7th Tuesday of Easter
19 May 2026
Humanity enters heaven in Christ
I said Sunday that Pentecost is the third most important solemnity and feast of the Church. Well, Ascension is probably the fourth most important, and yet, like Pentecost, it comes and goes. But it has great significance for the Church.
One of the most important questions we can ask about the Ascension is: where did Jesus go?
Because if we misunderstand that, we will misunderstand the entire feast.
The Ascension is not Jesus traveling upward like an astronaut disappearing into outer space. Scripture speaks of heaven not primarily as a location within creation, but as the realm of God’s reign and glory. So when Christ ascends, He is not leaving creation behind. He is entering, in His humanity, into the fullness of the Father’s glory.
And that fulfills something extraordinary running throughout the entire Old Testament.
Again and again in Israel’s history, humanity is barred from entering the fullness of God’s presence. Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden. The way back is guarded. Sinai is wrapped in cloud and fire, and the people are warned not to ascend the mountain. Even the High Priest enters the Holy of Holies only once a year, and only with sacrificial blood.
Humanity and heaven are separated by sin.
That is the tension running through salvation history.
But now, in the Ascension, Christ enters the heavenly sanctuary not symbolically, but bodily. The Letter to the Hebrews says He entered “not into a sanctuary made by hands,” but into heaven itself. And He enters not merely as an individual, but as the New Adam carrying redeemed humanity with Him.
That changes everything about the destiny of the human person.
Because Christianity is not simply about sins being forgiven. It is about humanity being brought into communion with the life of God. The Ascension reveals the end toward which the Incarnation was always moving: the union of heaven and earth in Christ.
This is why the apostles eventually respond to the Ascension with joy. That detail in Gospel of Luke is remarkable. You would expect grief. But instead, they worship Him and return rejoicing.
Why?
Because they begin to understand that Jesus is not abandoning them. He is taking His place as the eternal High Priest interceding before the Father.
The Old Testament priest entered the sanctuary representing the people before God. Christ enters heaven itself bearing His wounds, eternally presenting the sacrifice of Calvary before the Father.
That means there is now a human heart in heaven praying for us.
A human voice interceding for us.
A human body glorified at the right hand of the Father.
And this also explains why the Church immediately turns toward Pentecost after the Ascension. In the Gospel of John, Jesus repeatedly says that His going to the Father is necessary for the sending of the Holy Spirit. The two mysteries cannot be separated.
At Babel, humanity tried to ascend to heaven through pride and self-exaltation, which divided humanity. At Pentecost, heaven descends through the Holy Spirit, and the nations are united in the Church.
The Ascension and Pentecost together reverse Babel.
Humanity could never storm heaven by its own power. So Christ descends in the Incarnation, ascends with redeemed humanity in the Ascension, and pours out the Spirit at Pentecost to draw humanity into divine life.
That is the life of the Church now.
We live between Ascension and Pentecost constantly. Christ reigns in glory, yet His life is poured into His Body through the Spirit. The Church becomes the place where heaven and earth now meet sacramentally.
That is why the Mass is so central to Catholic life.
In every Eucharist, the Church participates in the heavenly liturgy of the ascended Christ. We do not simply remember Calvary from a distance. We are drawn into the worship of the risen and ascended Lord who eternally offers Himself before the Father.
And that means the Ascension is not about absence.
It is about access.
Before Christ, heaven was closed to humanity because of sin.
In Christ, humanity enters heaven.
The apostles stood looking upward because, for the first time since Eden, one of us had gone home.