In this reflection on the Ascension of the Lord, oriented to the Descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, I first address reasons of the ascension and its impacts on the disciples drawn upon some psychological insights, in particular what Jean Piaget describes as Object Permanence in his cognitive development theory and what Margaret Mahler addresses as Object Constancy of the Separation-Individuation phase in her developmental psychological theory. It is because Jesus has personified the Holy Spirit to come by descent from the Father as another Parakletos (Advocate)(John 14:16), upon the ascension of him, the Parakletos (1 John 2:1), in regard to his abstract and rather paradoxical expression of his departure from the disciples and coming to them not to be in contradiction (John 14;18, 28).
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Thursday of the Sixth Week of Paschaltide marks the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord. 40 days after his resurrection, Jesus ascended into heaven (Acts 1:3-9), and this signifies the conclusion of his threefold glorification, following his death and resurrection ( i.e. John 7:39;12:23; 13:31-32; 17:1, 5; 1 Peter 1:21) and consummation of his Paschal Mystery (i.e. Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1067). Following the passion, death, and resurrection, the ascension, preceded by the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, is a pivotal milestone in our salvation history.
Now, it’s quiz time!
Why did Jesus ascend 40 days after his resurrection?
Choose all biblically verifiable answers.
A. Because he
missed the Father in heaven
B. Because he
grew tired of being on earth ever since the moment of the Annunciation
C. So that he
can prepare the place for us in his Father’s house in heaven
D. Because he has completed his mission on earth and
prepared his disciples to be sent out into the world
E. So that the Holy Spirit, as another Advocate,
will come down from the Father on his disciples
F. Because he got fed up with hanging out with his
disciples after his resurrection
G. To be at the right hand of the Father in the
heavenly realms to head over the Church
*****
The answers are: C, D, E, and G
C reflects John 14:1-4
D reflects Luke 23:44-24:53
E reflects John 16:5-7
G reflects Ephesians 1:19-22
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The Ascension of the Lord (The Second Glorious
Mystery of the Holy Rosary) is the milestone before the Descent of the Holy
Spirit on Pentecost (The Third Glorious Mystery of the Holy Rosary). Before being filled with the Holy Spirit on
Pentecost (Acts 2:4), they were filled with great joy upon risen Jesus’
ascension into heaven (Luke 24:51-52).
This great joy (Luke 24:52), not sadness, of the
disciples at the time of risen Jesus’ departure by ascension into heaven,
reflects the completion of Jesus’ threefold glorification through his death,
resurrection, and ascension (i.e. John 17:1, 5). It is also their anticipatory
joy to receive the promise of the Father (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4; cf. Acts
2:38-39; cf. John 20:22-23), namely, the Holy Spirit, the power (Acts 1:8), as
foretold by John the Baptist (e.g. Luke 3:16), as reiterated by Jesus (Acts
1:5). The promise of the Holy Spirit is also personified by Jesus as another Parakletos (Advocate) (John 14:16, 26;
15:26; 16:7) and described as the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17). It is to assure
that they would not be left like orphans on earth after his departure through
whom he comes to them and stay with them forever (John 14:18-19, 28; cf.
Matthew 28:20).
The great joy that filled the disciples upon the
Ascension of the Lord (Luke 24:52) had grown out of the joy that the disciples
had in recognizing the risen Lord on the evening of the Resurrection Sunday
(John 20:20).
Now 40 days later from the day of the Resurrection
of the Lord (Acts 1:3), we come to commemorate the Ascension of the Lord, which
is addressed in the First Reading (Acts 1:1-11) and the Gospel Reading (Luke 24:46-53), with the joy
that has grown upon recognizing the resurrection of Jesus into the conviction
of the coming of the Holy Spirit as
another Parakletos, who is to be with
them forever (John 14:18; cf. John 14:18, 28; Matthew 28:20). The disciples
sent risen Jesus off to heaven, where he came from, with the great joy in
hoping to receive the Holy Spirit as the
promise of the Father to be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49).
For the Solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, there
are two options for the Second Readings: Option A (Ephesians 1:17-23) and
Option B (Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23).
The Option A Second Reading (Ephesians 1:17-23) reminds that risen Jesus
ascended into heaven to seat at its right hand so that he puts all things
beneath his feet and as head of all things to the Church, which is his body. This suggests that risen Jesus ascended into
heaven to reign the universe as the King. On the other hand, the Option B
reading (Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23) tells that risen Jesus ascended to enter
his heavenly sanctuary to be installed as the eternal high priest in order to
intercede for us before his Father. And this is why he is the Parakletos, which can be understood as
the Advocate or Defender. For this
reason, he ascended with the same body, which was pierced with wound marks.
Ἰησοῦ ἀναβαίνω
Because risen Jesus entered heaven (Hebrews 9:24), the Most High Place (Hebrews 10:19), the eternal Holy of Holies, the heavenly perfect Tabernacle as the eternal high priest for our redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12; cf. Leviticus 16:2; Hebrews 9:6-10), upon his ascension, we have confident hope to enter this Most High Place through his blood, which opened its curtain for us, in order to draw us closer to God, upon purification and in consummation of our faith (Hebrews 10:19-23). Therefore, recognizing this truth about risen Jesus’ ascension, the disciples’ joy grew greater (Luke 24:52) with their confident hope to enter the Most High Place, where he is as our eternal high priest, to bring us closer to his Father.
In fact, Isaiah foresaw pre-incarnated Christ in his
glory on his heavenly throne, in the year of Uzziah’s death, more than 700
years prior to the incarnation of Christ (Isaiah 6:1-4). Christ the Son was
sent by the Father and came to us through his incarnation (Luke 1:31-33, 35;
John 1:1,14), human birth (Luke 2:7; cf. Isaiah 7;14). The incarnated Christ
went through circumcision (Luke 2;2; cf. Exodus 17:12 ), consecration (Luke
2:22-24; cf. Exodus 12:2, 12), baptism (e.g. Luke 3:21-22), public ministry
from Galilee to Jerusalem (e.g. Luke 4:14-19:27), public ministry in Jerusalem
(e.g. Luke 19:28-21:38), instituting the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and
entering his passion (e.g. Luke 19:22:1-23:43), death (e.g. Luke 23:44-56).
Then, he resurrected from the dead (e.g. John 20:1-23) and spent 40 days in
preparing his disciples for their apostolic commissioning (e.g. Luke 24:1-46)
before returning to heaven for his heavenly throne (Ephesians 1:20) by ascension (Luke 24:50-53;Acts
1:6-12). His return to heaven by ascension was to inaugurate as the King of the
universe (Ephesians 1:21), to be the head of his church (Ephesians 1:22-23),
and to intercede for us as our eternal high priest (Hebrews 9:11-10:18).
Among the canonical Gospels writers, Luke gives more
detailed descriptions of the ascension of risen Jesus, not only in his Gospel (Luke
24:50-53) but also in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:6-12), compared to
Mark’s brief one (Mark 16:19-20). John’s Gospel makes some references to the
ascension (John 7:33; 14:2,12; 16:28; 20:17) to help us understand that Jesus
spoke of his ascension before he entered passion.
Luke, who penned down the Gospel of Luke and the
Acts of the Apostles, dedicates these writings of his to Theophilus (Acts 1:1;
Luke 1:3), whose name means “a person who loves God”. It is not certain who
this Theophilus is. But given the meaning of his name, Luke may have intended
Theophilus to be anyone who loves God.
Luke tells that he wrote what Jesus had taught from
the beginning of his public ministry until the day of his ascension in his
former book, which is the Gospel of Luke, including his post-resurrection
teaching through the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-3).
The presence of the Holy Spirit became more evident
with Jesus upon his resurrection (i.e. John 20:22) as he was raised through the
Holy Spirit (Romans 8:11), while retaining the same human body, upon which
suffering and death were inflicted, absorbing human evil. And Luke further tells that risen Jesus
appeared multiple times with the convincing proofs of his resurrection over the
period of 40 days and spoke about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). As risen Jesus
gathered the disciples, and instructed them to remain together in Jerusalem
until “the promise of the Father”, namely the Holy Spirit, comes to baptize them, as John the Baptist
did with water (Acts 1:4-5), reiterating
what John the Baptist said about Jesus to baptize with the Holy Spirit
and fire (Luke 4:16) and what Jesus promised during the Last Supper (John
14:16, 26; 15:26) and when he ate fish with the disciples on the evening of his
resurrection (Luke 24;49).
The Gospel Reading on the Solemnity of the Ascension
of the Lord (Luke 24:46-53) rather focuses on the disciples than Jesus. This
indicates that the Ascension is for the benefits of his disciples, and the
benefits for the disciples are to have their place in the Father’s house in
heaven (John 14:3) and to receive the Holy Spirit as another Parakletos (John 14:16, 26; 16:7). Parakletos(Παράκλητος) is usually translated as
“Advocate” and sometimes as “Comforter”.
It literally means a being who is called to be besides, as a loyal
caring companion, as this Greek word is consisted of “para”(beside)
and “kaleo” (to call). At first, the
Father called the Son, who is preexisting Christ (John 1:1; 17:5; Colossians
1:15-17; cf. Proverbs 8:22-31), the Theos-Logos
(Word-God) (John 1;1), and sent him to us out of His love (John 3:16) by
incarnating him (John 1:14) in the human flesh of Jesus by the power of the
Holy Spirit through Mary the Immaculate Conception (Luke 1:28, 30-33, 35; 2:7).
Now, as Jesus the Son is returning to
the Father, who called and sent him to us, by way of the ascension, for
completing his mission on earth (e.g. John 17:4; 19:30) to fulfill the
prophecies in the Scripture (e.g. Isaiah 52:13-53:12) and prepared his
disciples to receive the powerful Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), another Parakletos (John 14:16), to be sent out
on mission (Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-20) , by giving the Holy Spirit
through his gentle breath and offering his peace (John 20:19-23), spelling out
the disciples’ doubt and strengthening their belief in him (John 20:24-31).
Jesus also assured that his departure by ascension
does not mean that the disciples would be left out on earth like orphans as he
would come to them (John 14:18, 28). And this echoes Jesus’ promise to be with
his disciples always until the very end the age (Matthew 28:20b).
But how can Jesus assure of his perpetual presence
with his disciples (John 14:18) upon leaving them on earth by ascending?
To understand this, we need to know that the
Ascension of the Lord is to bring the Holy Spirit as another Parakletos (Advocate) (John 16:7), and through him, Jesus
comes to them (John 14:18, 28). This is possible because of the Trinity, in
which Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit are in homoousis and in hypostatic
union, as Jesus the Son and the Father are so. This is why Jesus is the Parakletos (1 John 2:1), and the Holy
Spirit is another Parakletos (John
14:16), and they share the same divine ontological essence. So when he said that he would come to the
disciples even though he would depart by the ascension so that they would not
be left like orphans (John 14:18, 28), Jesus meant that he, who is the Parakletos (1 John 2:1), would come to
them as another Parakletos to be with
them forever (John 14:16; cf. Matthew 28:20) after his Ascension. And both the Parakletos and another Parakletos
are sent from the Father (i.e. John 3:16; 6:29, 44; cf. John 14;16, 26; 15:26).
The Holy Spirit (Πνεῦμα
Ἅγιον/Pneuma Hagion) is usually understood as in the form of pneuma (πνεύμα), which literally means
air/wind (John 3:8; cf. ר֫וּחַ /ruach
in Genesis 1:2) or breath (John 20:22; cf. נִשְׁמַת/nishmat
in Genesis 2:7), and is juxtaposed to flowing water (John 7;38-39), as well as,
life per se found in the words spoken out of Jesus’ month (John 6:63). However,
as he began pointing his disciples’ attention to his departure through the
ascension and the decent of the Holy Spirit, Jesus described the Holy Spirit in
a personified manner, another Parakletos
(John 14:16), compatible to him, who is
the Parakletos (1 John 2;1), to
assure that his departure from the earth by the ascension does not mean that he
would abandon his beloved disciples on earth but he remains with them always
(John 14:18; cf. Matthew 28:20), as he is indeed Immanuel/Emmanuel, which means
God with us (Matthew 1:23; Isaiah 7:14).
By ascending into heaven, risen Jesus departs from
the earth with his body and soul. Yet, he also stays with his disciples all the
time in another way. And Jesus spent 40 days after his resurrection to prepare
his disciples come to understand this truth about him in relation to the Father
and the Holy Spirit, which he had addressed to his disciples, during the Last
Supper (John 14:1-16:33), preceded by the annunciation of his glorification
(John 13:31-32), and followed by his last prayer for the disciples’ unity with
him, who is one with the Father (John 17:1-26). Obviously, on the night before
his death, the disciples heard this truth but did not comprehend. But, during
these 40 days after his resurrection, they come to grasp this Christological
truth in relation to the Holy Spirit and to the Father – so that their hearts
were no longer troubled with anxiety but filled with great joy by the time of
his ascension (Luke 24:52).
Just as Jesus spent 40 days and nights in the
wilderness after his baptism in preparation to start his public ministry (e.g.
Luke 4:1-13), so he spent 40 days after his resurrection to prepare the
disciples to be commissioned to receive the Holy Spirit and to be sent out to
make disciples (Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1-11; Mark 16:14-20) to let his Church be
born out of them upon receiving the Holy Spirit and grow from Jerusalem (Acts
1:8; 2:1-47; Ephesians 1:11-23).
These 40 days from the day of Jesus’ resurrection to
his ascension are also the critical period for the disciples to internalize
Jesus in their hearts in reciprocity with Jesus, as he invited them to do so
(i.e. John 14:10-11; 20; 15:7; 17:23). This psychological internalization is
comparable to Object Permanence in Jean Piaget’s theory, as well as, Object
Constancy in Margaret Mahler’s theory.
During these 40 days, Jesus opened the disciples’
mind to the Word in the Scriptures (Luke 24:45; cf. Luke 24:27), and he is the
Word in incarnation (John 1;1, 14). So, they finally began to understand the
abstract and paradoxical truth in what Jesus meant by saying, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to
you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me,
because I live and you will live “ (John 14:18-19) and “You heard me tell you, ‘I am going away and
I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to
the Father; for the Father is greater than I” (John 14:28).
In a way, this is like what Jean Piaget describes in
his cognitive development theory for a growing child around age 2 to begin
comprehending the existence of an object from its concreteness to abstraction.
As a child reaches object permanence, he or she no longer feels anxious about
the presence of one’s primary caregiver, even not seen in one’s eyesight,
understanding that it does not mean abandonment.
Upon his ascension, Jesus’ presence could be no
longer recognized by the disciples’ five senses as they had used to see. But as
they had grown in faith, they no longer need to rely on their senses to realize
his presence (i.e. John 20:29). And this mature faith corresponds to the
cognitive development that attains what Jean Piaget describes as object
permanence.
As for understanding the post-resurrection growth of
the disciples’ object relation to Jesus in light of what Margaret Mahler
describes as object constancy, Jesus had laid its foundation in his farewell
discourse with a prayer during the Last Supper (John 14:1-17:26). But for this,
Jesus spelled out the object relation between he and the disciple in the
relationship between the Good Shepherd and the sheep under his care (John
10:7-18). It was for the disciples to recognize his love for them and see him
as their primary caregiving object as a baby sees one’s mother as the primary
caregiving object, while being showered by her love, to develop object
constancy.
The love of Jesus for his disciples, as their
primary caregiving object, is of crucial importance to enable them to develop
what John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth describe as secure attachment. For this,
Jesus called his disciples to remain attached to him as the fruitful branches
do to the vine (John 15:1-8), which is characterized with love and joy (John
15:9-17). The essence of the disciples’ secure attachment to Jesus is the
reciprocal object internalization between the disciples and Jesus, their
primary caregiving object. This is why Jesus called them to have him in them as
he has them in him (John 14:20; 17:21), just as he and the Father are so to be
one (John 10:30, 38; 14:10-11). In this secure attachment with reciprocal
internalization for object constancy, there is also what Erik Erikson describes
as trust to be the foundation of stable object relation.
In the disciples’ object permanence and object
constancy, Jesus, their primary caregiving object, is internalized, reflecting
their trust in him and secure attachment to him. This way, they know that he is
always with him as their Parakletos
(1 John 2:1) and as another Parakletos
(John 14:26), understanding his abstract and rather paradoxical description of
their object relation with him from the Ascension of the Lord to the Descent of
the Holy Spirit on Pentecost and beyond (John 14:18-19, 28). Therefore, they
did not feel anxious. They were not in grief but filled with great joy upon his
departure by ascension (Luke 24:52).
Jesus made it clear to the disciples that rejoicing
over his ascension is an indication of their love of him (John 14:28), and the
fact that they were filled with great joy upon his ascension (Luke 24:52)
reflects the disciples’ love of Jesus. And this also means that they were
spiritually mature enough in faith to be ready to do the work of Jesus as
commanded by him (i.e. John 14:12-17), as empowered and guided by the Holy
Spirit on Pentecost.
Though he returned to heaven by means of the ascension
40 days after his resurrection, Jesus the Parakletos
(1 John 2:1) comes to us in the Holy Spirit, who is another Parakletos (John 14:26), as he assured
of his persistent presence to them in spite of his departure (John 14:18-19,
28). This is possible because of object permanency and object constancy through
reciprocal object internalization of Jesus and his disciples (John 14:20;
17:21), just as Jesus has the same with the Father (John 10:38; 14:10-11;17:21).
This way, as Jesus remains one with Him (John 10:30), even he was sent to us on
earth from heaven by the Father there, we remain one with him even after his
ascension into heaven as one (John 17:21). The Holy Spirit is coming to descend
upon us as we now have developed object permanence and object constancy with
our primary caregiving object, Jesus the Christ, the Son, who is in the
hypostatic union and in homoousios with the Father and the Holy Spirit.
