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FEAST OF THE ASCENSIONSUBJECTTHE ASCENSION OF CHRISTTEXTAnd the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up intoheaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God. MARK xvi. 19.Analysis
INTRODUCTION. During forty days after His Resurrection our Lord appeared many times and in diverse places and circum-stances to His disciples and others. He walked and talked withthem, He permitted them to see and put their hands into Hiswounds, and He ate with them ; thus proving by the most incontestablearguments that He was really risen from the dead, andwas again living in His own body. It was also during those fortydays that our Saviour gave His Apostles final instructions concerning His Church.
I. "He ascended into heaven." 1. Give brief history ofthe Ascension as detailed in to-day's Gospel and Epistle. 2.Christ ascended into heaven as man; as God He was always there.3. Christ ascended into heaven by His own power.II. He "sitteth at the right hand of God the Father Al-mighty." These words express the glory which Christ as manenjoys above all others in heaven. This glory the Saviourmerited by His earthly poverty, sufferings, and death (Philip, 2:92. Christ is now constituted King over all the world: "ofhis kingdom there shall be no end " (Luke 1:3333 ; Eph. 1:22; Heb.2:88).III. Reasons of our Lord's Ascension, 1. Heaven was thesuitable place for His glorified body. 2. In heaven He preparesfor us a place (John 14:22) ; He is our advocate with the Father(Heb. 9:24), and thence He sent the Holy Ghost to His Church(John 16:7). 3. Christ's Ascension is for us the cause andmodel of our spiritual ascension, which consists in the elevationof our thoughts and affections to heavenly things.LESSONS OF THE ASCENSION, 1. The merit of our faith isgreatly increased by the Ascension of our Lord, "blessed arethey that have not seen, and have believed" (John xx. 29). Into-day's Gospel Christ upbraids the incredulity of the disciplesand says that they who believe not shall be condemned. 2. TheAscension increases our hope. 3. It elevates and ennobles ourlove of Christ. 4. The Ascension is the end and completion of allthe mysteries of our Lord's life, and should be celebrated with
 
joy and gladness by all Christians.Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part IARTICLE VI OF THE CREEDHe ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God the FatherAlmighty.TRIUMPH OF THE ASCENSION, HOW TO BE CELEBRATED BYCHRISTIANSHe ascended into Heaven. Filled with the Spirit of God, andcontemplating the blessed and glorious ascension of our Lord intoheaven, the prophet David exhorts all to celebrate that splendidtriumph with the greatest joy and gladness. " Clap your hands,"said he, "all ye nations: shout unto God with the voice of joy.. . . God is ascended with jubilee, and the Lord with the soundof trumpet." * The pastor will hence learn the obligation im-posed on him of explaining this mystery with unremitting assidu-ity, and of taking especial care that the faithful not only see itwith the light of faith, and of the understanding, but still more,that, as far as it is in his power to accomplish, they make it theirstudy, with the divine assistance, to reflect its image in theirlives and actions.FIRST PART OF THE ARTICLE; WHAT IT TEACHES US TO BELIEVEWith regard, then, to the exposition of this sixth Article, whichhas reference principally to the divine mystery of the ascension,we shall begin with its first part, and point out its force andmeaning. That Jesus Christ, having fully accomplished the workof redemption, ascended as man, body and soul, into heaven, thefaithful are unhesitatingly to believe; for as God He never for-sook heaven, filling as He does all places with His divinity.The pastor is also to teach that He ascended by His own power,not by the power of another, as did Elias, who was taken up intoheaven in a fiery chariot ; x or, as the prophet Habacuc ; 2 orPhilip, the deacon, who were borne through the air by the divinepower, and traversed the distant regions of the earth. 3 Neitherdid He ascend into heaven solely by the exercise of His supremepower as God, but also by virtue of the power which He pos-sessed as man; although human power alone was insufficient toraisei Him from the dead, yet the virtue with which the blessedsoul of Christ was endowed was capable of moving the body asit pleased, and His body, now glorified, readily obeyed its impul-sive dominion. Hence, we believe that Christ ascended intoheaven as God and man by His own power. We now come to
 
the second part of the Article.SECOND PART OF THE ARTICLE A TROPESitteth at the right hand of Gad the Father Almighty. Inthese words we observe a trope, that is, the changing of a wordfrom its literal to a figurative meaning a thing not unfrequentin Scripture, 4 when, accommodating its language to human ideas,it attributes human affections and human members to Gdd, who,spirit as He is, admits of nothing corporeal. But as among menhe who sits at the right hand is considered to occupy the mosthonorable place, so, transferring the idea to celestial things, toexpress the glory which Christ as man enjoys above all others, weconfess that He sits at the right hand of his Eternal Father.WHAT THE WORD " SITTETH " .MEANS HEREThis, however, does not imply position and figure of body, butdeclares the firm and permanent possession of royal and supremepower and glory which He received from the Father; as theApostle says : " raising him up from the dead, and setting himon his right hand in the heavenly places, above all principality,and power, and virtue, and domination, and every name thatis named, not only in this world, but also in that which is tocome; and he hath subjected all things under his feet." 1 Thesewords manifestly imply that this glory belongs to our Lord inso special a manner that it cannot apply to the nature of anyother created being ; and hence in another place the Apostle asks :" To which of the angels said he at any time : Sit on my righthand, until I make thy enemies thy footstool ? " 2HISTORY OF THE ASCENSIONBut the pastor will explain the sense of the Article more atlarge by detailing the history of the ascension, of which the Evan-gelist St. Luke has left us an admirable description in the Acts ofthe Apostles. 3 In his exposition he will observe, in the firstplace, that all other mysteries refer to the ascension as to theirend and completion. As all the mysteries of religion commencewith the Incarnation of our Lord, so His sojourn on earth termi-nates with His ascension into heaven. Moreover, the other Ar-ticles of the Creed which regard Christ the Lord show His greathumility and lowliness. Nothing can be conceived more humble,nothing more lowly, than that the Son of God assumed the frailtyof our flesh, suffered and died for us ; but nothing more magnifi-cently, nothing more admirably, proclaims his sovereign gloryand divine majesty than what is contained in the present and pre-ceding Articles, in which we declare that He rose from the dead,ascended into heaven, and now sits at the right hand of his Eter-
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