the heavenly places, above all principality and power, and virtue, and
domination, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come; and he hath subjected all things under his feet. 5 These words manifestly imply that this
glory belongs to our Lord in so special an exclusive a manner that it cannot
apply to any other created being. Hence in another place the Apostle
testifies: To which of the Angels
said he at any time: Sit on my right
hand. 6 {a}
Reflections on the
Ascension:
Its History
The
pastor should explain the sense of the Article more at length by detailing the
history of the Ascension, of which the Evangelist St. Luke has left us an orderly
description in the Acts of the Apostles. 7
Greatness
Of This Mystery
In
this exposition he should observe, in the first place, that all other mysteries
refer to the Ascension as to their end and find in it their perfection and
completion; for as all the mysteries of
religion commence with the Incarnation of our Lord, so His sojourn on earth
terminates with His Ascension.
Moreover
the other Articles of the Creed which regard Christ the Lord show His great
humility and lowliness. Nothing can be
conceived more humble, nothing more lowly, than that the Son of God assumed our
weak human nature, and suffered and died for us. But nothing more magnificently, nothing more admirably, proclaims
His sovereign glory and divine majesty that what is contained in the present
and in the preceding Article, in which we declare that He rose from the dead,
ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father.
Reasons
Of The Ascension
When
the pastor has explained these truths, he should next accurately show why
Christ the Lord ascended into heaven.
First
of all, He ascended because the glorious kingdom of the highest heavens, not
the obscure abode of this earth, presented a suitable dwelling place for Him
whose body, rising from the tomb, was clothed with the glory of the
immortality. He ascended, however, not
only to possess the throne of glory and the kingdom which He had merited by His
blood, but also to attend to whatever regards our salvation.
Again, He ascended to prove thereby that His kingdom
is not of this world. 8 For the kingdoms of this world are earthly and transient, and are
based upon wealth and the power of the flesh; but the kingdom of Christ is not,
as the Jews expected, earthly, but spiritual and eternal. Its resources and riches, too, are
spiritual, as He showed by placing His throne in the heavens, where they are
counted richer and wealthier who seek most earnestly the things that are of
God, according to these words of St. James:
Hath not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs
of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him? 9
He also ascended into heaven in order to
teach us to follow Him thither in mind and heart. For as by His death and Resurrection He bequeathed to us an
example of dying and rising again in spirit, so by his Ascension He teaches and
instructs us that through dwelling on earth, we should raise ourselves in
desire to heaven, confessing that we are pilgrims and strangers on the
earth, seeking a country 10 and that we are fellow-citizens with the Saints, and the
domestics of God, 11 for, says the same Apostle, our
conversation is in heaven. 12
Results Of The
Ascension
The
extent and greatness of the unutterable blessings which of the bounty of God
has showered on us were long before, as the Apostle interprets, sung by the
inspired David: Ascending on high,
he led captivity captive: He
gave gifts to men. 13,
For on the tenth day He sent down the Holy Ghost, with whose power and
plenitude He filled the multitude of the faithful then present, and so fulfilled
that splendid promise: It is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not,
the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. 14
He
also ascended into heaven, according to the Apostle, that he may appear in
the presence of God for us, 15 and discharge for us the office of advocate with the
Father. My little children, says
St. John, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the just: and he is the proper agitation for our sins.
16
There is nothing from which
the faithful should derive greater joy and gladness of soul than from the
reflection that Jesus Christ is constituted our advocate and the mediator of
our salvation with the Eternal Father, with whom His influence and authority
are supreme.
Finally,
by his ascension He has prepared for us a place, as He had promised, and has
entered, as our head, in the name of us all, into the possession of the glory
of heaven. 17 Ascending into heaven, He threw
open its gates, which had been closed by the sin of Adam; and, as He foretold
to His disciples at His Last Supper, secured to us a way by which we may arrive
at eternal happiness. In order to give
an open proof of this by its fulfillment, He introduced with Himself into the
mansions of eternal bliss the souls of the just whom He had liberated from
hell. {b}
- Virtues Promoted by
The Ascension -
A
series of the important advantages followed in the train of this admirable
profusion of celestial gifts. In the
first place, the merit of our faith was considerably augmented; because faith has for its object those things
which fall not under the senses, but are far raised above the reach of human
reason and intelligence. If, therefore,
the Lord had not departed from us, the merit of our faith would not be the
same; for Christ the Lord has said: Blessed are they that have not seen, and
have believed. 18
In
the next place, the ascension of Christ into heaven contributes much to conform
our hope. Believing that Christ, as
man, ascended into heaven, and placed our nature at the right hand of God the
Father, we are animated with a strong hope that we, as members, shall also
ascend thither, to be there united to our Head, according to these words of our
Lord Himself: Father, I will that
where I am, they also whom thou hast given me may be with me. 19
Another
most important advantage is that He has taken our affections to heaven and
inflamed them with the Spirit of God; for most truly has it been said that were
our treasure is, there also is our heart. 20 And, indeed, were Christ the Lord still
dwelling on earth, the contemplation of His human nature and His company would
absorb all our thoughts, and we should view the author of such blessings only
as man, and cherish towards Him a sort of a earthly affection. But by His Ascension into heaven He has
spiritualized our affection and has made us venerate and love as God him whom,
on account of His absence, we see only in thought. This we learn in part from the example of the Apostles, who while
our Lord was personally present with them, seemed to judge of Him in some
measure in a human light; and in part from these words of our Lord
Himself: It is expedient to you
that I go. 21
The imperfect affection with which they loved Christ Jesus when present
had to be perfected by the divine love, and that by the coming of the Holy
Ghost; and therefore He immediately subjoins: If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you.
The Ascension Benefits
The Church And The Individual
Besides,
He thus enlarged His household on earth, that is, His church, which was to be
governed by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit. He left Peter, the Prince of the Apostles,
as its chief pastor and supreme head upon earth; moreover he gave some
apostles, and some prophets, and other some evangelists, and other some pastors
and doctors. 22 Thus seated at the right hand of the Father He continually bestows
different gifts on different men; for as the Apostle testifies: To everyone of us is giving grace,
according to the measure of the giving of Christ. 23
Finally,
what we have already taught of the mystery of His death and Resurrection the
faithful should deem not less true of his Ascension. For although we owe our Redemption and salvation to the Passion
of Christ, whose merits opened heaven to the just, yet His Ascension is not
only proposed to us as a model, which teaches us to look on
high and ascend in spirit into heaven, but it also imparts to us a divine
virtue which enables us to accomplish what it teaches. {c}
Endnotes
Article VI
1.> Ps. xlvi. 1, 6.
2.> 4 Kings ii. 11.
3.> Dan. xiv. 35.
4.> Acts viii. 39.
5.> Eph. i. 20-22.
6.> Heb. i. 13.
7.> Acts i.
8.> John xviii. 36
9.> James ii. 5.
10.> Heb. xi. 13, 14.
11.> Eph. ii. 10.
12.> Philip. iii. 20.
13.> Ps. lxvii. 19; Eph. iv. 8.
14.> John xvi. 7.
15.> Heb. ix. 24.
16.> 1 John ii. 1, 2.
17.> John xiv. 2.
18.> John xx. 29.
19.> John xvii. 24.
20.> Matt. vi. 21.
21.> John xvi. 7.
22.> Eph. iv. 11.
23.> Eph. iv. 7.
{a} On the Ascension of Christ see Summa Theol.
3a. lvii. lviii.
{b} He was elevated into heaven in order to
make us partakers of His Divinity
(Preface of the Mass of the Ascension).
{c} On the advantages of the Ascension of
Christ see Summa Theol. 3a.