The New Zealand THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1917. ASCENSION THURSDAY

New Zealand Tablet, 17 May 1917, Page 29

T he New Zealand THURSDAY, MAY 17, 1917. ASCENSION THURSDAY

§N Ascension Day the Church commemorates the last mystery of the life of the Saviour on earth. Only a few weeks ago we were meditating on the Passion which culminated in the moment when Christ, reviewing from the height of the Cross the work of His life, the transgressions of men and the price He paid for them, expired after the words which told of His triumph had been uttered. Forty days later His time on earth came to an end. The Resurrection had set the seal on the faith of the Apostles. The full powers.of the priesthood had been given them. They were ready to go forth, never wavering again, and never knowing any will again but the will of their Master, soldiers of the Cross, living now in Christ, Who was to live in them as long as their pilgrimage should last. Now indeed it was consummated. - * We read in the Acts that, taking His disciples with Him, He went up the Mount of Olives, and there, stretching forth His hands in a last blessing, He ascended into Heaven. Among the olive trees He had often passed long nights in those prayerful retreats of His which are mentioned without detail until we come to a night when His agony found Him in prayer and the first scene of the Passion began. The olives had been silent witnesses of His f sweat of blood and His unspeakable anguish on that night when all had deserted Him. The olives, too, had seen the kiss of the traitor, and His apprehension by the rabble: they had been the stage of His-humiliation, and they were now

to be the scene of His supreme triumph. Below lay Jerusalem, the royal city of His people, over which He had wept tears of bitter human sorrow a little while ago, when He thought of all He had done, and done in vain for His own race. There was the great Temple, so long the heart of that proud Jewish nation now nearing destruction through their own blindness; there were the streets through which they, His own, had dragged Him to a shameful death; there was Calvary on the heights of which He had died for mankind; there too was the Tower of Antoninus where the Eagles of the Roman standard floated over the city in testimony of the downfall of the lost people. The chosen band of His disciples, and His own beloved Mother were all that followed Him to Mount Olivet to witness His Ascension, which was the pledge of their own reward in Heaven. To them alone it was granted to watch Him as He ascended in the fulness of that power and glory in which one day He will come again to judge us all. * "Ought not Christ have suffered these things, and so enter into His glory ?" On Calvary He planted the standard of His victory; Mount Olivet was the scene of His triumph. The Ascension was the crown of His toil and labor. The exterior beatitude and glory of His sacred Humanity now shone forth in their splendor. Through union with the Godhead they were always His; but not till His sorrows and humiliations were over did He allow them to appear, except for a momentary gleam on the day of His Transfiguration. He had suffered on the Mount; He had carried His cross to Golgotha, and even for Him the Ascension was the crown that followed the cross. There is a lesson to be learned of us all in this. The reward of heaven is for us; and, in heaven, an immortal glory that will be a reflection of His. But let us not think that the way so hard for Him will be easy for us. We must tread the path of sorrow, and eat our bread in tears, and keep our lonely vigils, and walk in the valley of sorrows before we may sing in our day of triumph : "It behoved Christ to suffer and so enter into His glory. If we suffer we shall also reign with Him." He is our Head, our Father, 'our King. He suffered and died for each one of us. His triumph is a personal pledge that a like triumph is in store for each one of us who will take up the cross and follow Him to the end. Rejoicing therefore with Him we have reason to rejoice also on our own account, and to find in the Ascension a source of comfort and joy. *

"It is expedient for you that I go." In order that we might be of the number of those blessed who have not seen and have yet believed He stayed not on earth but went up into Heaven leaving our faith intact and its merit complete. And as our faith is the substance of things to be hoped for, strong faith ' and constant hope must go hand in hand. By His ascension He strengthened and confirmed hope when He, our Head, went to take possession of the Kingdom prepared for us, made ours at the price of His Blood. He has gone before where He calls us to follow; and He has revealed in Himself the glory that is the promise of ours. When He disappeared from the eyes of the disciples into the invisible world where He reigns in glory He taught us how to lift up our hearts to Him with complete detachment from the things of this earth, and to seek the things that are above, where He is sitting at the right hand of God. He Who is the supreme object of our love thus taught us to centre our affections in Heaven where He wishes us to reign one day with Him: •; So then His departure from amongst men was expedient for, us in that it nourishes our faith, strengthens our hope, and directs the love of our hearts to Heaven where He, our everlasting treasure, reigns eternally. -.- U;.;.- * We all need reminders that we have not here a lasting city. ■'- The engrossing affairs of everyday life have a tendency to make our views of the earth earthly, and to turn our attention aside from the truths of

eternity. The great feasts of the year are like so many beacons on the sea of human existence, and he who keeps them in the spirit of the Church, entering into their meaning and learning their lessons, will find his way to port in safety. The feast of this week also reminds us that our Lord is in Heaven in the glory of His sacred Humanity, our High Priest always living to make intercession for us. The world never needed His protection and His intercession more than now. To Him, for ourselves, and for all who remember Him to-day as we do, and more especially for all who forget Him let us therefore pray : Be thou our guide, be Thou our goal; Be Thou our pathway to the skies; Our joy when sorrow fills the soul; In death our everlasting prize. Amen.