Going, Going . . . Not Gone

“Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” my friend asked  as we traveled across campus. “Look at the clouds!” I exclaimed.  The clouds in the summer at Notre Dame are glorious. The moisture  from nearby Lake Michigan makes them radiant in the blue sky.  I love clouds. I love flying because of the elation of soaring up  through cumulus clouds. I like climbing mountains, and the resulting  exhausted joy of looking down at the clouds it brings. I remember  one bone-weary-beyond-weary, emotionally exhausted day when I  looked up at the clouds and yelled, “Come any time now, Lord! What  are you waiting for?” I smile inside when the scriptures put the sky  and clouds and significant events together—Elijah’s chariot; Jesus’  baptism, transfiguration, and ascension. It fires the imagination. 

The disciples lived solidly on the ground. They never flew in an  airplane. Yet the heavens in Israel are also glorious. The shimmer of  the moonlight during a night of fishing, the sparkle that bounces up  from the Sea of Galilee in the day, the glistening of the sun over the  Mediterranean—to “look up” probably fired the disciples’ hearts as  well. 

The Ascension marks Luke’s conclusion to Jesus’ earthly ministry.  If he had stayed, the disciples could still have slapped him on the  back with a joke and he would not have minded. He could have  continued to heal the sick and the blind. But he would have been  limited to contacting those who were geographically close to him. 

Jesus is now physically gone. Yet at the same time, Jesus is here.  We can taste his presence. We can feel it. We can know it. Though  Jesus has gone “into the clouds,” he is closer than he would have  been if he had physically stayed among us. The Lord is near to us.  Always. 

Consider/Discuss 

• It is a paradox of our faith that the God of distance is also the God of  nearness. When we put “a face” to the divine, which one more freely arises  in our spiritual imagination—distance or nearness? Why does it matter that  we envision both? 
• Think of someone you love dearly who has departed in death. How have  you (or have you not) felt closer to that person now that he or she dwells in  the communion of saints? Describe what that experience is like.

Living and Praying with the Word 

Lord, you are highly exalted, King over all the earth. You rule  over nations. You keep the stars in their courses. At the same time,  you are here. You are near. How can this be? You have said that you  will be with us always, to the end of the age. When we take you for  granted, show us the surpassing greatness of your strength. When we  shy away from your power, be our divine Tenderness. Come, Lord  Jesus! Come at the end of the age. Please come now. We need you.  Let us be “filled with the fullness of all things” in every way.