By Clement Harrold
May 30, 2025
The Ascension of Jesus is one of the more confusing—and neglected—mysteries of our Catholic Christian faith. Most of us know that it commemorates Christ leaving earth and returning to heaven forty days after Easter. But beyond these basic facts, many of us aren’t entirely sure why the Ascension matters, or why the Church celebrates it as a solemnity every year. So what might be the deeper significance of this final act of Jesus’s earthly life?
Three Effects of the Ascension
In his Summa Theologiae, St. Thomas Aquinas addresses the question of what effect the Ascension had on our salvation (see ST III.57.6). The Angelic Doctor offers a threefold answer:
First, [Christ] prepared the way for our ascent into heaven, according to His own saying: “I go to prepare a place for you” (John 14:2) . . . For since He is our Head the members must follow whither the Head has gone: hence He said: “That where I am, you also may be” (John 14:3). In sign whereof He took to heaven the souls of the saints delivered from hell.
Aquinas explains that our own entry into heaven is made possible by Christ returning there. A glorious foreshadowing of this is found in the triumphant entry of all the souls who had been stuck in hades since the fall of Adam. For Aquinas, the Ascension brings to completion the process which Christ initiated forty days earlier on Holy Saturday.
While His body lay in the tomb, Jesus descended into the underworld to bring tidings of salvation to the righteous souls held in captivity there, and to remove all their pains. Now, on Ascension Thursday, those patient souls are finally brought into heaven together with their Savior. What’s more, we too now receive the assurance of eternal life, provided we remain faithful to Him.
Second, because as the high-priest under the Old Testament entered the holy place to stand before God for the people, so also Christ entered heaven “to make intercession for us,” as is said in Hebrews 7:25. Because the very showing of Himself in the human nature which He took with Him to heaven is a pleading for us, so that for the very reason that God so exalted human nature in Christ, He may take pity on them for whom the Son of God took human nature.
This second point is something we modern Christians rarely think about, but for Aquinas it is crucially important: Jesus ascends to heaven in order to continue interceding for all mankind. Standing before God in the holy place, Jesus is the eternal High Priest who in His glorified body still bears the marks of His Passion. With these wounds of love, the Son of God continues to make satisfaction to the Father on behalf of sinners everywhere.
Thirdly, that being established in His heavenly seat as God and Lord, He might send down gifts upon men, according to Ephesians 4:10: “He ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.”
The third effect the Ascension had on our salvation is that it returned Jesus to His rightful place at the right hand of God the Father. In one sense, of course, that’s where Jesus was for all eternity prior to the Incarnation. But what changes following His Ascension is that Jesus now takes His heavenly seat not just in His divinity but also in His humanity. It is this heavenly enthronement of the God-Man which provides the most fitting context for Him to distribute His gifts to all mankind.
The Ascension is for Our Benefit
When writing about the Ascension, Aquinas raises an interesting objection (see ST III.57.ad3). The objection states that it sure seems like it would have been better for us if Jesus had remained on earth, and that this would have increased our chances of salvation. Aquinas begins his reply with the following clarification:
Although Christ’s bodily presence was withdrawn from the faithful by the Ascension, still the presence of His Godhead is ever with the faithful, as He Himself says: “Behold, I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world” (Matt 28:20). For, “by ascending into heaven He did not abandon those whom He adopted,” as Pope Leo says (De Resurrec., Serm. ii). But Christ’s Ascension into heaven, whereby He withdrew His bodily presence from us, was more profitable for us than His bodily presence would have been.
Next Aquinas shows how Christ’s Ascension is effective in helping us to grow in the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
First of all, in order to increase our faith, which is of things unseen. . . . For “blessed are they that see not, yet believe” (John 20:29) . . .
Secondly, to uplift our hope: hence He says: “If I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be” (John 14:3). For by placing in heaven the human nature which He assumed, Christ gave us the hope of going thither . . .
Thirdly, in order to direct the fervor of our charity to heavenly things. . . . And since the Holy Ghost is love drawing us up to heavenly things, therefore our Lord said to His disciples: “It is expedient to you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7).
We see, then, that far from being an obscure or meaningless event, the Ascension of Christ is one of the foundational mysteries of our Christian faith, as well as a cause for great celebration and joy.
Further Reading
St. John Paul II, General Audience on May 24, 2000
St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Tertia Pars, Question 57
https://www.benedictusxvi.com/ascension-of-jesus-christ
About Clement Harrold
Clement Harrold earned his master’s degree in theology from the University of Notre Dame in 2024, and his bachelor’s from Franciscan University of Steubenville in 2021. His writings have appeared in First Things, Church Life Journal, Crisis Magazine, and the Washington Examiner.
