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665 Christ’s Ascension marks the definitive entrance of Jesus’ humanity into God’s heavenly domain, whence he will come again (cf Acts 1:11); this humanity in the meantime hides himfrom the eyes of men (cf Col3:3). 666 Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, precedes us
into the Father’s glorious kingdom so that we, the
members of his Body, may live in the hope of one day being
with him for ever. 667 Jesus Christ, having entered the sanctuary of
heaven once and for all, intercedes constantly for us as
the mediator who assures us of the permanent outpouring of
the Holy Spirit.
Christ already reigns through the
Church... 668 ‘Christ died and lived again, that he
might be Lord both of the dead and of the living.’~~8
Christ’s Ascension into heaven sig nifies his
participation, in his humanity, in God’s power and
authority. Jesus Christ is Lord: he possesses all power in
heaven and on 450 earth. He is ‘far above all rule
and authority and power and dominion’, for the Father
‘has put all things under his feet.’549 Christ is
Lord of the cosmos and of history. In him human history
518 and indeed all creation are ‘set forth’ and
transcendently fulfilled.550 669 As
Lord, Christ is also head of the Church, which is his 792
Body.55’ Taken up to heaven and glorified after
he had thus fully accomplished his
mission, Christ dwells on earth in his Church. io88
The redemption is the source of the authority that
Christ, by virtue of the Holy Spirit, exercises over the
Church. ‘The king~ dom of Christ [is] already
present in mystery’, ‘on earth, the seed 541
L and the beginning of the kingdom’.552
670 Since the Ascension God’s plan has
entered into its fulfilment. We are
already at ‘the last hour’.553 ‘Already the
final age of the world is with us, and
the renewal of the world is irrevocably under 1042
way; it is even now anticipated in a certain real way, for
the |
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