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“When he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” (Acts of the Apostles 1,9)

Forty days after the Lord's resurrection, He vanished from their sight within a cloud of glory. He ascended into the heavens from whence He had come, revealing His divine power and glory. Today, we celebrate the final stage of Jesus' earthly ministry. For the last time, the Apostles beheld and contemplated Him—not in the poverty of His humanity, but in the richness of His glory. This mystery of faith calls to mind the words of Saint John in Chapter 3: "No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man" (John 3:13). Jesus alone possesses the power to return to the place where He chose to leave everything behind for the salva-tion of the world (cf. Philippians 2:6–7).

Indeed, in His priestly prayer, He said to the Father: "Now glorify me, Father, with you, with the glory that I had with you before the world began" (John 17:5). Thus, He appears to be the only one capable of ascending to heaven, for He is the only one who descended from it. If Jesus is the only one who ascended, what then of those whom God graced? What of Enoch, Elijah, or Mary?

Here, the answer becomes quite interesting. Today, the keyword is "Ascension." It derives from the Latin “ascendere”, which means "to go up." Jesus ascended by His own power because He had first descended (John 3:13). However, in the cases of Enoch (cf. Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5), Elijah (2 Kings 2:1), or the Virgin Mary (a figure of the victorious Church ( Revelation 12), the term is not "Ascension" or "elevation," but rather "Assumption." The Assumption (from the latin “assumpta”, meaning "to be taken up by") is a divine grace granted by God to certain chosen souls. Jesus did not receive this grace (Assumption), but rather ascended on his own because he is God.

By celebrating the Ascension of our Lord, we can give thanks in advance for our entry into heaven. With this glorious body, Jesus introduces us into Paradise while awaiting our own resurrection: "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love he had for us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, brought us to life with Christ* (by grace you have been saved), raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2,4-7)