Sermon 395
SERMO 395
ON THE ASCENSION OF THE LORD
On Christian hope.
Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord into heaven: Let us not hear in vain "Lift up your hearts," and let us ascend with Him with whole hearts, as taught by the Apostle who says: "If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; set your minds on things that are above, not on things on earth." Let the necessity of action be on earth; let the will of ascension be in heaven. Hope here, reality there. For a time will come when the reality will be there. When, however, the reality is there, hope will be neither here nor there: not because hope is in vain, but because it is ended when the reality has come. Indeed, hear what the Apostle said about hope. "In hope," he says, "we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience." Consider in human affairs themselves, that if someone hopes to marry, he does not yet have her; for if he has her, what does he hope for? Therefore, he marries the woman he hoped for; and then he will no longer hope. Thus, hope happily ends when the reality comes. Someone who is a foreigner hopes to come to his homeland: as long as he is not there, he hopes; when he arrives, he no longer hopes. For the reality has succeeded hope. Hope happily ends when what was hoped for is held. Therefore, beloved ones, now that you have heard that we should have our hearts on high, it is by the heart itself that we think of that future life. Let us live well here, so that we may live there.
About the mystical body.
Behold then the great regard of our Lord: who made us, descended to us; because we had fallen away from him. And in order to come to us, he did not himself fall, but descended to us. Therefore, if he descended to us, he lifted us up. Already in his own body he has lifted us up, our head: where the head is, the members will follow. For where the head has gone before, the members will follow. He is the head, we are the members. He is in heaven, we are on earth. Is he far from us as if by distance? God forbid. If you inquire about distances, he is far: ask charity, he is with us. For if he were not with us, he would not say in the Gospel: Behold, I am with you even unto the end of the age. If he is not with us, we lie when we say to you: The Lord be with you. He would not have cried from heaven to Saul persecuting, not himself, but his saints, his servants; and to speak more familiarly, his members: Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? Behold, I am here in heaven, you on earth, and in the persecutors. Why me? Because they are my members: by which members I am there. For if the foot is trodden on, the tongue does not cry out. He therefore through whom heaven and earth were made, for the sake of the one whom he made from earth, descended to earth, and from here lifted earth to heaven. Therefore what has gone before in him, we hope for in the end. He will give back to us what he promised: we are secure, he has given us a pledge, he wrote the Gospel; he will give back to us. He has already bestowed more on us. For do we suppose that he will not give back his life, who has already given his death for us? He bore the humility of suffering, injuries, insults, all indignities on earth for us: will he not give us the kingdom, happiness, immortality, eternity? He bore our evils, will he not give us his good things? For this hope, because the promiser is truthful, let us walk securely: but let us live in such a way, that with good conscience we may say to him: We have done what you commanded, give what you promised.