By Br. Eliott, MIC
Happy Solemnity of the Ascension! Today is a Holy Day of Obligation in certain dioceses in the United States, while in most others the Solemnity is transferred to this Sunday, June 1.
In any event, on this special feast day we celebrate Christ’s Ascension into Heaven, which took place 40 days after His Resurrection from the dead.
Saint Faustina Kowalska provides a beautiful meditation on Christ’s Ascension. In her Diary, she writes about her prayerful experience on the Solemnity of the Ascension in 1938:
Today I accompanied the Lord Jesus as He ascended into Heaven. It was about noon. I was overcome by a great longing for God. It is a strange thing, the more I felt God's presence, the more ardently I desired Him. Then I saw myself in the midst of a huge crowd of disciples and apostles, together with the Mother of God. Jesus was telling them …. Go out into the whole world and teach in My name. He stretched out His hands and blessed them and disappeared in a cloud. I saw the longing of Our Lady. Her soul yearned for Jesus, with the whole force of her love. But she was so peaceful and so united to the will of God that there was not a stir in her heart but for what God wanted (Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, 1710).
This entry highlights the depths of St. Faustina’s prayer life. Her meditation is similar to some of the methods of Ignatian spirituality (taught by Marian patron St. Ignatius of Loyola), which centers around imagining oneself in a given biblical narrative. Saint Faustina saw Mary’s ardent love for her Son when contemplating Christ’s Ascension. Mary’s love must have flowed from being so close to her Son’s Merciful Heart.
Ascending Mercy
Saint Faustina understood the merciful aspect of Christ’s Ascension. She wrote, “O my Creator and Lord, I see on all sides the trace of Your hand and the seal of Your mercy … ” (Diary, 1749). This great saint was able to find God’s mercy “on all sides.” Even St. Faustina’s spiritual director, Bl. Fr. Michael Sopoćko, acknowledged how “The Ascension is… the crowning act of God’s mercy” (The Mercy of God in His Works, volume II, p. 267).
We, too, can recognize God’s mercy in the mystery of Christ’s Ascension. First, Christ ascended into Heaven to intercede for mankind with the Father. Mother Mary, likewise, is crowned Queen of Heaven to intercede for all of her spiritual children (you and me).
When we pray for the world and all in it, we too are being merciful, as praying for others is a work of mercy: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.”
Mission of mercy
God’s mercy in the mystery of Christ’s Ascension is also manifested in the Messiah’s missionary mandate. Right before Christ ascended into Heaven, He exhorted His disciples (which includes you and I) to “go into the whole world and proclaim the Gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). This is the Messiah’s missionary mandate. You and I can proclaim Christ’s mercy whenever we proclaim the Gospel. This is why Pope Benedict XVI defined mercy as “the central nucleus of the Gospel message.”
In this Jubilee Year of Hope, may Christ’s Ascension give us hope! May the Messiah’s merciful Ascension help us to persevere in grace to obtain Heaven.
Christ says, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I will take you to myself; that where I am, there you also may be” (Jn 14:2-3). Through the Messiah’s merciful Ascension into Heaven, may you be abundantly blessed with hope and peace during this Jubilee.
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