Quote:“Having fulfilled all the mysteries pertaining to the preaching of the Gospel and to the New Covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven, in the sight of his Disciples, on the fortieth day after his Resurrection; hereby withdrawing his corporal presence, for he was to remain at the right hand of his Father until should be filled up the measure of time decreed by God for the multiplication of the children of the Church, and he (Jesus) should again come, and in the same Flesh wherewith he ascended, to judge the living and the dead. Thus, therefore, that, which in our Redeemer had hitherto been visible, passed into the order of Mysteries. And to the end that Faith might be grander and surer teaching took the place of sight; which teaching was to be accepted by the faithful with hearts illumined by heavenly light.

“This Faith, increased by our Lord’s Ascension, and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Ghost, was proof against every trial; so that, neither chains, nor prisons, nor banishment, nor hunger, nor fire, nor wild beasts, nor all the ingenuity of cruelty and persecution, could affright it. For this Faith, not only men, but even women—not only beardless boys, but even tender maidens—fought unto the shedding of their blood, and this in every country of the world. This Faith cast out devils from such as were possessed, cured the sick, and raised the dead to life. The blessed Apostles themselves—who, though they had so often witnessed their Master’s miracles and heard his teachings, turned cowards when they saw him in his Sufferings, and hesitated to believe his Resurrection—these same, I say, were so changed by his Ascension, that what heretofore had been a subject of fear, then became a subject of joy. And why? Because the whole energy of the soul’s contemplation was raised up to Jesus’ Divinity, now seated at the right hand of his Father; the vigor of the mind’s eye was not dulled by the bodily vision, and they came to the clear view of the mystery, namely—that he neither left the Father when he descended upon the earth, nor left his Disciples when he ascended into heaven.

“Never, then, was Jesus so well known, as when he withdrew himself into the glory of his Father’s majesty, and became more present by his Divinity in proportion as he was distant in his Humanity. Then did Faith, made keener, approach to the Son co-equal with his Father; she needed not the handling of the bodily substance of her Christ—that bodily substance, I say, whereby he is less than his Father. The substance of his glorified Body is the same; but our Faith was to be of so generous a kind, as that we were to go to the Co-equal Son, not by a corporal feeling, but by a spiritual understanding. Hence, when Mary Magdalene, who represented the Church, threw herself at the feet of the Risen Jesus, and would have embraced them, he said to her: Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father:—as though he would say: ‘I will not that thou come to me corporally, or that thou know me by the testimony of thy senses. I have a sublimer recognition in store for thee; I have prepared something far better for thee. When I shall have ascended to my Father, then shalt thou feel me in a higher and truer way; for thou shalt grasp what thou touchest not, and believe what thou seest not.’”

Quote:“The good Pilgrim mounts to the top of Calvary, where he sees in spirit the Cross lying on the ground, and our Savior stretched upon it, while the executioners cruelly nail him to it by his hands and feet. He sees them raise the Cross and the Crucified in the air, and the Blood gushing from the Wounds of the sacred Body. He looks at the poor Mother, who is pierced through with the sword of sorrow; he raises up his eyes to the Crucified, and listens with most loving attention to his Seven Words; and at last, sees him dying, and dead, and his Side opened with a Spear, so that the Sacred Heart is made visible. He watches how he is taken down from the Cross, and carried to the Tomb; and as he treads along the path all stained with his Redeemer’s Blood, he sheds floods of tears. He enters the Sepulcher, and buries his heart side by side by his Jesus’ Corpse.

“After this, he rises again together with him; he visits Emmaus, and thinks on all that happened between Jesus and the two disciples, Finally, he returns to Mount Olivet, the scene of the Ascension; and seeing there the last footprints of his dear Lord, he falls down and covers them with untiring kisses. Then, like an archer stretching his bowstring to give his arrow speed, he concentrates into one intense act the whole power of his love, and stands with his eyes and hands lifted up towards heaven: ‘Jesus!’ he says, ‘O my sweet Jesus! where else am I now to go on earth seeking thee? Ah Jesus! my dearest Jesus, let this heart of mine follow thee yonder!’ Saying this, his heart kept darting upwards to heaven, for the brave archer had taken too sure an aim to miss his divine object.”