If Thou See Me When I Am Taken: Elias Taken Up and the Ascension of Christ
Old Testament: 4 Kings 2:9-13, 15
And when they were gone over, Elias said to Eliseus: Ask what thou wilt have me to do for thee, before I be taken away from thee. And Eliseus said: I beseech thee that in me may be thy double spirit. And he answered: Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless if thou see me when I am taken from thee, thou shalt have what thou hast asked: but if thou see me not, thou shalt not have it. And as they went on, walking and talking together, behold a fiery chariot, and fiery horses parted them both asunder: and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven. And Eliseus saw him, and cried: My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the driver thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own garments, and rent them in two pieces. And he took up the mantle of Elias, that fell from him: and going back, he stood upon the bank of the Jordan, ... And the sons of the prophets at Jericho, who were over against him, seeing it said: The spirit of Elias hath rested upon Eliseus.
New Testament: Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8-9, 11; Acts 2:2-3
And I send the promise of my Father upon you: but stay you in the city till you be endued with power from on high. ... But you shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you: ... And when he had said these things, while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight. ... Who also said: Ye men of Galilee, why stand you looking up to heaven? This Jesus who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven. ... And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them:
The connection
Before Elias was taken up he asked his disciple what he wanted, and Eliseus asked for a double share of his spirit. Elias set one condition: "if thou see me when I am taken from thee, thou shalt have what thou hast asked". Then a chariot of fire parted them, "and Elias went up by a whirlwind into heaven". Eliseus saw it, took up the mantle that fell from his master, and went back to the Jordan; and the sons of the prophets said, "The spirit of Elias hath rested upon Eliseus" (4 Kings 2:9-15). The Ascension follows the same order. Jesus promises His disciples "the power of the Holy Ghost coming upon you", and then "while they looked on, he was raised up: and a cloud received him out of their sight" (Acts 1:8-9). They watch Him go, as Eliseus had to watch. Luke's word for His going is the word of Elias' going: He is "taken up" (Acts 1:2, 11). He had told them to wait in the city "till you be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:49), clothed with it as Eliseus was with the mantle. Ten days later the Spirit comes "as of a mighty wind" and in "tongues as it were of fire" (Acts 2:2-3), the wind and fire that carried Elias away now coming down. St Cyril of Jerusalem sets the two side by side and gives the difference: "Elias was taken up in a chariot of fire; but that the chariots of Christ are ten thousand-fold", and "Elias said that a double portion in the Holy Spirit should be given to his holy disciple; but that Christ granted to His own disciples so great enjoyment of the grace of the Holy Ghost, as not only to have It in themselves, but also, by the laying on of their hands, to impart the fellowship of It to them who believed" (Catechetical Lecture XIV). The Catechism says the Ascension "marks the definitive entrance of Jesus' humanity into God's heavenly domain, whence he will come again" (CCC 665).
Moral sense
Eliseus would not be sent away. Three times Elias told him to stay behind, and three times he said, "As the Lord liveth ... I will not leave thee." The gift was given to the one who kept close and kept watching. So the disciples stood on the mountain looking up, and then went back to Jerusalem and persevered in prayer with Mary, as they were told, until the Spirit came. The angels rebuked only gazing at the sky and doing nothing. Eliseus watched his master go, he grieved, and then he picked up the mantle and struck the waters. The soul that has seen Christ ascend must take up the work He left, trusting that His Spirit rests on it.
Anagogical sense
Elias was taken up, and was expected to return before the great day of the Lord. Christ is taken up, and the angels promise that "This Jesus ... shall so come, as you have seen him going into heaven". Elias went up alone, and his disciple stayed behind; Christ goes up as the Head, and His Body is to follow where He has gone. The mantle that fell to Eliseus was one prophet's office passed to another. What Christ sends down is His own Spirit, poured out on the whole Church, and the pledge that where He is, His disciples will be also, not parted by a chariot of fire but joined to Him for ever.
The Fathers
St Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture XIV: "Elias was taken up in a chariot of fire; but that the chariots of Christ are ten thousand-fold even thousands upon thousands" and "Elias said that a double portion in the Holy Spirit should be given to his holy disciple; but that Christ granted to His own disciples so great enjoyment of the grace of the Holy Ghost, as not only to have It in themselves, but also, by the laying on of their hands, to impart the fellowship of It to them who believed." St John Chrysostom, Homily II on Acts: "that it might not be with them as it was with Elisha, who, when his master was taken up, rent his mantle." St John Chrysostom, Homily II on the Statues: "For Elias left a sheepskin to his disciple, but the Son of God ascending left to us His own flesh! Elias indeed, cast off his mantle, before he went up; but Christ left it behind for our sakes; and yet retained it when He ascended."
Warrant
Patristic because the New Testament does not name Elias at the Ascension; St Cyril of Jerusalem compares the two point by point (Catechetical Lecture XIV), and St John Chrysostom sets the rending of Eliseus' garments against the angels' comfort in his homily on Acts 1. The Greek supports the pairing: the site's Septuagint (Swete) has analemphthenai and anelemphthe for Elias being taken up (4 Kings 2:9, 11), and Luke uses the same verb for Christ in Acts 1:2 and 11, anelemphthe and ho analemphtheis. The condition that Eliseus must see his master taken (ean ides me) matches the stress in Acts 1:9-11 on the disciples watching (bleponton, atenizontes). The link between the mantle and being "endued" with power (endysesthe, to be clothed, Luke 24:49) is a reading of the imagery, not a claim of the text. Elias going up "as into heaven" (hos eis ton ouranon) in the Greek is the detail Cyril contrasts with Christ going into heaven itself.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 665.
The verses
4 Kings 2:9 · 4 Kings 2:10 · 4 Kings 2:11 · 4 Kings 2:12 · 4 Kings 2:13 · 4 Kings 2:15 · Luke 24:49 · Acts 1:8 · Acts 1:9 · Acts 1:11 · Acts 2:2 · Acts 2:3
