The paschal mystery refers not simply to the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also to his ascension and the sending of the Spirit at Pentecost. It represents one unitary process, with distinct stages, each having an importance and meaning of its own.

If the meaning of the Ascension may be summarised in a phrase, that phrase would be: mission accomplished. Jesus accomplished what he came to do, and then he returned to the Father.

The whole Gospel of John is arranged around this symmetry of Jesus coming from God and going back to God. The same pattern in implicit in the famous hymn which St Paul incorporates in the Letter to the Philippians about Jesus' self-emptying (Incarnation) and eventual glorification (Ascension).

The Ascension, like the Resurrection and the descent into hell (the underworld) must be viewed in a way that does not confuse time and eternity. Heaven is not a "place", in the way we know place, that is, in terms of time and space.

Pictorial representations of Jesus levitating while the disciples watch cannot be taken as a description of what happened. The only way we have of dealing with realities like the Ascension from the perspective of time and space is pictorially through symbol and metaphor.

Its occurrence forty days after the Resurrection is similarly not a reference to a calendar period. As with other instances where the same time-span is indicated, forty is a symbol for the time it takes a project to be accomplished or completed.

Thus the Israelites wandered for forty years in the desert of Sinai before they entered the promised land, that is, before they were ready or fit to enter. Moses fasted for forty days and nights on the mountain, before his vision of Yahweh and the reception of the Ten Commandments; for forty days and nights rain fell in the Deluge, until the world was cleansed; Jesus fasted in the wilderness for forty days before he was ready to being his public ministry - and he ascended from Bethany forty days after he rose. In every instance, a particular project is brought to its fitting conclusion.

The Ascension signifies that Jesus is now exalted and enthroned. Jesus ascended is Jesus in power, unrestricted as to time and place.

The late Raymond Brown, the Scripture scholar I have previously referred to, thought that the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection were appearances from heaven. They were evidence of his new plenipotentiary power.

This is what the Ascension emphasises. If this seems like duplication, remember that in the Gospel of John, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension are all simultaneous.

When Jesus is "lifted up" means when he rises and ascends. The entire process for John occurs in one eternal moment. The other disciples look at the same events from time's earthly perspective. Both views are complementary.

The new Jesus is available, as he explained to Mary Magdalene, on condition that she relinquishes her hold on the Jesus of old. She must not cling to what is superseded, if she is to receive what He can now give.

This is an important spiritual principle, applicable individually, to Church institutions, and to the Church itself. Clinging to what is superseded is less a matter of protecting old forms of life than of preventing the emergence of newness. Give me the old time religion doesn't always proceed from a love of the old time religion but from apprehension regarding any new dispensation.

The ascension also means the beginning of the Church. In the Lukan version in The Acts of the Apostles, the disciples stand looking up to heaven, when "two men stood by them in white robes and said, " Men of Galilee , why are you standing there looking at the sky. This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven " (Acts 1:10-11).

The disciples are, in other words, to stop stargazing and attend to their commission. Christ is in heaven; they are on earth; they are now his hands, feet, and body . They need to get on with their mission. Pentecost would later provide them with empowerment from "on high."

The ascended Jesus "sits at the right hand" of God the Father. Here we are again with metaphor and symbol. On the right hand symbolises power, position, and rank, a significance that would have been easily understood in the ancient world.

It still is for us too, as when a CEO or a boss of some kind says of an assistant: "He's my right-hand man." With Jesus more equality in power and status is implied, of course.

Another feature of the ascension is that Jesus now reigns in his glorified human body. His humanity was not discarded after his work was done. We have no conceivable notion of what that heavenly "body" is like.

What we can say amounts to what we must not neglect to say, and the important element here is that our bodies are essential to our being. We are embodied persons, not pure spirits - here and hereafter. What must be underlined is the notion of continuity, even if we cannot say what form that continuity takes.

The same applies to Jesus, who is now glorified Lord of history. He reigns with the Father in his glorified body. The Incarnation was no temporary interlude in his life. It is the form God the Son assumed forever.