Text from The Saint Andrew Daily Missal,
unless stated otherwise.
Thursday. The Octave Day Of The Ascension.
Greater-Double.
White Vestments.
"While they looked on, He was raised up".
Illustration: UNA VOCE OF ORANGE COUNTY
Artist: René de Cramer.
"Copyright Brunelmar/Ghent/Belgium".
Used with Permission.
Jesus ascended into Heaven, there to prepare a place for us, for His Ascension is but a type of our own. Also, He will come again to take us to Himself (Gospel) and introduce us into His Father's Kingdom.
He went up to Heaven to proclaim The Dogma we sing every day of this Octave in The Credo; "I believe in The Holy Ghost, Who proceedeth from The Father and The Son." And it is from Heaven above that He, with The Father, is about to send us The Holy Ghost. He went up to Heaven because Glorified Human Nature requires such a Place of Glory as Heaven.
["Heaven," says Saint Thomas, "is that immensity of space which lies beyond the stellar system. It is a place free from change and wholly luminous, as will be all material creatures after the resurrection. It is the most noble of bodies, which, made glorious from the inception of the World, was set apart by God for The Angels that remained Faithful."]
Finally, He went up to Heaven because, after having been brought to a belief in His Divinity, The Apostles and The Disciples of Our Lord must also be led to believe in His Humanity, henceforth invisible here below.
