Awaiting Ascension

Fix your minds on the things that are above, and not on the things of earth. Col 3.2

For you have died and your life is hidden with God.

This suggestion about how to live our lives is preceded by this: If then, you have risen with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Col 3;1

Seated at the right hand of God. This image is from Psalm 110 which I never paid much attention to until I realized that the phrase is threaded through the New Testament. (Mark 12:35-37; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Hebrews 1:3,13; 1Peter 3:22 It is in our creed.

We hardly pay attention to it. Perhaps it expresses a mystery too deep for words? St. Thomas Aquinas O.P. writes that it does not mean a physical place at all. But it means the glory and power and love that is God, which Christ shares because he is True God as well as true man.

And having said this we are still dealing in mystery. But the additional thought of Aquinas is that the glory of God and the reality that God is love means the Jesus shares this and so will we. In fact he goes on the say the we have this gift from Baptism. By Baptism he says we have risen with Christ. In another place in the New Testament it says that Jesus having joy before him endured the cross. I guess this is true for us when our faith is strong. We are able to endure sorrows confusions and miseries because we are sure of God’s love, which is the source of all joy.

As Rene Voilaume wrote: Joy is the instantaneous fruit of a look of faith at Jesus. When we start to meditate let us always call to mind that