Vigils Reading – Ascension of the Lord

THE MYSTERIES OF GLORY

By Fr Jean Danielou

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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 which 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.