Mark 16:19

The Lord Jesus, who had descended from heaven to give liberty to our weak nature, Himself also ascended above the heavens; wherefore it is said, So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven.

As he finishes his Gospel, Mark concludes: “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.” The ascension confirms what had been spoken by the prophet: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool.” Thus God who was announced by the prophets is truly one and the same as God who is celebrated in the true gospel, whom we Christians worship and love with the whole heart as the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things within it.

"He sitteth at the Father's right hand " -not the Father at His own.

He dies, but he makes alive and by death destroys death. He is buried, yet he rises again. He goes down to Hades, yet he leads souls up, ascends to heaven, and will come to judge the living and the dead, and to probe discussions like these.

Hail! Thou king of all the living;
Hail! Thou judge of all the dead,
At the right hand of thy Father,
Thou art throned in highest power,
And from thence just judge of sinners,
Thou shalt one day come again.

Do not doubt, then, that the man Christ Jesus is now there whence he shall come again. Cherish in your memory and hold faithfully to the profession of your Christian faith that he rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of the Father, and will come from no other place but there to judge the living and the dead. He will so come, on the testimony of the angel’s voice, as he was seen going into heaven, that is, in the same form and substance of flesh to which, it is true, he gave immortality, but did not take away its nature. According to this fleshly form, we are not to think that he is everywhere present. We must beware of so stressing the divinity of the man that we destroy the reality of his body. It does not follow that what is in God is in him so as to be everywhere as God is. The Scripture says, with perfect truth: “In him we live and move and are,” yet we are not everywhere present as he is, but man is in God after one manner, while God is in man quite differently, in his own unique manner. God and man in him are one person, and both are the one Jesus Christ who is everywhere as God, but in heaven as man.

While such things are mystifying if we take them in a carnal sense, we may be warned thereby to think of them as ineffably spiritual. For this reason, even if we think of the Lord’s body, which was raised from the tomb and ascended into heaven, only as having a human appearance and parts, we are not to think that he sits at the right hand of the Father in such a way that the Father should seem to sit [literally] at his left hand. Indeed, in that bliss which surpasses human understanding, the only right hand and the same right hand is a name for that same bliss.

Having vanquished the devil by the resurrection, he sits at the right hand of the Father, where he dies no more, and death no longer over him shall have dominion.

(Con. Evang. iii. 25) By which words He seems to show clearly enough that the foregoing discourse was the last that He spake to them upon earth, though it does not appear to bind us down altogether to this opinion. For He does not say, After He had thus spoken unto them, wherefore it admits of being understood not as if that was the last discourse, but that the words which are here used, After the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received into heaven, might belong to all His other discourses. But since the arguments which we have used above make us rather suppose that this was the last time, therefore we ought to believe that after these words, together with those which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, our Lord ascended into heaven.

(de Symbolo, 4) Let us not therefore understand this sitting as though He were placed there in human limbs, as if the Father sat on the left, the Son on the right, but by the right hand itself we understand the power which He as man received from God, that He should come to judge, who first had come to be judged. For by sitting we express habitation, as we say of a person, he sat himself down in that country for many years; in this way then believe that Christ dwells at the right hand of God the Father. For He is blessed and dwells in blessedness, which is called the right hand of the Father; for all is right hand there, since there is no misery.

And so while at Easter it was the Lord’s resurrection which was the cause of our joy, our present rejoicing is due to his ascension into heaven. With all due solemnity we are commemorating that day on which our poor human nature was carried up in Christ above all the hosts of heaven, above all the ranks of angels, beyond those heavenly powers to the very throne of God the Father. It is upon this ordered structure of divine acts that we have been firmly established, so that the grace of God may show itself still more marvelous when, in spite of the withdrawal from our sight of everything that is rightly felt to command our reverence, faith does not fail, hope is not shaken, charity does not grow cold.… It was in order that we might be capable of such blessedness that on the fortieth day after his resurrection, after he had made careful provision for everything concerning the preaching of the gospel and the mysteries of the new covenant, our Lord Jesus Christ was taken up to heaven before the eyes of his disciples, and so his bodily presence among them came to an end. From that time onward he was to remain at the Father’s right hand until the completion of the period ordained by God for the church’s children to increase and multiply, after which, in the same body with which he ascended, he will come again to judge the living and the dead. And so our redeemer’s visible presence has passed into the sacraments. Our faith is nobler and stronger because empirical sight has been replaced by a reliable teaching whose authority is accepted by believing hearts, enlightened from on high.

And indeed the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God.

In the Old Testament we learned that Elijah was caught up into heaven. But the aerial heaven is one thing, the ethereal heaven another. For the aerial heaven is nearest to the earth; whence we also speak of the birds of heaven, because we see them flying in the air. Elijah therefore was lifted up into the aerial heaven, so that he might suddenly be led to a certain secret region of the earth, where he might live in great rest of flesh and spirit, until he returns at the end of the world and pays the debt of death. For he postponed death, he did not escape it. But our Redeemer, because he did not postpone it, overcame it, and by rising again consumed it, and by ascending declared the glory of his resurrection.

It should also be noted that Elijah is recorded to have ascended in a chariot, so that it might be openly demonstrated that a mere man needed the help of another. For those aids were made and shown through angels, because he could not ascend even into the aerial heaven by himself, whom the weakness of his own nature weighed down. But our Redeemer is not recorded to have been lifted up by a chariot or by angels, because he who had made all things was certainly borne above all things by his own power. For he was returning to where he was, and he was going back from where he remained, because when he ascended into heaven through his humanity, through his divinity he equally contained both earth and heaven.

Just as Joseph, sold by his brothers, prefigured the selling of our Redeemer, so Enoch, translated, and Elijah, raised up to the aerial heaven, designated the Lord's Ascension. Therefore the Lord had forerunners and witnesses of His Ascension, one before the law, the other under the law, so that He Himself might come in due time who could truly penetrate the heavens. Hence the very order in the elevation of both of them is also distinguished by certain gradations. For Enoch is recorded as having been translated, but Elijah as having been carried up to heaven, so that He might come afterward who, neither translated nor carried up, would penetrate the ethereal heaven by His own power.

We must consider what it means that Mark says: He sits at the right hand of God; while Stephen says: I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God. What does it mean that Mark testifies he is sitting, while Stephen testifies that he saw him standing? But you know, brothers, that sitting belongs to one who judges, while standing belongs to one who fights or helps. Therefore, because our Redeemer, having been taken up into heaven, both now judges all things and at the end comes as judge of all, Mark describes him as sitting after his assumption, because after the glory of his Ascension he will be seen as judge at the end. But Stephen, placed in the labor of struggle, saw him standing whom he had as helper, because in order that Stephen might overcome on earth the unbelief of his persecutors, his grace fought for him from heaven.

(ubi sup.) Are we then without faith because we cannot do these signs? Nay, but these things were necessary in the beginning of the Church, for the faith of believers was to be nourished by miracles, that it might increase. Thus we also, when we plant groves, pour water upon them, until we see that they have grown strong in the earth; but when once they have firmly fixed their roots, we leave off irrigating them. These signs and miracles have other things which we ought to consider more minutely. For Holy Church does every day in spirit what then the Apostles did in body; for when her Priests by the grace of exorcism lay their hands on believers, and forbid the evil spirits to dwell in their minds, what do they, but cast out devils? And the faithful who have left earthly words, and whose tongues sound forth the Holy Mysteries, speak a new language; they who by their good warnings take away evil from the hearts of others, take up serpents; and when they are hearing words of pestilent persuasion, without being at all drawn aside to evil doing, they drink a deadly thing, but it will never hurt them; whenever they see their neighbours growing weak in good works, and by their good example strengthen their life, they lay their hands on the sick, that they may recover. And all these miracles are greater in proportion as they are spiritual, and by them souls and not bodies are raised.

(ubi sup.) We have seen in the Old Testament that Elias was taken up into heaven. But the ethereal heaven is one thing, the aerial is another. The aerial heaven is nearer the earth, Elias then was raised into the aerial heaven, that he might be carried off suddenly into some secret region of the earth, there to live in great calmness of body and spirit, until he return at the end of the world, and pay the debt of death. We may also observe that Elias mounted up in a chariot, that by this they might understand that a mere man requires help from without. But our Redeemer, as we read, was not carried up by a chariot, not by angels, because He who had made all things was borne over all by His own power. We must also consider what Mark subjoins, And sat at the right hand of God, since Stephen says, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God. Now sitting is the attitude of a judge, standing of one fighting or helping. Therefore Stephen, when toiling in the contest, saw Him standing, whom he had for his helper; but Mark describes Him as sitting after His assumption into heaven, because after the glory of His assumption, He will in the end be seen as a judge.

(ubi sup.) But what should we consider in these words, if it be not that obedience follows the precept and signs follow the obedience? For the Lord had commanded them, Go into all the world preaching the Gospel, and, Ye shall be witnesses even unto the ends of the earth.

And indeed the Lord Jesus, after having spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sits at the right hand of God. We must consider what it is that Mark says: He sits at the right hand of God, and Stephen says, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God (Acts VII). What is it that Mark says he sees sitting, while Stephen testifies he sees standing? But we know that to sit pertains to one who judges, and to stand to one who fights or helps. Therefore, because our Redeemer, taken up into heaven, now judges everything and will come as the judge of all at the end, Mark describes him as sitting after the ascension, because he will be seen as the judge in his glory at the end. But Stephen, positioned in the struggle of toil, saw him standing, whom he had as a helper. Because he, in order to overcome the unbelief of the persecutors on earth, was fought for by the grace of him from heaven. It follows:

(ubi sup.) Observe that in proportion as Mark began his history later, so he makes it reach in writing to more distant times, for he began from the commencement of the preaching of the Gospel by John, and he reaches in his narrative those times in which the Apostles sowed the same word of the Gospel throughout the world.

But we must also know from this that words are confirmed by deeds as then in the Apostles works confirmed their words, for signs followed. Grant then, O Christ, that the good words which we speak may be confirmed by works and deeds, so that at the last, Thou working with us in word and in deed, we may be perfect, for Thine as is fitting is the glory both of word and deed. Amen.