(Given at the 4:30 pm Saturday Mass)
Jesus ascends into heaven. He goes to prepare a place for us, as we hear in John’s Gospel. He is the way and has made open the way to heaven that was impassable before. Ever since Adam and Eve sinned and cursed the human race, heaven was shut. No flesh had ever entered that all-holy and most pure realm of the angels. But, again, Christ is the way, and has indeed opened heaven for us. He has made the way accessible in himself. Now, he enters that very abode which he created. The angels are shocked. Not because they were flatly ignorant of the matter, but rather they marveled at the culmination of the mystery of the Incarnation. Never had anything of the flesh entered the realms of endless day! God the Father exclaims, as we hear from Psalm 24, “Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.” The angels cry out: this man is your Only-Begotten Son? The Eternal Word? God from God and Light from Light? Our Psalm from today says as much, “God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts.” Heaven rejoices! Jesus ascends for our sake, for you and me. That joined to his body as his members by divine adoption, we might follow him to the glories of heaven in our own flesh. Jesus never left the Father’s presence in a strict sense; God was always with him. John 14:11 states as much, “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” Jesus was always a delight to his Father, even and especially on the Cross. He always did his Father’s will. Now, Jesus presents his human nature in heaven before the throne of his Father, having accomplished his mission of rescuing the earth from the clutches of the evil one. We see our own humanity enthroned in heaven! What has happened to the one man, Jesus Christ, has happened to us all. Ephesians 2 states that, “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ . . . and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” My brothers and sisters, God has forever enthroned humanity in heaven. How great is God’s love for his creation! How great is God’s love for you and for me. Humanity is precious and special because God has made it so out of his sheer love and generosity.