Ascension

Pascha: The Solemnity of the Ascension

Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Hebrews 9:24-28, 10:19-23; Luke 24:46-53

In my experience of moving throughout life due to schooling and numerous parish assignments, I’ve learned that distance and time take their toll on relationships – “out of sight, out of mind” – as the saying goes. There is nothing uncaring about this, people go their own ways and we each get involved in our lives and life happens pretty much. But there are exceptions to this experience.

As I have reflected, my father was always in the background of our family life, a quiet man, very much like Saint Joseph and the lives of many men. Much of this was due to his work schedule. Even his pastimes of fishing and fly tying were a quiet affair. Our lives didn’t cross much because our interests were so different as much as he tried to meet me by sitting through performances of the ballet and symphony at Saratoga or make a fisherman out of me in the Mohawk River or on Lake Placid.

Now that dad is dead twelve years this quiet father figure though is more present to me than he was in life and that I ever would have imagined. “Presence” is a mysterious word; unknowable yet simple. The skeptic would call this wishful thinking, memory or serendipitous encounters. Yet we can tell when we are talking to someone, even over the phone, when another person is not present to us. Conversely, we speak of the “real presence” when referring to Jesus’ being and life, his body and blood, his humanity and divinity among us in the Eucharistic bread and cup or in the Scripture passages read aloud or in we the people gathered together. I don’t see visions of dad or hear voices. I would mistrust those experiences as being too much out of the realm of daily life where God dwells. I do know dad is present in a subtle way that even his quiet persona did not convey.

It is this presence that is proclaimed in today’s Preface for the Ascension of the Lord Jesus. “[Jesus] ascended, not to distance himself, – “out of sight, out of mind” – not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members, might be confident of following where he…has gone before.” It is a real experience that happens deep within us and through us that no words can express but is still known.

The letter to the Hebrews desperately tries to express this Jesus alive and among us as the author speaks of confidence in a new and living way opened for us by Jesus; the ability to approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, in unwavering hope.  The author could only write these hope filled phrases because of a presence. Out of sight,…Yes! Out of mind and life…not so quick!

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Image: Ascension of Christ, 1958 by Salvador Dali.