9781644135945

The Light of the World
His glorified life with Him? He is the head of the mystical body, and we are the members. Why,
then, should we be grieved by His departure? “It is expedient to you that I go” ( Jn 16:7). “And
He hath subjected all things under His feet, and hath made Him head over all the Church, which
is His body, and the fullness of Him who is filled all in all” (Eph 1:22 f.). His body possesses
the fullness of all gifts and graces, which He acquired at the time of His Ascension. “He that
descended is the same also that ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things”
(Eph 4:10). Thus Christ’s ascension is not a day of sadness for us, but rather a day of joy. So,
like the infant Church, which was a witness of the Ascension, we return from the memory of
the Ascension “with great joy, . . . praising and blessing God” (Lk 24:52 f.).
“Behold, I am with you all days.” He looks after us and cares for us, and even returns to us
in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Had He not been glorified, had He not ascended into heaven,
had He not been given a place at the right hand of the Father, we should now have no Sacrifice of
the Mass, no Holy Communion, no sacrament of baptism, no sacrament of penance, no priesthood,
and no Church. But now that He sits at the right hand of the Father, He finds a way to be
present among us in body and soul, to return to us as God and man, to truly give Himself to us
under the appearance of bread and wine, to be at once the priest and the victim of our sacrifice.
The whole community gathered about the altar is united with Him and offers itself also in the
sacrifice, thus becoming with Him a holocaust to the Father. Love, devotion, and the spirit of
sacrifice stream from that altar and envelop the sacrificing, praying community. Here at the altar
men gain the courage and the strength to suffer their daily cares and difficulties. Here, through
the reception of Holy Communion, during those moments of silent adoration at the steps of
the altar, they gain the courage and the strength to endure the burdens of their state of life and
the hardships imposed on them by the obligations of family life and fraternal charity. Here they
feel the enlivening, consoling presence of the glorified Lord. “Behold, I am with you all days.”
“Sing ye to the Lord who mounteth above the heaven of heavens to the east, alleluia.” Thus the
Church today bursts forth in joy at the time of Holy Communion. He who ascended in glory
and sat at the right hand of the Father, now descends again to earth and comes to us in Holy
Communion, and nourishes us with His glorified flesh and blood. In this manner He plants
in us the seed of the resurrection of the body, and prepares us for the resurrection which we
confidently expect.
Christ the risen Lord reposes now with His human nature in the bosom of the Father. And
in a sense we also repose there with Him, for, “ascending on high, He hath led captivity captive”
(Alleluia verse). Thus He freed us from the captivity of sin and the devil.
Where the head is, there the members must also be. And although our Head is in heaven,
He is simultaneously on earth at all times. He lives, prays, works and suffers in the baptized, in
us who are His members. “And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me” (Gal 2:20). He lives
among us in the Blessed Sacrament, loving us, coming close to us, nourishing our souls with
His life. “Come to me all you that labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you” (Mt 11:28).
Prayer
Grant, we beseech Thee, O almighty God, that we who believe Thy only-begotten Son, our
Redeemer, has this day ascended into heaven, may ourselves also dwell in spirit on heavenly
things. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
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