The Solemnity of the Ascension

NOW that we are still in various forms of quarantine, it

might be timely to remind ourselves of our need to keep heaven in

mind. The Solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ gives us

good occasion for this consideration, actually a crucial one if we do

not want to lose our proper bearing here on earth.

            The simple reason is that heaven is where we all came

from, since we all came from God, and where we are meant to be in our

definitive state of life for all eternity. That’s how God, our Creator

and Father, wants it. He made us his image and likeness.

            For this reason he endowed us with the capacity to know

and to love, and gave us his grace so that what we cannot attain

through our natural powers, not to mention the dragging effects of our

sinfulness, we can still manage to attain through his supernatural

power to which we have to correspond as best that we can.

            That is why St. Paul tells us very clearly: “Set your

hearts on heavenly things, not the things that are on earth.” (Col 3)

It’s not that we disdain the earthly things. What is meant is that we

have to learn how to relate everything to heaven, and not get

entangled in our earthly and temporal affairs. Everything is meant to

start and end with God who is the Creator of everything and the very

foundation of reality.

            Thus, we are supposed to be always aware that we are in

some kind of journey toward heaven. Our earthly sojourn is just a test

to see if we also would like to be with God in heaven as he wants us

to be, since he does not force us to be with him. He wants us to also

choose him freely, that is, to love him. Our earthly life is actually

a test of love.

            This test of love is truly a big challenge for us, since

we have to learn how to be both in the world and yet to have our mind

and heart in heaven. We cannot enter heaven without going through our

test here on earth.

            But St. Augustine gives us an idea of how to go about this

task. It’s a matter of growing in our desire for heaven while here on

earth. “Such is our Christian life,” he said. “By desiring heaven we

exercise the powers of our soul. Now this exercise will be effective

only to the extent that we free ourselves from desires leading to

infatuation with this world.”

            How important, therefore, it is to always rectify our

intentions in all our earthly and temporal affairs. That is, we should

see to it that whatever we may doing, even if in the end, what we do

could be considered wrong or deficient in some sense, should be done

out of faith and love for God and for others.

            This is to live out what St. Paul once said: “Whether you

eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all to the glory of God.”

(1 Cor 10,31) It’s in this way that we can somehow live with the great

mystery of heaven. This is how we can set our hearts on heaven while

still grounded here on earth.

            We should then realize deeply that we need to develop the

virtue of hope. This virtue gives us the bigger picture of our

life—the ultimate dimensions and parameters of our life, our ultimate

goal and the means, energy and impulses to be used.

            Our present condition that involves an increase of

pressure, confusing knowledge overdrives, increasingly sophisticated

challenges and difficulties, require that we need to seriously

cultivate this virtue. There’s no other way. It’s either that or we

get into a free-fall toward disorder, chaos and desperation.

  

            Thus, we have to make a regular monitoring and accounting

of all the developments in our life to see if we are still on track.