According to the Book of Acts “After his death, Jesus presented himself alive to His disciples in many different settings over a period of forty days.
In face-to-face meetings, He talked to them about things concerning the kingdom of God.
As they met and ate meals together, He told them that they were on no account to leave Jerusalem but ‘must wait for what the Father promised: the promise you heard from me.
John baptized in water; you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit. And soon.'”
The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ, also called Ascension Day was celebrated by some within the Christian Church last Thursday (26th May) and commemorates the day that Jesus ascended into Heaven after spending 40 days appearing to his disciples after his resurrection from the tomb.
The disciples had thought that Jesus was going to restore the earth to the Kingdom of Heaven. He instead promised to send the Holy Spirit to give them power from on high and then He ascended into Heaven and disappeared in a cloud. The above image painted by Dosso Dossi in the 16th century depicts this outstanding event.
“In the mystery of the Ascension (the glorious finale of the Easter Season) we reflect on the way in which, in one sense Christ ‘leaves’ us and is taken away into Heaven, but in another sense, He is given to us and to the world in a new and more universal way.
He is no longer located only in one physical space to the exclusion of all others. He is in the Heaven which is at the heart of all things now and is universally accessible to all who call upon Him” writes Malcolm Guite, a poet-priest and Chaplain of Girton College Cambridge.
On Malcolm’s blog he shares a sonnet (poem) which I’ve included below. It is drawn from his collection Sounding the Seasons, published by Canterbury Press. The book is also available via Amazon UK, USA and Australia.
A Sonnet for Ascension Day
We saw his light break through the cloud of glory
Whilst we were rooted still in time and place
As earth became a part of Heaven’s story
And heaven opened to his human face.
We saw him go and yet we were not parted
He took us with him to the heart of things
The heart that broke for all the broken-hearted
Is whole and Heaven-centred now, and sings,
Sings in the strength that rises out of weakness,
Sings through the clouds that veil him from our sight,
Whilst we our selves become his clouds of witness
And sing the waning darkness into light,
His light in us, and ours in him concealed,
Which all creation waits to see revealed.
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