"We have a great high priest who has passed into the Heavens, Jesus, the Son of God" (Heb. 4:14). The Ascension of Christ is the assertion of the ultimate control of God over the whole created order of the universe the sovereignty of God who fills all things. The Ascension is also an assertion of the final glory of humanity, the taking of our nature into God.

The mystics of the Eastern Churches see the Ascension of Christ as the apotheosis of humanity, that is man, with God, is on the throne. Humanity is raised up and set with Christ beyond the heavens.

Now what does this mean? And what are the consequences for believing this?

First, to state that humanity has been raised up with Christ is to say something about heaven. It is to reject notions of a far off place and state " a wholly futuristic concept" a sort of summerland in the never-never for the super religious and perfect. Instead, it is to say that heaven is accessible and that in our worship we share its life "therefore with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven."

The liturgy of the Church is in itself an Ascension, a lifting on high of the Son of Man, a lifting of our hearts to union with God and how much more so in the Holy Eucharist.

Second, to say that humanity has been raised with Christ is to say something about the world and our relationships to its structures. If our true citizenship is in heaven and if heaven is anticipated now, then we risk disturbance.

More often than not we don't want to be disturbed. Therefore, we keep heaven remote, where it cannot impinge upon our present day here and now. We keep Christ's Ascension as a solitary event affecting and involving himself alone. We can then remain comfortably earthbound, safe and secure avoiding all risks, all challenge. But if as St. Paul writes in Ephesians "Christ ascended in order to fulfill all things" then this was not a once-and-for-all personal event. He is Lord and King and enthroned with God. Humanity is now glorified in Jesus and the possibility of permanent union with God in the life of the Trinity is open to us. The Incarnation, Resurrection and Ascension have an influence in our life. We can share in the life of the Trinity.

The Ascension as the completion of the Incarnational process helps us to a more balanced doctrine of the person of Christ. It is not that God became flesh and that is that. If we overemphasize the birth of Jesus, that is what we end up with. But seeing the Ascension as the end of the purpose of Incarnation, and not bound solely to Resurrection, reminds us that in the Incarnation of Christ is, as St. Athanasius put it in his creed, "One not by the conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by the taking of manhood into God."

All this has consequences for the Christian life. For we believe in a God who brings life from death and brings it into his own life. The Resurrection illustrates the first aspect and the Ascension the second.

What is revealed of God through Resurrection and Ascension of Christ is a possibility for us when we are incorporated into Him by baptism and sustained in Him by our life in the Church.

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