Ascension
John 16: 22-33
So you have to suffer pain now.
But I will see you
again, and then your hearts will be filled with joy and no one can take that
joy from you. Up to now, you have not prayed in my name. Pray from the heart,
and it will be given to your heart, that your joy may be fulfilled.
 |
| William Blake |
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.”
 |
| Pieter Coecke van Aelst, FlemishTapestry |
Ascension Sunday
John 16: 24-33
Our heart is the very
center of our being. We can imagine our heart as the center of a series of concentric
circles, with all our dear ones in closer circles, our acquaintances further
out. Our heart is the center of our universe. Others circle our periphery.
Likewise, we ourselves
occupy the circles around other people’s hearts. For of course they too have
many circles around them. The human world is a labyrinth of interlocking
circles, all connected by the famous six degrees of separation.
We are celebrating
Christ’s Ascension. It is the time when He expanded His Being, His Heart, into
the greatest and the broadest possible series of circles. The circles of His
universe include all human beings, even those who have never heard of Him.
Christ’s connection to us actually involves zero degrees of separation, for he
has expanded His being in ever-widening circles to catch every human heart. The
circles of His heart’s love run through the very center of each human heart.
And that is where we will find Him—in the deepest, centermost core of our own
being, in the innermost core of every human being we encounter.
We have scattered
ourselves in division, in loneliness. We ourselves may have placed Christ on
one of the circles further out of our own heart, as one of our ‘acquaintances’.
But He has connected us directly to His heart. He carries us in His love. So
when He urges us to ‘pray from the heart’ (John
16:24), perhaps he is showing
us the way to find Him. Perhaps when we enter our own deepest core and find Him
there, find the One whose being is Love, we will recognize our true identity.
As we offer this
Eucharistic meal, the words of the poet can inspire:
The time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself
arriving
at your own door, ….
You will love again the
stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread.
Give back your heart
to itself, to the
stranger who has loved you
Christ is urging us to join
our hearts with His, so that we too can love the world as He does.
*Derek Walcott, “Love After Love”, in Collected
Poems 1948-1984, New York ,
Farrar Straus Giroux, 1986.
