Following the previous on Ascension and Christmas we find the headline of Pastor Iuventus from the Catholic Herald, 'The Ascension is a mirror of Christmas'.
Quote: The Catholic Herald. May 10, 2013
PASTOR IUVENTUS
The Ascension is a mirror of Chritmas.
The true affirmation of our human
dignity is not that every human aspiration is equal ... assurance that he is with is still, that this love is more real than
ever and closer than ever by virtue of being deep within us not through the perception of our sense but through the gift
of his eternal Spirit dwelling deep within us.
Somewhat bizarrely
then, we can say that the Ascension is closely related to the joy of Christmas.
It is a kind of mirror image of that feast. At Christmas we wonder at the miraculous
gift of the Son of God who, divesting himself of his glory, is sent to dwell within
human nature. On the Ascension we wonder at the miracle of that human nature,
which is to be drawn back into the glory of God, losing nothing of all that it
has become. We who can identify so strongly with a God who is a baby in a manger,
need to understand that today is the same kind of celebration; not of departure,
but of arrival- of completion of the admirable .commercium - the wonderful exchange
of which the Fathers of the Church speak. God has become man be sharing in our
life, not so that man might simply be affirmed and allowed to carry on as
hitherto, but so that man might achieve the fullness of what God's gift and closeness
offers, to become a sharer in God's own life.
The Incarnation
and the Ascension are not mythological, a God who lives high in the clouds and
who in Greek god fashion comes among us only to leave us again to return Olympian
heights. No, the real journey, the "Way" Jesus refers to it is the one
of almighty love. He who is high, infinitely far above us, has come to be where
we are, so that we might be where He is, if we aspire to a value which is greater
than that which is below, than that which is naturally ours, a value made present
in him and his way of being.
The true affirmation
of our human dignity is' not that every human aspiration and behaviour is equal,
not that every authority must give way to what any individual sees as his right,
the real affirmation of human dignity is in that God who is high, beyond its reach, has come down but in coming down has not
ceased to be high, mighty, holy, full of love. Even in his lowest descent, even
as the grain of wheat which dies, which lies hidden in the earth, he remains truly
God, he reveals his glory. This descent of
God is not something to which are entitled as the natural beneficiaries,
but is made possible by his Spirit of Love, the same spirit of Love which accomplished
Jesus's descent and Incarnation can make his glory dwell in me.
Sunday, May 16, 2010 Fr Ray Blake's Blog
Under-Celebrating the Ascension
At Christmas True God enters the world in a human body, at the Ascension True Man enters heaven in a human body. It is not simply "that God goes up with shouts of joy" but that Jesus Christ, the God-Man, goes "up".
In this feast we celebrate Man's entry into Heaven, the corollary to this feast is the Assumption: where Christ our Head has gone, there the Body, Mary the type of the Church, follows.
Today we celebrate flesh and blood in Heaven, sitting at the right hand of God. Quite what this "flesh and blood" is, we do not know, as we don't know what our own glorified bodies will be like.
At the Incarnation the All-Knowing emptied himself and took on human Not-Knowing, the Divine who knew but was incapable of experiencing death, pain and suffering today takes on that experience and ascends to Heaven with it.
In the icon, 9th cent Sinai, note thee relationship with the figure of Christ and his mother her out-stretched praying hands reach up trying to follow.
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