Heaven is open! Again, I say heaven is open! My heart is pondering that insight as I write this article days before the solemnity of the Ascension of our Lord. We must remember that one of the great and necessary gifts of the Lord’s Ascension is the truth that heaven is open. Who is heaven open for? It is open for us! We are meant for heaven, because to be in heaven is to be in Christ.
Being Taken Up
The Ascension liturgy’s first reading is from the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:1-11). That passage frames this mystery of our Lord in the words “taken up”. Christ is taken up to heaven. He is both the source and the purpose of heaven, and we too are meant to be “taken up” into Christ.
To be taken up into Christ means to begin to experience heaven as realized through the virtue of hope. Hope draws us deeper into Christ because hope offers our hearts a certitude in the heavenly life that exists in Christ and that is meant for us by Christ. St. Teresita of the Andes wrote in her letters:
God is my heaven here below. I live with Him. Even when I am walking, we speak together without being interrupted by anyone. If you would know Him enough, you would love Him. If you would stay with Him for one hour, you would know heaven on earth.
Journeying with the Apostles
The journey that calls us to be “taken up” into Christ is not an easy one. We see in the gospel the struggle of the apostles before the risen Lord (Matthew 28:16-20). Their experience in that moment is marked by three verbs: they saw, worshiped, and yet they still doubted. Please note the passage doesn’t say that they had doubts about Him; it merely tells us that they doubted. We will return to that point later.
We know that we are meant to be in Christ and, therefore, in heaven with Him. Hence, our call to heaven is to be in union with the apostles which means that, like them, we are called to see Christ and worship Christ.
These two acts are realized in the sacramental life of the Church, preserved and perpetuated by the apostles. Via the sacraments, Christ allows Himself to be known, experienced, and embraced freely by each heart that turns to Him. So, when we look upon the Eucharist, we see Christ and, through the Mass, we worship Him.
Worshiping from the Heart
As my big sister St. Teresa of Avila wrote: “In the presence of Jesus in the Holy Sacrament we ought to be like the Blessed in heaven before the Divine Essence.” We must always remember that Christ wants a relationship with us. He wants us to see Him, know Him, experience Him, embrace Him, and love Him. That is why it is necessary to worship Him. In worshipping Christ, we are able to give our hearts totally to Him in His body the Church, as He willing gave up His whole heart to us from the Cross.
Worshiping Christ makes us totally vulnerable to Him so His life can flood into us. It is through this flood of love that we are taken up into His Sacred Heart where we approach and see the open gate to heaven. What is the gate of heaven? The pierced Heart of Jesus! It is an open gate even though it is a narrow one. We are meant to enter it, but that requires our hearts to be open to Him so He can fill our hearts as we reside in His heart. Heaven permits only love to enter it.
The Fire of Love
Fully embracing and living out the gift of hope begins to enkindle the love of God in our hearts. This flood of love from God is not of water but is more akin to fire, a fire that consumes but does not destroy, as we see in the fiery bush before Moses. Pondering the flame of love revealed in Matthew 5:6, St. John of the Cross has this to say about fire: “What God seeks, he being Himself God by nature, is to make us gods through participation, just as fire converts all things into fire.” Fire is a light that allows one to see what is before him in life. So, I focus on the symbol of fire as a means of seeing because Saint Paul tells us that we need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1:17-23).
If we wish to see Christ fully, it must be with the eyes of the heart – eyes transformed in the fire of God’s love. It is a fire that we know as the Person of the Holy Spirit. Christ is “taken up” into heaven by the Spirit of Love. It is that Spirit of Love, the Holy Spirit, that Jesus sends upon His Church, a Church that is His body, a body that continues to live and grow in and through Him to make Him known here on earth.
The Issue of Doubt
Let us return to the doubt of the apostles. Who did the apostles doubt? I believe that they doubted themselves, not Jesus. Who were they to stand before the risen Lord? Who were they to give witness to His presence? They were the men that ran away from Him during His earthly suffering. Again, who were they to still be with Him? Yet, even in this doubt, our Lord still approached them. In His action, His heavenly mercy is made known.
Consequently, no matter what doubts we may have in Him, in others, or with ourselves, Jesus still approaches us! He wants to be with us! His commissioning ends with a promise that He will remain with His disciples always. Thus, if we remain with them, the apostles, Jesus will remain with us always.
The apostolic mark of the Church is not a cheap sentiment of the heart but a means through which Christ fulfills His promise to humanity. Again, even when we are in doubt, His mercy is still extended to each of us through the Church. The choice to be with Him is always ours to make. We can either receive His mercy or reject it.
As we continue the journey with the apostles in love, through the Spirit, we are called to be taken up into Christ. By being taken up in love, we are brought to the Sacred Heart of Jesus where the door to heaven is found, a door through which we are all called to enter. As we approach that door, the reality of what waits behind it is already being experienced here on the earth now, through the profound gift of the sacramental life of the Church. Christ’s sacraments offer that taste of heaven because they offer us Christ.
Conclusion
Finally, the Ascension is a promise of the openness of the heavenly reality that we are meant for when we live in Christ during our short time here on earth. Our lives are meant to be lived to their fullest by means of Christ’s Mystical Body, the Church. May our hope of this heavenly promise remain strong in our hearts, for, as little Saint Therese wrote: “We can never have too much confidence in the good God who is so powerful and merciful. We obtain from Him as much as we hope for from Him.”
I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God, and God is in my soul. My mission in heaven will be to draw souls, helping them to go out of themselves to cling to God, with a spontaneous, love-filled action, and to keep them in that great interior silence which enables God to make his mark on them, to transform them into Himself.
~ St. Elizabeth of the Trinity
