He Ascended into Heaven;
is Seated at the Right Hand
of God the Father Almighty
“So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up
into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (St. Mark 16:19).
After His resurrection, Christ returned to His Apostles and “presented
himself alive to them by many convincing proofs, appearing to them during
forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). During
these forty days, Christ laid the foundations for the Church He was to leave
behind by bestowing on His Apostles all that was necessary for them to
continue His work of salvation in the world:
(i)
“...he opened their minds to understand the scriptures” (St. Luke
24:45), that is, He illuminated the Apostles as to how He fulfilled
the myriad prophecies in the Old Testament which foretold His
coming.
(ii)
He gave them the power to forgive sins: “If you forgive the sins of
any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are
retained” (St. John 20:23). This power was in addition to the power
of binding and loosing already given to St. Peter specifically in St.
Matthew 16 and to the other Apostles collectively in St. Matthew
18.
(iii)
He confirmed St. Peter as the visible Head of His Church on earth:
“Feed my lambs ... tend my sheep” (St. John 21:15-16). Here, the
promise made by Our Lord in St. Matthew 16:18ff. to make St.
Peter the rock-foundation of the Church was fulfilled.
(iv)
He commissioned the Apostles to carry His Gospel to the very ends
of the earth and bring all peoples into the one flock under one
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