Thursday of the Sixth Week of Easter - Ascension
When Christ ascended into heaven, he took his human nature with him. Christ’s human nature isn’t entirely his own. It’s our human nature, too. That’s because there is only one human nature. We know from Catholic dogma that Christ had the complete human nature joined, in his person, to the complete divine nature. Fully human and fully divine. Thus, a metaphysical part of every human being has ascended into heaven: our human nature. This is cause for great rejoicing among all human beings, because our nature has been honored in this way, and therefore we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of Christ. Even in places where the observance of this joyful holy day has been transferred to Sunday, we can all still rejoice today.
This is not a participation trophy or something all natures get. Most natures are not in heaven. Neither salmon nature nor cockroach nature nor cow nature have been taken into heaven. Neither have tulip nature nor mushroom nature nor lettuce nature. Of all the millions of natures in the entire universe, as far as we know, only three natures are in heaven. Divine nature was always there, even before the creation of the universe. Angelic nature was there from the beginning of creation. Human nature is a recent arrival, coming in only “in these last days,” when the Son of God took it there in glory.