Today’s readings: Acts 1, 1-11; Ephesians 1, 17-23; Matthew 28, 16-20.
One of the most intriguing things in the Gospel narratives about the first disciples is that they came to a deeper knowledge of who Jesus was after he had left them. It explains why Jesus himself beforehand had advised “it is better for you that I go away”. The parting of Jesus is actually not a departure but a consolidation.
The end of Jesus’s life in the flesh coincides with the beginning of the time of the Spirit, and this takes place on the cross when “he bowed his head and gave up his spirit”. St Paul writes today about “the Spirit of wisdom and perception of what is revealed, to bring you to full knowledge of him”. The Ascension of the Lord we celebrate today, rather than the separation of Jesus from his disciples, is the seal on what they had received.
As long as we live, there is always still so much that is being revealed to us, gradually completing the picture which nevertheless remains always partial to our bodily eyes. St Paul also says that we will inherit “the rich glories he has promised”. It would be more than appropriate for us to ask what these rich glories are and how we can let our hearts be shaped by them.
Life is full of rites of passage, which for better or for worse mark us indelibly. We go through changes, sometimes by choice, at other times through whatever circumstances bring our way. If in all this process we lack the wisdom of stability within, these changes will cause unnecessary pain and instability.
This can easily happen, for example, with a change of work, with mishaps in relationships, or with retirement age. These could all be either misadventures that mark us badly or divinely disguised moments from which we can amply benefit. One moment we can feel as if in control and that the life we pursue is the utmost we can dream of; the other moment we can feel the delusion that what we have banked on has ultimately left us spiritually impoverished.
The Spirit of Christ risen promised to the early disciples has also been promised to us all and it consolidates us in the stability we need in all that otherwise can be so confounding and destabilising. The Ascension of Jesus in Acts, in St Paul and in today’s gospel is wrapped in mythological language because the big truths about life cannot be expressed in plain language. So much is inexpressible if not in terms of experience.
We learn from Acts it is useless for us to ask when is the opportune time for the promises to come true. The Spirit with which we have been anointed renders every time as the right time, transforms every moment in a time of grace when the ‘rich glories’ promised can realise themselves and enlighten our journey.
The mystic Julian of Norwich, in her Revelations of Divine Love, writes: “What was revealed was that when we fall and when we rise again we are very precious to him and are protected by the same love”. If every time is a time of grace, then everything we go through has meaning and is a calling to make us transcend our humanity and experience heaven and God’s sovereignty.
There is no need to “stand looking into the sky” expecting who knows what from heaven. There is nothing that has been promised which is not given here on earth. The challenge is to live consciously, with eyes open because the enlightenment we seek in life and which we need already dwells within us.
Living consciously means being capable of reading not just what happens around us but mostly the motions in the depths of our hearts which unconsciously may be shaping our living.