Sic veniet
{Tu, Christe, nostra redemptio, Tu nostra gloria, tu salus,
Tu nostra spes, tu nostra vita, Tu nostra pax, tu nostra virtus.
You, O Christ, are our redemption, You are our glory, our salvation,
You are our hope, our life, You are our peace, You are our strength.
Hymn. Æterne Rex altissime ad Mat.
Forty days after the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Holy Mother Church contemplates the Mystery of the Ascension of the Incarnate Word, who, having assumed our mortal humanity in order to redeem it, ascends to Heaven in that very same glorified flesh, thereby opening the gates of Paradise to us.
The great mysteries of Christian Revelation are always accomplished with a ritual solemnity, as if Heaven itself demanded a regal entrance, a majestic passage marking the fulfillment of the divine work within the history of Redemption. Thus it was at the Incarnation, when the Son of God entered the most pure womb of the Virgin Mary; thus at the Birth of the Savior: Dominus dixit ad me: Filius meus es tu, ego hodie genui te (Ps 2:7); thus at the Epiphany, when the Savior received the regal homage of the Magi arriving from the East: Ecce advenit dominator Dominus: et regnum in manu ejus, et potestas, et imperium; thus during the Passion, when Christ the King and Messiah made His solemn entry into Jerusalem, acclaimed by the crowds with palm branches and hosannas; thus at the Resurrection: Resurrexi, et adhuc tecum sum. Thus it is today at the Ascension, and finally at the glorious coming of the Universal Judge at the end of time, when He shall return to judge the living and the dead: cujus regni non erit finis.
The Ascension lifts our gaze from earthly things to eternal ones, following in the train of the King who passes through the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem: Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O eternal gates: and the King of glory shall enter in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty; the Lord, mighty in battle... The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory (Ps 23:7–10). The very angels, astonished before the God-Man ascending in our redeemed flesh, question one another in that heavenly dialogue. The gates of heaven, closed by the sin of Adam, swing wide open before Him who conquered them through the Cross and the Resurrection: ut unde mors oriebatur, inde vita resurgeret, so that from the very place whence death arose, life might be reborn. It is the King of glory who makes His entrance into Heaven, bringing with Him the firstfruits of our sanctified humanity. Dom Guéranger comments: The angelic hierarchies prepare to receive the Head who was long ago promised, while their princes stand vigilant at the gates, ready to open them the moment the signal from the Divine Triumpher resounds. The holy souls, liberated from Limbo forty days prior, await the blessed moment when the path to heaven, closed by sin, will suddenly open, and they may traverse it in the train of their Redeemer.
In his sermons on the Ascension, Saint Augustine exhorts us to ascend with Christ: Today our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven. Let our hearts ascend with Him.[1] Saint Leo the Great echoes this sentiment, proclaiming in his sermon: The Ascension of the Lord is our own elevation; and where the glory of the Head has gone before, there the hope of the Body is called to follow. [2] In his homily on the Gospels, Saint Gregory the Great admonishes us: We must follow Jesus with our whole heart to that place where, by faith, we know He has ascended with His body. Let us flee from earthly desires. […] Even if you are tossed about in the swirling currents of worldly cares, cast the anchor of your hope, starting today, into our eternal homeland. [3]
Beloved brothers, with the Ascension the Lord leaves us a promise, through the mouth of the Angels: Viri Galilæi, quid admiramini aspicientes in cælum? Hic Jesus, qui assumptus est a vobis in cælum, sic veniet quemadmodum vidistis eum euntem in cælum. As you saw him ascend, so he will return: no longer in the humility of the passible flesh, but in the majesty of the Judge who will descend with glory on the clouds of heaven, to gather the elect and lead them to the beatific vision.
We find ourselves in a situation similar to that of the holy souls in Limbo, liberated by Our Lord before the Resurrection, yet compelled to await His Ascension before entering the Heavenly Jerusalem. We, too, like them, know that Christ has truly risen, and that His return to the Father and the sending of the Holy Spirit constitute the prelude to the final triumph. We, too, live in an intermediate realm, pilgrims in a foreign and hostile land, journeying toward the Heavenly Homeland that awaits us. We, too, yearn to behold the blessed face of the Savior as He says to us: Intra in gaudium Domini tui (Mt 25:23). We, too, know from Sacred Scripture that we are living in eschatological times: When these things begin to come to pass, stand up and lift up your heads, for your deliverance is near (Lk 21:28).
Take heed, however: the words of the Angels may sound not only as a consolation for the righteous, but also as a terrible warning for the wicked: Sic veniet, just as you have seen Him ascend, so shall He descend to reclaim, in virga ferrea – with a rod of iron – dominion over the Church, a dominion today usurped by an apostate and rebellious Hierarchy. And sicut in cælo the Head, today triumphant in His majesty, is reflected in the glory of the Saints, so too et in terra does the Church Militant prepare herself, like the wise virgins, for the return of the Bridegroom: with oil in her lamps and clad in her wedding garment, certain of joining the Lamb for the wedding feast.
As we celebrate this Mystery, we ask Him who preceded us into the eternal glory of the Father to make our hearts dwell even now in cœlestibus, as the Collect implores: Concede, quæsumus, omnipotens Deus: ut, qui hodierna die Unigenitum tuum Redemptorem nostrum ad cælos ascendisse credimus; ipsi quoque mente in cælestibus habitemus. Grant, O almighty God, we beseech you, that while we believe that your Only-Begotten Son, our Redeemer, has today ascended into heaven, we may already dwell there in our minds. May Mary Most Holy, Assumed into heaven body and soul, help us in this, she who is Janua cæli and Paradisi porta. And so may it be.
+ Carlo Maria Viganò, Archbishop
Viterbo, 14 May MMXXVI
In Ascensione Domini
[1] Saint Augustine of Hippo, Sermo 263 de Ascensione Domini (PL 38, 1245): Hodie enim, sicut audistis, fratres, Dominus noster Jesus Christus ascendit in caelum: ascendat cum illo et cor nostrum.
[2] Saint Leo the Great, Sermo 73 de Ascensione Domini (CCSL 138A, 453): Quia igitur Christi ascensio nostra provectio est, et quo præcessit gloria capitis, eo spes vocatur et corporis.
[3] Saint Gregory the Great, Homiliæ in Evangelia, Liber II, Homilia 29 (PL 76, 1218-1219): Sequamur ergo toto corde Jesum, quo scimus fide ascendisse corpore. Terrena desideria fugiamus […] Etiamsi in fluctibus occupationum circumferimur, jam nunc in patriam spem anchoram figamus.
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