A short reflection on Ascension Day.

It is once again the feast of the Ascension of our Lord, Eastertide ends with this great celebration which is both triumphant and melancholic as it leaves us joyful that Christ has risen and ascended but also confused by what we may perceive as a farewell, a distance. It leaves us with the bitterness of a loss, or at least that is what I perceive - it is very confusing: we acknowledge the triumphant Christ that ascends into heaven, that Man who now fully goes back to his Father, becoming even more one substance - we can see that very well in Christian art: Christ goes up, sometimes we can see only his feet, sometimes we seem Him in His true splendour, often with a flag and surrounded by angels. Christ is received into heaven, he goes back home. But in all this joy, all this transcendence, is there any room for us? Common people? Even the apostles seem a bit lost - they only seemed to have lost him a few days earlier. Will they feel abandoned after having been in awe after having seen the heavens opened? We know too well that Christ did not abandon them from Scriptures. I think we can say Christ ascended, or as I like to say went back to his dwelling, not to become "more godly and less human", not to distance himself from us - but to be close to each and everyone of us, through prayer and faith. Something which would have been harder if he would have still been with us physically. I will leave you with selected words from my favourite psalm. Pray and meet the ascended Jesus!

"THE Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel : the Lord hath put on his apparel, and girded himself with strength. He hath made the round world so sure : that it cannot be moved. Ever since the world began hath thy seat been prepared : thou art from everlasting. Thy testimonies, O Lord, are very sure : holiness becometh thine house for ever."