Rising Expectations

Ascension of the Lord
June 2 or 5, 2011

Rising Expectations
by Tom Cox

Until recently, todays’ feast of Ascension was marked on the previous Thursday (June 2nd) as it was the 40th day after Easter. Count just ten days on from that original feast and you arrive at Pentecost-a name which literally means “50 days.” Given that Ash Wednesday falls 40 days before Easter, today is clearly in one of those hinge periods. Forty days after the resurrection and what happens….he leaves. In the midst of the post-resurrection “party”, as it were, when the disciples were getting used to the energy of new life, he ascends to the heavens which were probably as open as the mouths of the bereft disciples. It must have seemed like a double tragedy. The loss of Good Friday and the loss that was his Ascension. Today’s celebration of Ascension is more than a Feast- it is a reality of life. We know instinctively that before something new comes into our lives, we must displace what is comfortable and familiar. These may be very good things. We struggle to understand and accept it in the realities of life …but today is letting go of Jesus! Yet the disciples had to let go of even him to pass from their midst, to move to the next stage of their journey in faith. We know that there should spaces in togetherness in human relationships. Sometimes when we are together there are feelings of being taken for granted, disappointment, irritation, of being wounded in the relationship. Absence can be healing. As one wag put it family works best when separated by several hundred miles. It’s more than absence making the heart feel fonder- it’s purifies presence. Parents who see their child take enter the examination halls this week know all about the pain of letting your children go. But there is the joy of seeing them return and meeting the young adult- that person they were always born to be. In a real sense they have come back to you in a far deeper way. Maybe in a way… we are that child. Not facing a mere examination paper like the thousands of students this week- but rather living out the questions of life. This Ascension offers us a space to grow, to be, to live and flourish as the person God always wants us to be. There is in every encounter a time to part- not to abandon but to part so that the other can develop and grow, until you meet again. There is such a thing as a generous absence. Happy Ascension.

(Comments to Tom at tomascox@eircom.net )