Easter Weekday

THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY
By Fr Jean Danielou 6
◊◊◊
The Apostles’ Creed contains a noteworthy passage in which,
grammatically speaking, we move from the past to the future: “He ascended
into the heavens, to be seated at the right hand of God. He will come again to
judge the living and the dead.” Thus the mysteries of Christ are not completed
with the ascension. There is still another mystery to come, that of the Parousia.
Between these two there is a mystery which is, in the present, that of the session
at the right hand. So there is a mystery of Christ with which we are
contemporary that corresponds to that moment of sacred history, which
belongs to us, which constitutes the present activity of the Word.
Here we find, in the mysteries of glory, the order which we ascertained in
the mysteries of darkness. Through the ascension the humanity of Christ was
exalted above every creature and was introduced by the Word into the
inaccessible sanctuary of the Trinity. But the humanity of Christ tends to attract
everything else to it. “If only I am lifted up from the earth, I will attract all
peoples to myself.” Christ has only entered the heavenly sanctuary as a
forerunner. The presence of his humanity in the sphere of the Trinity is the
guarantee of the possibility that is henceforth ours to attain. The impassible gulf
is henceforth overcome; the impossible has become possible. In a suitable
image, the epistle to the Hebrews shows the humanity of Christ as cast like an
anchor, not into the depths of the sea, but into the far places of heaven, laying
the foundation of our hope that we shall in our turn attain to the anchorage
beyond the veil.

Thus there is, henceforth, in the heart of each person an ascensional
power that lifts it up and draws it towards the Father, that “gravity” of love of
which Augustine spoke, and which counteracts the “gravity” of the flesh. This
is the meaning of the era of the Church, in which Christ, having entered into the
glory of the Father, seeks to lift up humanity as a whole. By this means the
movement is completed which began at the Incarnation, when the Word of God
came to seek for mankind, but in order to lead it back to the Father. This is why
we are told, “he has mounted up on high; he has captured his spoil; he has
brought gifts. And he who so went down is no other than he who has gone up,
high above all the heavens to fill creation with his presence.” And truly this
humanity is a mighty weight to raise. Its gravity resists grace. That is the whole
drama of the present period in sacred history. But the power of the Word is
greater than our resistance.

6
Jean Danielou, Christ and Us, New York: Sheed and Ward, pp. 155-159.