Catechism of the Catholic Church
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH
SECTION TWO
659 "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up
into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God."[531] Christ's body was
glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and
supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys.[532] But
during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his
disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled
under the appearance of ordinary humanity.[533] Jesus' final apparition ends
with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized
by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at
God's right hand.[534] Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would
Jesus show himself to Paul "as to one untimely born", in a last apparition
that established him as an apostle.[535]
660 The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is
intimated in his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: "I have not yet
ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am
ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God."[536] This
indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen
Christ and that of the Christ exalted to the Father's right hand, a
transition marked by the historical and transcendent event of the
Ascension.
661 This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his
descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who "came from the
Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus.[537] "No one has ascended
into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man."[538] Left to
its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the "Father's
house", to God's life and happiness.[539] Only Christ can open to man such
access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go
where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us.[540]
662 "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to
myself."[541] The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces
his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. Jesus
Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, "entered, not into
a sanctuary made by human hands. . . but into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God on our behalf."[542]
There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives to
make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through him".[543] As
"high priest of the good things to come" he is the centre and the
principal actor of the liturgy that honours the Father in heaven.[544]
663 Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father: "By 'the
Father's right hand' we understand the glory and honour of divinity, where
he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as God, of one being
with the Father, is seated bodily after he became incarnate and his flesh
was glorified."[545]
664 Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration of
the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfilment of the prophet Daniel's vision
concerning the Son of man: "To him was given dominion and glory and
kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his
dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his
kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."[546] After this event the apostles
became witnesses of the "kingdom [that] will have no end".[547]
IN BRIEF
665 Christ's Ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus' humanity
into God's heavenly domain, whence he will come again (cf. Acts 1:11);
this humanity in the meantime hides him from the eyes of men (cf. Col
3:3).
666 Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father's
glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the hope
of one day being with him for ever.
667 Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for all,
intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who assures us of the
permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
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