“This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, so shall He come as you have seen Him going into heaven.”

This “going,” says St. John Chrysostom, intimates the manner of Christ’s departure and return, namely, Christ comes into the world and leaves the world by His own divine power.

Our Savior is one with the Father and the Holy Ghost; Christ left this world by His own Divine power which the three Persons of the Blessed Trinity possess in common.   It is only Christ, however, who will return to judge the living and the dead as we pray in the Creed, “I believe in Jesus Christ... who will come again to judge the living and the dead.”  And, of course, Christ will come again, not in a different body but that one which was buffeted and smitten and which now is glorified in heaven for all eternity.

Moreover, recall that the same Body which ascended into heaven, which sits glorified at the right hand of the Father, which will return to judge the living and the dead, NOW comes to us daily in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass,... not to judge us, but to manifest His mercy.  For every time we receive the flesh of Christ with attention and reverence, with acts of  love and affection, we obtain the grace to advance in His friendship, to grow in virtue, to lessen our evil inclinations, to resist temptation, besides also receiving the pledge that we will obtain heaven one day, forever. 

“O miracle,” exclaims St. John Chrysostom, “He that sits with His Father above, is at the same time handled by men below.  Jesus Christ ascending to heaven, both has His flesh with Him above and has left It with us here below.  Elias being taken up left his disciple, Eliseus, his mantle and a double portion of his spirit, but the Son of man ascending left His own flesh to us.”

Our Savior now sits at the right of the Father AND now comes to us in the Blessed Sacrament. God forbid that we should ever receive the Precious Body of our Savior without discerning His Presence.  Already too many receive this way: unaware of the Divine Presence and need for purity of soul; with willful and distracting thoughts of other things; with a coldness frightening to the angels.   What we receive is not a Church potato chip, but the very flesh of God, our God who suffered and died for sinners like you and me, our Lord Jesus Christ who now sits at the right hand of the Father and who will come in glory to judge the living and the dead. 

On our part, let us approach the Blessed Sacrament, the food of angels, always and everywhere with as much love and affection, attention and reverence, as we can muster... in reparation for our past sins and those of others who yet unworthily receive our Lord, and in thanksgiving for God’s mercy, and, of course, to prepare ourselves for a warm and affectionate greeting by Christ when He finally returns to judge the living and the dead.