17/05/2026
The human heart has always carried a deep fear of suffering and of confronting the truth about itself. We instinctively avoid whatever wounds us: failure, weakness, shame, and the hidden darkness within our souls. Even the Sacrament of Reconciliation can become a source of hesitation and fear. Many are reluctant to confess not merely because they are embarrassed before a priest, but because they are afraid to stand before the truth of who they really are. We fear being exposed. We fear judgment. We fear admitting that we are more fragile and broken than we wish to believe.
Yet it is precisely here that the mystery of the Ascension shines with profound hope. Christ did not ascend into heaven as a distant God untouched by human suffering. He ascended bearing the wounds of the Crucifixion upon His glorified body. The scars remained. In doing so, He revealed that God does not erase human pain, weakness, or sorrow, but transforms them in divine love. The wounds of Christ are no longer signs of defeat; they have become eternal signs of redeeming love.
The Ascension teaches us that heaven is no longer foreign to humanity. In Christ, our human nature has entered into the very heart of God. Jesus carried into heaven everything that belongs to our condition: our tears, loneliness, temptations, anguish, and even death itself. Therefore, when we bring our brokenness before Him, we do not approach a God who is indifferent, but One who has walked the path of human suffering Himself.
So often we desire the glory of resurrection without the surrender of the Cross. We long for peace without facing the truth. We seek healing while hiding our wounds. Yet Christ chose the opposite way. He descended into the depths of human pain so that He might raise humanity into divine life.
This mystery resonates deeply with the spirituality of Saint John of the Cross. The Carmelite mystic speaks of the โdark night of the soul,โ those painful moments of emptiness, confusion, purification, and interior struggle. But for Saint John, the darkness is not abandonment; it is the hidden work of God. In the silence of suffering, God purifies the heart from pride, illusion, and attachment so that the soul may be free for perfect union with Him.
True holiness, then, does not begin with pretending to be strong. It begins with the humility to stand honestly before God. The confessional is not a place of humiliation, but a place of mercy and freedom. When a sinner kneels before Christ with sincerity, he is not rejected; he is embraced. God is not scandalized by our weakness. Christ has already carried our humanity into heaven. What separates us from God is not our wounds, but our refusal to open them to His love.
The Feast of the Ascension reminds us that the final destiny of the human person is not despair, darkness, or failure, but communion with God. Heaven has been opened through Christ. And the path toward it is not found by denying our humanity, but by allowing Christ to heal, purify, and raise that humanity with Himself into the glory of the Father.
