SECTION TWO I. THE CREEDS
CHAPTER TWO I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD
ARTICLE 6 "HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER"
659 "So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken
up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God."531 Christ's
body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the
new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently
enjoys.532 But during the forty days when he eats and drinks
familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his
glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity.533
Jesus' final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity
into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is
seated from that time forward at God's right hand.534 Only in a
wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul
"as to one untimely born", in a last apparition that established him as
an apostle.535
660 The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time
is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: "I have not
yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I
am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your
God."536 This indicates a difference in manifestation between the
glory of the risen Christ and that of the Christ exalted to the Father's
right hand, a transition marked by the historical and transcendent
event of the Ascension.
661 This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his
descent from heaven in the Incarnation. Only the one who "came from
the Father" can return to the Father: Christ Jesus.537 "No one has
ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of
man."538 Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have
access to the "Father's house", to God's life and happiness.539 Only
Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have
confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source,
has preceded us.540
662 "and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to
myself."541 The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and
announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed
begins it. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant,
"entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands. . . but into
heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf."542
There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he "always lives
to make intercession" for "those who draw near to God through
him".543 As "high priest of the good things to come" he is the centre
and the principal actor of the liturgy that honours the Father in
heaven.544
663 Henceforth Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father: "By
'the Father's right hand' we understand the glory and honour of
divinity, where he who exists as Son of God before all ages, indeed as
God, of one being with the Father, is seated bodily after he became
incarnate and his flesh was glorified."545
664 Being seated at the Father's right hand signifies the inauguration
of the Messiah's kingdom, the fulfilLment of the prophet Daniel's vision
concerning the Son of man: "To him was given dominion and glory
and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve
him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass
away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed."546 After this
event the apostles became witnesses of the "kingdom [that] will have
no end".547
IN BRIEF
665 Christ's Ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus' humanity
into God's heavenly domain, whence he will come again (cf Acts 1:11);
this humanity in the meantime hides him from the eyes of men (cf Col
3:3).
666 Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us into the Father's
glorious kingdom so that we, the members of his Body, may live in the
hope of one day being with him for ever.
667 Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of heaven once and for
all, intercedes constantly for us as the mediator who assures us of the
permanent outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
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