but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.' 543 There Christ permanently exercises his priesthood, for he 'always lives to make intercession' for 'those who draw near to God through him'. Jesus Christ, the one priest of the new and eternal Covenant, 'entered, not into a sanctuary made by human hands. . . 541Ħ62 'And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.' 542 The lifting up of Jesus on the cross signifies and announces his lifting up by his Ascension into heaven, and indeed begins it. 540 Only Christ can open to man such access that we, his members, might have confidence that we too shall go where he, our Head and our Source, has preceded us. 538 'No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of man.' 539 Left to its own natural powers humanity does not have access to the 'Father's house', to God's life and happiness. Only the one who 'came from the Father' can return to the Father: Christ Jesus. 536Ħ60 The veiled character of the glory of the Risen One during this time is intimated in his mysterious words to Mary Magdalene: 'I have not yet ascended to the Father but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.' 537 This indicates a difference in manifestation between the glory of the risen Christ and that of the Christ exalted to the Father's right hand, a transition marked by the historical and transcendent event of the Ascension.Ħ61 This final stage stays closely linked to the first, that is, to his descent from heaven in the Incarnation. 535 Only in a wholly exceptional and unique way would Jesus show himself to Paul 'as to one untimely born', in a last apparition that established him as an apostle. 534 Jesus' final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God's right hand. 533 But during the forty days when he eats and drinks familiarly with his disciples and teaches them about the kingdom, his glory remains veiled under the appearance of ordinary humanity.

'HE ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN AND IS SEATED AT THE RIGHT HAND OF THE FATHER'Ħ59 '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.' 532 Christ's body was glorified at the moment of his Resurrection, as proved by the new and supernatural properties it subsequently and permanently enjoys. I BELIEVE IN JESUS CHRIST, THE ONLY SON OF GOD Catechism of the Catholic Church - PART 1 SECTION 2 CHAPTER 2 ARTICLE 6 CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

Ascension of jesus