MARY AND THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD
2. The Ascension.
Jesus appears to His apostles and disciples for the last time and leads them to the Mount of Olives. There His passion started. From there He will one day judge the world. There He also wanted His ascension to take place. What a world of recollections would that place bring to the minds of all! What thoughts would crowd the soul of Mary! What a mighty change, what a contrast between what happened forty days before and what was taking place now under Her eyes. If those stones, once witnesses of His agony and of His sweat of blood, could speak! If those olive trees which watched His capture could talk, what would they say!
In your struggles and sorrows do not forget this. All passes; all quickly fades away. Very often that which was the cause of our sorrow becomes now the root of our joy and will certainly in Heaven be the instrument of our victory, our glory, and our happiness.
Then at a certain moment, in the presence of all His disciples and of Our Heavenly Mother from whom He would especially take leave and to whom He would more clearly than to the rest show the fitness of His returning to Heaven, Jesus began to be transfigured. His face shown like a sun. His eyes glowed brightly with a loving light. His hands rose slowly to bless them and from His wounds, so beautiful and glorious, sprung the sweetest perfume which comforted the heart of the faithful. All would take leave of Him, kissing the wounds of His hands and feet. Our Blessed Lady would come forward and kiss for the last time the wounds of His side and then, gently and slowly, with a movement nearly imperceptible at the beginning, with His eyes raised to His Father Who was calling Him, Christ began to rise from the earth and to ascend into heaven.
See the Apostles ecstatically watching that sight. They do not seem to know how it is going to end. But see Our Heavenly Mother following Her Son with Her eyes. Then a shining cloud wraps Him, and the Apostles can see Him no longer. But for Mary there are no clouds. Her maternal eyes can pierce whatever interposes itself between Jesus and Herself. She sees the triumphant entry of Her Son into Heaven, accompanied by throngs of the souls of the just which he had just freed from Limbo. She would hear the triumphant canticles of the angelic hosts. Rejoice in this victory by Jesus, in which also Mary partakes, and beg of Her that through Her intercession and through the merits of Her Son you may also one day partake of the same joy in Heaven.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
2. The Ascension.
Jesus appears to His apostles and disciples for the last time and leads them to the Mount of Olives. There His passion started. From there He will one day judge the world. There He also wanted His ascension to take place. What a world of recollections would that place bring to the minds of all! What thoughts would crowd the soul of Mary! What a mighty change, what a contrast between what happened forty days before and what was taking place now under Her eyes. If those stones, once witnesses of His agony and of His sweat of blood, could speak! If those olive trees which watched His capture could talk, what would they say!
In your struggles and sorrows do not forget this. All passes; all quickly fades away. Very often that which was the cause of our sorrow becomes now the root of our joy and will certainly in Heaven be the instrument of our victory, our glory, and our happiness.
Then at a certain moment, in the presence of all His disciples and of Our Heavenly Mother from whom He would especially take leave and to whom He would more clearly than to the rest show the fitness of His returning to Heaven, Jesus began to be transfigured. His face shown like a sun. His eyes glowed brightly with a loving light. His hands rose slowly to bless them and from His wounds, so beautiful and glorious, sprung the sweetest perfume which comforted the heart of the faithful. All would take leave of Him, kissing the wounds of His hands and feet. Our Blessed Lady would come forward and kiss for the last time the wounds of His side and then, gently and slowly, with a movement nearly imperceptible at the beginning, with His eyes raised to His Father Who was calling Him, Christ began to rise from the earth and to ascend into heaven.
See the Apostles ecstatically watching that sight. They do not seem to know how it is going to end. But see Our Heavenly Mother following Her Son with Her eyes. Then a shining cloud wraps Him, and the Apostles can see Him no longer. But for Mary there are no clouds. Her maternal eyes can pierce whatever interposes itself between Jesus and Herself. She sees the triumphant entry of Her Son into Heaven, accompanied by throngs of the souls of the just which he had just freed from Limbo. She would hear the triumphant canticles of the angelic hosts. Rejoice in this victory by Jesus, in which also Mary partakes, and beg of Her that through Her intercession and through the merits of Her Son you may also one day partake of the same joy in Heaven.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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