Newman Centre at University of Toronto

Ascension and Incarnation

- Ascension Sunday, Year C -

Every now and again God blesses us preachers with a serendipitous correspondence between a Feast Day and some event from the past week's news. This week God has done it again with news stories pertinent to our reflections on the meaning of the Ascension. For those who only read the sports pages, there is Calgary's ascension to the Stanley Cup finals. I could have done something with that, especially as their team name provides such a segue into next week's feast of Pentecost. But I normally set the sports pages aside once I've scanned, often in vain, for any tit-bit of cricket news, and I move on to the important stuff - the social columns. And there I found the story which really sheds light on the Ascension, a human analogy to aid our reflections.

Christ entered into glory, not just with his divinity, not dis-incarnated in some way, but with his full humanity also. And the news stories which shed some light on this aspect of the Ascension are two recent stories about royalty in Europe marrying commoners. The Crown Princes of Denmark and of Spain both recently married non-royals. What makes the Danish case even more fitting for our reflections is that the bride is not just any commoner, but a colonial commoner, and not a commoner from just any colony, but from a humble little, upside-down convict colony. In other words, for those struggling to keep up, Australia. Yes, an Aussie woman is now crown princess of Denmark. And the analogy with the Ascension works so well - Prince of Denmark, Prince of Peace; commoner blood united with royal blood, we humans united with the royal Son of God; she the bride of the crown prince, we the Bride of Christ. And so the mystery of the Ascension is resolved, as so many things are, by an Aussie analogy.

But I realise that not everyone here is blessed to be from Australia, so let's spend a bit more time on this mystery of the Ascension, and what it might mean for us. Christ ascends to heaven, returning to the Father. With this, there is a sense of completion, of fulfilment of a mission. The mission began with the Incarnation, with the Son of God becoming human. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us." It's a reality which begins when Mary says her 'Yes' to God, and the Son of God becomes flesh in her womb. It's a reality made visible to the world in the events we celebrate at Christmas time. The Son of God, with the Father in the heart of the Trinity, and equal to the Father from all eternity, assumes a human nature - a human body and a human soul - and lives and walks among us. This is the One who now returns to the Father. Jesus says, "No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man." [Jn3.13]. This language of reversal - descending now becoming ascending, coming down to earth now become a going up to heaven - can lead us to think of the Ascension as a reversal of the Incarnation. To think consciously, or to have lingering somewhere in the background of our imaginative world, that the Ascension is a kind of dis-incarnation. It might go something like this: The Son of God lived happily with the Father and the Spirit. They had this great idea to create some other beings to share their love with. We humans soon mucked up the plan, and the Son of God became human to fix it up again. Now, after a nice visit - unfortunate ending, perhaps, with all that suffering and death, but that's what it cost to save us - now, having Risen from death, Christ leaves all that human stuff behind. That little frolic into the rough and tumble of the world is over, and he now returns to a perfect, untrammelled existence with the Father and the Spirit, just like it was before He came to earth. He can now leave his human nature behind - all those emotions and feelings and all that bodily stuff - and get on with being God again, free from human accretions.

That would be an error, a false understanding of the Ascension, dare I say it, a heresy. And not just in relation to the Ascension, but to the Incarnation as well. Christ would not be fully human if he could discard his humanity like an old set of clothes once he'd done with it. If he is fully human - and, praise God, he is! - then, as for each of us, so for him, he carries his full humanity beyond death and into the Kingdom with him. Certainly it is transfigured and renewed, a new creation, through the Resurrection. But full humanity nonetheless. The Incarnation can never be undone. The Son of God became human, took on a human body and soul, and that is irrevocable. In his Passion, Christ really died. His human body and his human soul were torn asunder, as they are for each of us as we enter into death. But though his human soul and body could be separated for a period, Jesus' humanity and his divinity could not be so separated, even for a nano-second. And now, in the Ascension, all that constitutes his full human nature - his history; the marks of his suffering; the joys and delights of his historical human existence - all continues to be united with his divinity, to be part of who he is as he sits at the right hand of the Father, in the communion of the Spirit.

We might say that that's well and dandy for Christ, but hasn't he abandoned us in the process? Jesus himself assures us: "I am with you always, until the end of time." [Mt 28.20] How is this so if he has returned to the Father? Let's hear St Augustine's answer. "He ascended without leaving us…Christ, while in heaven, is also with us." [Sermon on the Ascension] To us on our journey as pilgrims, Christ remains intimately united, rejoicing as we rejoice, suffering as we suffer. It is from the right hand of the Father in glory that Christ cried out, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?" It is from the right hand of the Father in glory that Christ says to each of us, "I was hungry and you gave me to eat." It is at the right hand of the Father that Christ intercedes continually on our behalf [Heb 9.24].

Christ, while in heaven, is also with us. And, Augustine continues, "We, while on earth, are also with him." For we are his body. Christ's humanity is united to our humanity. And since Christ's humanity enters into glory with him, so too do we remain united to him as he ascends to the Father. Not only does Christ enter glory today, but in a very real sense, so do we, with him. As St Leo the Great put it, "human nature was exalted above the dignity of all the creatures of heaven, passing beyond the ranks of the angels, being raised above the high seat of the archangels, to receive an elevation that would have no limit until it was admitted into the eternal Father's dwelling, to share the glorious throne of him with whose nature it had been united in the person of the Son." [Sermon 1 on the Ascension] As we read in he story of the stoning of St Stephen, what sustained the early Christians in their journey, as they faced persecution, suffering and death, was the vision of Christ standing at the right hand of the Father [Acts 7.55-56] and their certainty of their intimate union with him in glory.

As the Prince of Denmark takes a commoner into his royal state - did I mention she was an Aussie? - so Christ takes us with him into the heart of the Trinity. So today, Amelia and Samantha are not just brought into the Church as they are baptised. In doing so, in becoming part, with us, of the body of Christ, they are carried, in Christ, into the heart of the Trinity in whose name they will be baptised. And there Christ intercedes ceaselessly on their behalf, as the reading from Hebrews reminded us: "For Christ …entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf…. Let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful." [Heb 9:24, 10:22-23]