By Nicholas Soellner, Connecting Creed and Life
“He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.” CCC 659-667
As a youth, my friends and I were always excited around the Fourth of July. Not only did we look forward to the food and parties, but staying up late to watch the fireworks was the highlight of the experience. Once we got old enough to set some of them off ourselves, we eventually learned the hard way: some fireworks are almost impossible to see during the daytime. We discovered in our impatience that even the ones that you can perceive during the day are certainly less impressive. The bright, colorful flashes of light were barely visible, and the sources of the whistles and pops were now difficult to follow. What was once clearly seen and strongly pulled our attention had become unrecognizable.
I cannot help but wonder if the apostles had a similar feeling. The various miracles they witnessed or even performed themselves during Jesus’ public ministry would be enough to make one wonder if they needed to get their eyes checked. But perhaps more concerning was their inability to recognize Jesus after the resurrection. The Scriptures tell us that on various occasions, the disciples failed to recognize him on or after Easter Sunday. When Mary Magdalene first saw the risen Jesus, she mistook him for the gardener (cf. Jn 20:14) . When Cleopas and his companion saw Jesus on the road to Emmaus, they mistook him for an ordinary traveler (cf. Lk. 24:13-16). It is only when Jesus called her by name and in the breaking of the bread that Mary and Cleopas recognized him, respectively.
The apostles fared little to no better: “Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach; yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.” (Jn. 21:4) It is only when Jesus reprised the miraculous catch of fish that they witnessed roughly three years earlier that John recognized that it’s Jesus: “He said to them, ‘Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.’ So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, for the quantity of fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!” (Jn. 21:6-7) When they got to shore, John tells us, “Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ They knew it was the Lord” (21:12). I find it remarkable that even though John points out that “this was now the third time that Jesus was revealed to the disciples after he was raised from the dead” (Jn. 12:14), the disciples were still prevented from seeing his true identity with their eyes. It seems their bodily sense of sight had failed. What was going on?
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that after his resurrection, but before his ascension, “His glory remained veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity” (CCC 659). When Jesus ascends to heaven to claim his throne at the Father’s right hand, his full glory is revealed as the eternal high priest, “the center and principal actor of the liturgy that honors the Father in heaven” (CCC 662). What we see in common amongst the examples we explored is this: the eyes of faith are needed to recognize the risen Christ.
Just as the disciples, we are similarly called to pray for the faith and conviction necessary to preach the good news of the resurrection. As his greatest gift and means to achieve this mission, Christ left us the Eucharist. Here too, our senses fail, unable to perceive the Body of Christ as anything more than bread and wine. Like the disciples, we must rely on the eyes of faith in order to affirm our belief that when we look upon the Eucharist, it really is Jesus. The sacrament of the Eucharist is a foretaste of Heaven, a mystery that calls us upward and lifts the glorious immortality that the risen Jesus now enjoys. The glory of the exalted Christ who sits at the Father’s right hand is now veiled under the appearance of bread and wine in the Eucharist. Like Abraham, we look toward heaven but cannot see beyond due to the daytime sun (cf. Gen. 15:5-6).