In my Father's house there are many mansions. If not, I would have told you: because I go to prepare a place for you. And if I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to myself; that where I am, you also may be. And whither I go you know, and the way you know. (Jn. 14:3-5)
Friday after the Ascension
Dom Gueranger, Liturgical Year
The feast of the Ascension shows us the work of God in its
completion. Hence it is that the Church in her daily offering of the holy
sacrifice thus addresses the eternal Father the words occur immediately after
the consecration and contain the motives of her confidence in the divine mercy:
“Wherefore O Lord we Thy servants as also Thy holy people calling to mind the blessed Passion of Christ Thy Son our Lord His Resurrection from the dead and His admirable Ascension into heaven offer unto Thy most excellent Majesty a pure holy and unspotted Host. “
It is not enough for man to hope in the merits of his
Redeemer's Passion which cleansed him from his sins it is not enough for him to
add to the commemoration of the Passion that of the Resurrection whereby our
Redeemer conquered death man is not saved he is not reinstated except by
uniting these two mysteries with a third the Ascension of the same Jesus who
was crucified and rose again. During the forty days of His glorified life on
earth Jesus was still an exile and like Him we also are exiles until such time
as the gate of heaven which has been closed for four thousand years shall be
thrown open both for Him and for us God in His infinite goodness made man for an
end higher than that of being mere lord of creation. gave him a higher destiny
than that of knowing truths as his natural powers could grasp. […] Though
inferior to the angel and uniting in himself two natures of matter and spirit
man was created the same end as the angel Both were to dwell for in heaven both
were to be eternally happy the face to face vision of God that is in the
closest with the sovereign Good Grace that wondrous and divine to fit them for
the supernatural end prepared for them by the gratuitous goodness of their
Creator. This was the design which God had decreed from all eternity to raise
up to Himself these creatures that He had drawn out of nothingness and to
enrich them agreeably to their sublime destiny with the treasures of His love
and His light. […]
Our earth presents to our Creator a new Adam He cannot stay
here for He has conquered death He must ascend to heaven and if her gates be
closed she must open them and receive Him “Lift up your gates, O ye princes and
be ye lifted up, O eternal gates and the King of glory shall enter in.” Oh that
He would take us thither with Him for He is our brother and He assures us that
His delight is to be with the children of men. But what a joy it is for us to
see our Jesus ascend to heaven! He is the holiest the purest the loveliest of
our race. He is the Son of a spotless Mother – let Him go and represent us in
the kingdom of our inheritance. It is our own earth that sends Him, she is no
longer a desert now that she has produced such a flower and such a fruit for
heaven. A flood of light poured into this lowly vale of tears when the gates of
heaven were raised up to receive Him. Be Thou exalted O Lord in Thine own
strength, and we who are still on the earth will sing and praise Thy power. Receive,
O eternal Father, the brother whom we send to Thee. Sinners though we are, this brother of ours
is infinitely holy and perfect Where is the curse that once fastened on our
earth The earth hath given her fruit. [Let
us rejoice in the Ascension, by which the work of the rescue of Adam and Eve
was restored to Thee!]
No comments:
Post a Comment