Recalling the time when Jesus was taken up to heaven reinforces our belief that where the head of the Body of Christ has gone, we too hope to follow. By taking on our flesh and nature, atoning for our sins, dying and rising, and ascending to heaven, our Jesus has made straight the path for disciples to follow. Jesus’s return to his Father is a fact based upon the eyewitness accounts of the Apostles.
The first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles recalls the moment Jesus left their sight. Before this, however, the Acts ensure that the reader is reacquainted with the events leading up to his departure. The Apostles recalled the eyewitness accounts of the risen Lord’s body and how they saw for themselves the marks of his suffering, namely the holes in his hands and feet and the gash in his side caused by his brutal crucifixion. “Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand and put it in my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believe.’”
Jesus proved to Thomas and his other skeptical followers that he was truly the one they followed before his death. Forty days after he rose, Jesus was taken from their sight. The Acts of the Apostles records this event, stating that when Jesus left their sight, two men in white said, “This Jesus who has been taken up from you to heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
The monumental event of Jesus being with his Father is the end of his mission on earth and completes the transformation of the human condition.
Remarkably, humanity’s transformation includes the end of sin and death, and the bodily resurrection. Jesus, who assumed a human body through the Blessed Virgin, now having broken the bonds of death, has been taken up body and soul. Jesus’ Ascension confirms that the transformation from sin to holiness includes the body. With God’s grace, our hope is to be united with him in our glorified bodies in heaven.
So far, we have focused on the objective nature of Jesus’ Ascension and now turn to the subjective. Thanks to the reflections of St. Leo the Great, the subjective nature of Jesus’ Ascension is fertile ground for our own reflections. St. Leo surmises that God’s providence strengthened the Apostles’ faith between the Resurrection and the Ascension by showing them that the Lord truly suffered, truly died, and was alive.
St. Leo further concludes that when Jesus ascended into heaven, there was no longer any doubt that he was the Son of God, sharing in his Father’s divinity. He was the one who descended from heaven and returned to the Father. With the certainty of Christ’s divinity, the disciples began seeing things in a new light. Before, they would know of his presence by seeing his body; now, they knew of him through the sacraments and the scriptures.
The Eucharist is the greatest example of knowing Jesus is with us without seeing his body. The bread and wine after consecration still look like bread and wine. Our faith tells us it is the body and blood of Christ. Many cannot accept this reality, but for those who can, it opens the way to a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. The limits of our senses are replaced by doctrine, and it is only through removing the crutch of the physical that we can aspire to a heavenly life.
Just as Jesus rebuked Thomas for his nonbelief, He blessed those who had not seen and believed. Believing without empirical evidence is what matures one’s faith.
It was a great privilege for the Apostles to work with Jesus, experience his glorified body, and later realize their faith was called to something much greater than the senses could provide. We share that privilege of faith and follow the Apostles’ lead to look beyond the world to eternity, a life that the senses can never adequately describe.