Ascension: The Translation of Earthly Reality into the Heavenly Dimension

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

 Feast of the Ascension of the Lord 

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Transferred and Celebrated on May 24, 2020

It is believed that the Ascension of the Lord took place from the Mount of Olives. It was there that the eleven disciples, acting on the instruction of Jesus, gathered together to wait for him. But why on a mountain? Why did Jesus ask his disciples to come to the mountain? Why did he ask them to wait for him on the mountain? You know, mountain can sometimes symbolize a hinderance or an obstruction, something that stands between you and your dream. However, in biblical terms, mountain is a place of intense encounter with God. It is the meeting place between humanity and divinity. It is said that when we go up, God comes down. In the Old Testament, we read that Moses received the Law, the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:20-24). As such, it became a symbol of God’s covenant with Israel. On Mount Carmel, Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal to determine whose sacrifice would be accepted (1 Kings 18). In the New Testament, Jesus delivered the amazing Beatitudes sermon on the Mount, reminding us of the image of Moses who received the Commandments on Mount Sinai (Matthew 5). Before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prayed on the Mount of Olives (Luke 22:39-49). The Transfiguration of Jesus happened on a mountain— Mount Tabor (Matthew 17:1-9; Mark 9: 2-8; Luke 9:28-36). Before the multiplication of loaves, Jesus was seated on a mountain and surrounded by his disciples. The temptation of Jesus occurred on the Mount of Temptation (Matthew 4:8). His last post-resurrection appearance also occurred on a mountain (Matthew 28:16-20. Yet, upon seeing Jesus on this mountain, the disciples doubted even as they worshipped him. But without minding his disciples doubt, Jesus approached them and declared, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” 

Sisters and brothers, does this declaration remind you of a particular significant event in the life of Jesus? Yes, it reminds me of Jesus’ temptations by the devil. Matthew’s Gospel 4 tells us that after Jesus had fasted for forty days, the devil approached him and urged him to turn some stones into loaves of bread. But Jesus rejected him by telling him that one does not live on bread alone but on the word of God. After that, the devil took Jesus to the holy city and made him stand on the parapet of the temple and then challenged him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down” (4:5). Then quoting Psalm 91, the devil called Jesus' attention to God’s promise to send his angels to protect him and prevent him from crash-landing. Responding to the second temptation, Jesus reminded the devil the words of the Scripture that says, “…you shall not put the Lord, your God to the test” (4:7). After failing twice to make Jesus yield to him, the devil took Jesus to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence. Then he said to Jesus “All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me” (4:9). By this time Jesus has had enough. So, he rebuked him and said, “Get away, Satan. It is written: the Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve” (4:10). 

Now, it is not a mere coincidence that after his death and resurrection Jesus would ask his disciples to meet him on a mountain, and right there on the mountain he would declare that all power in heaven and everything— power, pleasure, wealth, honor, fame, control etc. that the devil offered him in exchange for his relationship with his Father has been given to him. As we can now see, what the devil offered to Jesus for Jesus’ loyalty to him was far much less than what he got now. For his faithful obedience to his Father, all power in heaven and on earth is now his. Interestingly, immediately after his declaration, he commissions his disciples and drops a heartwarming promise that should gladden our hearts: “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Beloved in Christ, too often we read the Ascension as the moment when Jesus “went away,” when he left us on our own and went to heaven, where we hope to join him some day. But the Ascension is not Jesus going away, rather it is Jesus assuming his position as the leader of the Church’s life. When we talk about Christmas, Good Friday, Easter etc. we easily understand what they mean, but not Ascension. Ascension should not be seen as Jesus' escape from a wicked world. It should not be interpreted as Jesus' flight from the people that persecuted and killed him. He has not ascended to detach from us. His Ascension is not a platonic escape— a running away from prison and heading to a higher world. For the Greeks, salvation is an escape from this lower world considered a prison to a higher world of ideas. In platonic sense, heaven and earth are two distinct world detached from each other. But that’s not the biblical understanding of heaven and earth. For Ancient Israel, heaven is the realm of God and angels, and earth is the realm of human beings, animals and plants. However, they are not in a radically separate metaphysical spaces; rather heaven and earth impinge upon each other. They interlace and interrelate and touch upon each other in all sorts ways. So, the purpose of salvation is not so much to escape from the wicked world, rather the transfiguration of earth by heaven. In the Our Lord’s Prayer, Jesus prayed and said, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” This prayer comes out from his deep Jewish sensibilities. In that prayer, he did not pray for an escape from the earth, but rather the coming together of heaven and earth: Lord, may you reign here as you reign in heaven. It reiterates the words of Prophet Isaiah, “Lord, may your glory cover the earth, as the water covers the sea.” Even the resurrection of Jesus is not the escape of his soul from his body. All the accounts of the resurrection highlights how embodied the Risen Jesus is. Standing before Thomas, he obliged him to touch him and to see his wounds. In Luke’s Gospel, he eats and drinks with them after he rises from the dead. He also told them that he is not a ghost and that a ghost does not have bones and flesh. All of these communicate to us the Jewish sensibilities. 

The Ascension of Jesus therefore is not a space trip up to the sky. It is rather the translation of this earthly reality into the heavenly dimension. Notice that the Ascension of Jesus is followed by Pentecost— that is, the descent of the Holy Spirit. With the Ascension of Jesus, something of the earth goes up in the heavenly realm, and with Pentecost, something of heaven comes down to the earthly realm. Now the Church is the mystical body of Jesus; it is that community that has been transfigured by Christ by his heavenly power. Our job therefore is to continue his work of bringing earth and heaven together. What does a good preaching do? It unites heaven and heaven. What about great Christian arts? They link heaven and earth. What does a great singing in church do? It goes up and harmonizes with that of the angels in heaven. Our task now is to continue to do what Jesus did. As we do them, let’s remember he is personally with us.