Pleading For Us at the Right Hand of the Father

I prayed the Rosary tonight during Eucharistic Adoration, before Mass.  As I meditated on the Second Glorious Mystery, The Ascension, I gazed at the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  His right hand reaches out toward the congregation, beckoning us, with the wound  from the nail clearly visible.

Jesus' glorified body could have been perfect, just as His human body was "without blemish."  Yet He chose to retain the five wounds of His Passion-- two on His hands, two on His feet and the wound in His side from the soldier's spear. 

I could not explain why any more eloquently than Caryll Houselander, in her lovely book, The Essential Rosary:

Christ,

  ascended into Heaven,

You bear the wounds

  of the whole world

  in Your hands and feet

  and in Your heart.

They plead for us,

 shining like stars

 before the secret face of God.

By Your five wounds

  purify our five senses;

  lift up our hearts into Heaven.

While You draw down

God's mercy to us,

  showing our wounds

  in Your glorified Body,

let us draw men up to You,

  showing Your wounds to the world,

    scored on our grey dust

      in the bright crimson

        of Your love.

~ Caryll Houselander