The Ascension of our Lord
There is, deep in the human heart, a desire for fulfillment, for completion. We want to be completed! St. Paul, in our second reading today (Eph. 1:17-23) tells us how this comes about in Christ. I offer you something of an outline of what he’s saying.
To begin, there is “the Father of glory.” He invites us to be part of his Son’s fulfillment. This call or invitation answers the desire of the human heart. But our hearts must be “enlightened that (we) may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.” Our deepest desires are actually what God is inviting us to see fulfilled!
We cannot know this without faith. We must believe that this comes about by the “surpassing greatness of his power.” That power “he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens.” This is Christ’s completion, his fulfillment. But it is ours as well! St. Paul speaks of this glorification of Christ in his Resurrection and Ascension as his “the fullness.” It is his Body, his Church, and we are meant to be a part of it.
This is what we were made for. It is the real dimension of the human heart. The heart is made for completion in an eternal union of giving and receiving love, that of the Blessed Trinity! This really is the expanse and grandeur of the authentically human.
We come into it when we take to heart that we are made for Heaven, nothing less, and we don’t get there alone!
Reflection by Fr. Xavier Nacke, OSB
Posted in Articles for Lent, Daily Reflections, Lenten Resources