Rising with Christ: The Ascension of Christ in the Economy of Redemption

In his ninth Lecture on Justification (1838), Newman describes the Ascension as an integral aspect of Christ’s mission to redeem the world. He who promised to not leave us as orphans ascended to His throne at the Father’s right hand in order to send us His Spirit (John 14:16-18). Interestingly, Newman’s lecture “Righteousness the Fruit of the Resurrection” refers often to the Ascension as integral to our redemption, because it is the necessary condition for the promised coming of the Holy Spirit. Thus, Newman argues that justification—being made righteous by God’s grace—is not a mere decree or imputation, but is substantially becoming righteous through union with God, through the abiding and real presence of God with man, in fulfillment of the prophets: “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14); “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit on all flesh…” (Joel 2:28). 

Fittingly, Newman’s sermon “Rising with Christ” invites us to keep our minds fixed on the Ascended Lord, to lift our hearts and minds up to him and away from what is worldly. He ascended in order to send us the Holy Spirit, whose gifts include the ability to cry out Abba (Papa) to the Father through Him (Romans 8:15). Newman reflects on how the sacrifice of the Mass begins with an invitation to “lift up [our] hearts,” (Latin, Sursum corda) to which we respond, “We lift them up to the Lord!” (Habemus ad dominum). The hearts of the faithful are already “hid with Christ in God,” (Colossians 3:3), from whom springs a new life that cannot be seen with worldly eyes. Therefore, Newman seeks to stir us up to be mindful of higher, heavenly things, and to detach ourselves from things of the world.

But this detachment is neither withdrawal from the world, nor is it mere intellectual assent, nor quietist inaction. It is practical. It must be cultivated and exercised by spiritual discipline: “Prayer and fasting have been called the wings of the soul, and they who neither fast nor pray, cannot follow Christ. They cannot lift up their hearts to him.” If our treasure is to be in heaven, we cannot store up treasure in this world, and must begin, in small and gradual ways, to deny ourselves the treasures of this world in practice so that our hearts may be truly set on Christ and where He dwells.

Scripture makes it clear that the measure of our sacrifice in Christ is the measure of our glory with Him. Immediately after telling the Collosians to “seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God,” St. Paul commands, “Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 2:2-5). Setting our minds up, aloft, on high with Christ, requires practical discipline to detach ourselves from an earth-ward gaze—“Set your affection on things above, not on the things of earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Doing so unites us to the suffering and glory of our Lord: “It is then the duty and privilege of all disciples of our glorified Savior, to be exalted and transfigured with Him.” But this does not mean we glitter in the eyes of the world; only spiritual eyes can see by faith the glory that awaits those who suffer now, who are conformed to Christ as the “least of these” but are nonetheless first in the Kingdom of Heaven. Those whose lives are hid with Christ in God, whose minds are fixed on the Ascended Christ, still “look like other men,” are “busy like other men,” are “passed over in the crowd of men.” They are hiding yet in plain sight, strangers in this world but citizens of heaven, who have “a secret channel of communication with the Most High, a gift the world knows not of.” The world will misunderstand them—it might grant that religion can “influence” an otherwise worldly life, but cannot imagine that such Christians are “governed” by religious truth and actually “live” by it in a totalizing way. The world which sees only appearances cannot comprehend the hidden reality of a heart captive to Christ. 

Newman warns us to not lose our fixed gaze on Christ in the midst of the business of the world, but to “redeem the time,” to use the things of the world for the things of heaven, to retain a higher orientation while going about our affairs, yet to humbly “live more strictly” by taking up Christ’s yoke, living by His “rule.” In this way, the heavenly mind of the one fixed on the Ascended Christ anticipates Newman’s famous spirituality for the laity in the world: to live within the world and sanctify it by our hidden hearts on fire with love for God and zeal for the Gospel. May we heed Newman’s wise Christian counsel as we strive to really be the Church in the midst of the modern world: to “stir up the great gift of God which is lodged deep within” us,  to be more of what we are by the gift of God’s abiding presence in us, to open our hearts wide to the Holy Spirit who will direct our gaze more and more deeply upon our true dwelling in God with Christ.

We must progressively become more of what we already are—other Christs, as notable saints like St. Josemaria Escricva have said. The Holy Spirit, the sanctifier, molds us to be the image of the Son. In this way, by our example and our word we “redeem the time,” and walk with others towards our heavenly home. Let us lift up our hearts on high with the Ascended Christ, renew our minds by diligent prayer and Christian discipline, and find ourselves ever more deeply bearing the image and likeness of Him who wondrously created us and even more wondrously redeems us.