Ascension 2015, Given to Your Heart

Ascension

Garofalo, Wiki Commons

John 16: 24-33

Hitherto you have asked nothing in my name. Pray from the heart, and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.

All this I have given to your souls in imagery. But the hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in pictures, but will tell you openly and unveiled about my Father, so that you can grasp it in full, knowing consciousness. Thus will I proclaim to you the being of the Father. On that day you will ask out of my power and in my name. And no longer will I ask the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself will love you because you have loved me, and have known in your hearts that I have come forth from the Father. I have come forth from the Father and I have come into this world.

I leave the sense world again and return to the world of the Father, of which you say that it is the world of death.”

Then Jesus’ disciples said, “Now you are speaking in clear thought and without imagery. Now we know that all things are revealed to you and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God.”

Jesus answered, “Do you now feel my power in your heart? Behold, the time is coming, and has already come, when you will be scattered, each to his own loneliness. You will then also leave me alone. But I am not alone, for the Father is eternally united with me.

All this I have spoken to you so that in me you may find peace. In this world you will have great fear and hardship. But take courage. I have overcome the world.”

Ascension

May 14, 17, 2015

John 16: 24-33

Michel de Broin, Superficial Mirror

In fairy tales, the hero sometimes wins a cloak of invisibility in order to do good. It is as though they enter another realm, just beyond ordinary sight, while still remaining in this one.  It is likewise with those who have died; they have entered another realm just beyond our capacity to see them with our ordinary eyes.

In this gospel reading for Ascension, the Ascension event itself is veiled. But there are hints of what is there. Christ says that he is leaving the sense world and entering the realm of the Father, “of which you say that it is the realm of death.” John 16:28 Yet with his Resurrection the realm of death was imbued with Life. The dead live, though invisibly, as does He. He indicates however that we will nevertheless be able to sense his presence through other means: we will sense him in praying, when our prayers arise from our hearts. For with his Ascension he expanded his being from that of Jesus to that of both heaven and earth. He has expanded Himself into the whole world. This enables him to be present within the life of every single human being.

We can sense him in the warmth of our blood, in the rhythm of our breathing. He is hidden in the light of our noblest thoughts, in the living changes and transformations of the music of our soul life. He is invisibly present in the very meaning of our lives. He appeared to ‘go away’. But his going away was in essence a drawing even nearer. He is hidden within us, in our heart of hearts. "Pray from the heart and it will be given to your heart:, he says. For I will give you myself, my very being – light, life, warmth and transformation.

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