The Feast of the Ascension

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Mary Cunningham was my third grade Sunday School teacher and a woman who should be canonized for her tolerance and kindness. Through the years, I've been tempted to write an icon of her because, at least for me in retrospect, was a mirror into heaven.

Speaking of icons, in Mrs. Cunningham's Sunday School room hung those "icons" from the 1950s of various biblical scenes like Jesus and the little children, the Feeding of the Multitudes, and the like; icons which looked more like cartoons than religious depictions.

One Sunday morning, Mrs. Cunningham was working through her lesson plan when I, the intrepid question asker,, blurted out, "What's THAT?" pointing to one of the "icons" on the wall. It was a depiction of the Blessed Virgin in the middle with six men on each side of her all of whom were looking towards the top of the picture at a pair of feet which hung into the top of the picture. Mrs. Cunningham replied, "That's a picture of the Ascension." "Oh," I replied. "What's THAAAT?" "That's when Jesus went up into heaven after his Resurrection." "Oh, I replied, "Where's THAAAAT?" Mrs. Cunningham pointed upwards with her index finger. I looked up and all I saw were ceiling tiles. But for the moment, it shut me up. I didn't know what to say. Plus, I just figured that she meant "up theres." And Mrs. Cunningham's answer worked for many years until I got old enough to start asking theological questions.

As I matured, at least theologically, I also grew academically. The world view of those who lived in Jesus' time and long after believed that God lived beyond the dome of the sky which wasn't all that far up in the air. In the last half a millennium,we've come to know that the universe is vast and unending; that the earth is a rather insignificant planet in a rural solar system in a galaxy after which we've named a candy bar. Of course, even those assertions are constantly in flux. But we DO know that God doesn't live above the dome. And since our knowledge has grown, the idea of the Ascension as the Acts of the Apostles relates it means that Our Lord is still ascending....and to where, we don't know. Or...he may be in orbit, riding a satellite.

Scripture has its own "code" for certain things. The term "forty days" is a way of saying, "a significant amount of time." In other words, Noah was in the Ark for a significant amount of time as well as was Jesus in the desert. And from what we can tell, the Risen Christ appeared and was present with not all the disciples and the Apostles for some significant amount of time. But, eventually or all at once, the Risen One was not as present as previously experienced and eventually, his presence had entirely vanished.