Post #5916

During the forty days, that followed the Resurrection, the Redeemer posed the foundations of HIs Church, to which He needed to send just after the Holy Spirit. The Epistle and the Gospel of this day summarize the teaching of the Master. Jesus leaves therefore this earth, and the whole Mass is the celebration of His glorious elevation in heaven escorted by the souls freed from Limbo (Alleluja), who enter following Him in the heavenly kingdom, to be sharers in His own divinity (Praefatio). The Ascension preaches us the duty to raise our hearts to God, and, in fact, the Oratio asks us to live in spirit with Jesus in the celestial regions, where we are called to live also with the body. In fact, sitting at the right hand of the Father, with His assumed human nature, Christ our Head also waits for us in HIs glory of which we have to merit with a worthy way of life. During the whole Octave it is recited the Credo: “I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God... And ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us”. In the Praefatio proper that is recited till Pentecost, are given praises of thankfulness to God for the fact that “His Resurrection, appeared openly to all His disciples, and, while they looked on, was taken up into heaven”. Throughout the entire Octave the Communicantes is also recited precisely at this feast; in it the Church reminds us that “We pray in union with and keep the most holy day on which thy only-begotten Son our Lord set at the right hand of thy glory the substance of our frail human nature, which he had taken to himself” to which He had joined in the Mystery of the Incarnation. Every day the liturgy reminds us, Every day the liturgy reminds us, in the Offertorium (Suscipe Sancta Trinitas) and in the Canon (Unde et memores) that it, according to the order of the Lord, offers the Holy Sacrifice “in memory of the Passion, Resurrection and Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ”. In fact, man is saved only by the union of the mysteries of the Passion and Resurrection with that of the Ascension. “Through Thy death and burial, O Lord, through Thy holy Resurrection, through Thine admirable Ascension, O Lord, deliver us.” (Litany of the Saints). Let us offer to God the divine sacrifice “in memory of the glorious Ascension of thy Son” so that, we may be delivered from present dangers and attain eternal life (Secreta).