The Ascension of Our Lord is often imagined as a kind of departure. Christ has risen from the dead, appeared to His disciples, instructed them and then gone away into heaven. On this reading, the Church is left behind to remember Him, to imitate His moral example and to await His eventual return. But this is not the Catholic understanding of the mystery. The Ascension is not Christ’s retreat from the world, rather it is His enthronement over it.
When Our Lord ascends into heaven, He does not cease to act. He enters into His glory. He takes His seat at the right hand of the Father. His sacred humanity, once humbled in the manger, wearied on the roads of Galilee, scourged at the pillar and nailed to the Cross, is now exalted above every earthly power. The same Jesus who was mocked as “King of the Jews” is revealed as King of kings and Lord of lords. The Ascension is therefore not merely the final scene of Easter. It is a royal mystery.
