But the Ascension is much more than just Christ's departure from earth. It is the culmination of His salvific work, as the ancient prophecies foretold. Isaiah prophesied that God's holy mountain would be raised up, that all nations would stream to it, and that the law would go forth from Zion (Isaiah 2). Through His Ascension, Christ has gone to prepare a place for us in His Father's heavenly kingdom (John 14).
The prophet Zechariah also foresaw the coming of the Lord to Mount Olives in Jerusalem on that great and dreadful day (Zechariah 14). When Christ split the Mount and ascended in glory, He opened the way for our own eventual entrance into the Jerusalem above. As Isaiah declares, God has cleared a highway and leveled a road to lead His redeemed people back (Isaiah 62).
Most profoundly, the Ascension reveals God's steadfast love for His people despite our unfaithfulness (Isaiah 63). In ascending, the Lord who suffered for our sins now reigns victorious, able to shower compassion on us from on high. We were burdened with iniquity, but He became our Savior in every distress.
On this feast, we celebrate not just an event in the past, but a present reality. Through the Ascension, Christ has taken our human nature into heaven, raising earth to heaven's heights. We are called to follow Him there by putting sin to death and being raised up spiritually. The Ascension beckons us to fix our minds on the things above, where Christ reigns forevermore!
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