Twelfth station

The Risen Christ ascends Heaven 

P  We adore, O Risen Christ, and we bless you.
A  Because by your resurrection you have given life to the world.

R From the Acts of the Apostles (Act 1,6-11)
So when they had come together, they asked him, "Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold,  two men stood by them in white robes, and said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

G1 The Risen Christ has conquered death and has entered into the sphere of life without end. His body is also a sign of the glory. During the forty days of the Easter season he makes himself to be seen, he lets us to touch and to embrace him; Jesus speaks, he eats and walks with his disciples; and he gives the last supreme promise: "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you"; to fulfil the universal mission. That cry: "It is finished" (Jn 19,30), that comes from the cross is now complete. Entering into the sphere of life without end, the Risen Christ withdraws from view of the human eye. But the Risen Christ stays with the people, as he has promised: "I am with you always." Jesus shares with the Father the universal dominion. Now he sits on his right. In this way human nature enters into the sphere of God. No materialist could ever glorify the matter as it is glorified in the mystery of the ascension of the Risen Christ.

G2 The man of today doesn't look to heaven, earth is enough for him. At least, he thinks so. But the heaven is where the invisible God is. The saints experience it as inheritance. The man of today blinded by a wrong idea of possession - just to have, by pleasure and by power, doesn't sharpen his eye to the invisible realities. He suffers from serious myopia, if not of absolute blindness. The man of today fears that looking to heaven will make him forget earth. Yet heaven will be a final experience of those who on earth feed the hungry and comfort the desperate. Only those who in time will have opened the doors of heaven for God's poor and hungry children can enter into the eternal Easter.

A  Rejoice, O Virgin Mother Mary:
    Christ is risen, Alleluia.

P Risen Jesus, you have gone to prepare us a place. The place of the man-child is at the right of God the Father and the Mother. You have  bought the ticket. We must not tear it. Keep our eyes fixed on the place of eternal joy. A piece of heaven repairs everything. Looking at Easter, we will make it come true on earth for every man and for the whole man. Easter of today, that liberates men,  is a cheerful prophecy of the beatitude without end.
A  Amen.

A  O Mary, temple  of the Holy Spirit
    guide us, the witnesses to the Risen Christ
    on the path of light.