Ascension Thoughts 2025
Why did Jesus ascend into heaven? Wouldn’t it be better if He remained here on earth. And, besides, Matthew records that He said “Behold, I am with you always, even until the end of days.” We know that when the Church celebrates the Ascension, forty days after Easter, we read the Ephesians text declaring ‘Therefore [Scripture] says: "Having ascended on high, He led captive captivity and gave gifts to men."’ And the gifts He gives we celebrate ten days later, at Pentecost, when we commemorate the sending of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of the first three thousand Jews after Peter’s sermon. But, we may object, couldn’t Jesus have stayed on earth and God would have done all that?
Let’s look at this question, not so much from the divine perspective, but rather from a mostly human point of view. First, what was and is the divine plan for humans, as outlined by Jesus? From the beginning, even back in the original Garden, God’s purpose was to take humans as He created them and by communicating with them, transform them into perfect images of Himself. He wants to divinize humans. Milton, in Paradise Lost, imagines the begotten Son of God revealed as Jesus. Adam and Eve were supposed to be transformed by God’s grace into Jesus-line beings. Satan tempts Eve, and ultimately Adam as well, into rebellion against God’s plan. So the divine “plan A” was rejected by its human beneficiaries.
What we might call “plan B” became underway immediately. God made a series of covenants between Himself and humans, with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, sealed in the blood of the circumcision ritual. That covenant was articulated in letters of stone with Moses and the Israelites. The covenant with David was more personal, and in Psalm 110, we see it articulated as a promise to complete the work of redemption and “nation-building” in the Messiah, revealed every Christmas when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In His passion, death, Resurrection and Ascension, He is revealed as Lord Messiah and as the Son of God. At His ascension, He left behind the core of His Church that would continue His work of redemption and sanctification through the sacramental power of the Holy Spirit, working signs and wonders in Christ’s Body.
What was the response of the humans in the Holy Land when Jesus began His earthly ministry? Did they swarm to His message of transformation, repentance, sacramental regeneration and mission? Look at all the Gospels. Even the Twelve were tempted. The people treated Jesus as a mobile clinic, healing leprosy, blindness, profound hearing loss, even death. And don’t forget that once He had multiplied loaves and fishes, they began to expect to be fed by Him frequently. But the miracles of this Messiah were meant to establish His credibility so they would listen to Him and the message of the Kingdom of God. They were not the primary reason for His appearance on earth.
Why, then, was it an essential part of God’s plan for Jesus to return to the Father? From a purely earthly view, it was necessary because humans—you and I—would otherwise continue to treat Jesus as mobile clinic and bread factory. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, enabled by the return of Jesus to glory, mere humans could have the power to heal, teach, preach, organize their assemblies, and pray, especially sacramentally. Even more, after a couple of generations the leaders chosen by God would learn how to lead, how to evangelize. Over the centuries they would learn self-correction. They would even find it possible to deal with really sinful leaders, like the infamous Alexander VI, and survive the Protestant revolution by letting God lead a Catholic reformation.
We are graced by the action of the Holy Spirit, who forms Jesus Christ in us, and stimulates by that grace special charisms that help us find our place in the Church and enable appeal to a world of lost souls. But we are still encumbered by the long-term effects of original sin, hurting our decision-making ability and pushing us to self-centered behavior. If Jesus Christ were present in the risen flesh, the vast majority of people, even Christians, would continue to treat Him like a super magician, begging Him to take away our hunger, our thirst, our material and emotional needs. What He wants to do for us is make us like Himself. That’s why He is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us and operating through His Holy Spirit to do way more than would be possible if He were stuck in one place on earth.
There’s another issue involved in keeping the Risen Christ on earth. The Jewish people, looking at their political situation, basically enslaved to Roman rulers small and great, anticipated a Messiah who would mobilize an army. They imagined a king greater than David who would, like the Maccabees, defeat the foe, purify the Temple, and conquer the known world. He would then rule by force and make everyone obey Torah. He would be a tyrant. If anyone would not play by His rules because of a change of heart, He would force them at least in their social behavior to do so. That is not what God intended for human society. He wanted to write His Law of love and peace on all human hearts and minds, so that we worship rightly and behave lovingly just as Jesus did before the Resurrection. We would lose free will. God respected our dignity so much that He would not rule in that way.
Humans like to think of big problems in black-and-white terms, the infamous “either-or.” Thus, in the Ascension question, we want Jesus either to stay here on earth and do everything for us, which sounds a lot like slavery, or get out of the way and let us do whatever we want. But God’s plan is not set up as an “either-or.” God has set up His Church as a “both-and” institution. Jesus is both our Lord and God AND our helper in times of need, which is all the time. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to save AND inspire us. He wants us to act in His place as His representatives on earth, with the intent to draw all humans into communion with Him, so that His work can continue in all times and places.
