Ascension

This is the day we celebrate the ascension of Jesus.

Jesus said to his disciples, "These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you-- that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled." Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, "Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high." Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God. - Luke 24:44-53

Jesus tells his disciples that it makes sense that he had to die.

I wonder if we would believe if he had not been raised again after dying on the cross.  So, once he died, he had to be raised, so we would believe, just like Thomas and the others.

And after spending time among them, he would eventually have to go, right?

So, in a way, it all makes sense, once you accept that he had to die for us to be saved.  And that's the part that causes us trouble.

If he had not died, though, and had just been raised into heaven, we probably wouldn't believe in our own afterlife.  We celebrate the death and resurrection in every Eucharistic feast, as a reminder of our own mortality and the promise of eternal life with Christ, so all these things had to happen.

That is what Jesus explained to them and their minds were opened.

They had no way of understanding what we would be going through so many centuries later, but they understood the words of the prophets, and if they could see how Jesus fulfilled those words, they would get it.

The amazing thing is that we get it.  We don't know Scripture.  We know through our tradition.

And that tradition works for us. 

So, after spending time with his disciples after rising from the dead, Jesus went to be with the Father.

It all makes perfect sense.

More to come...