Ascension Day & the Real Absence of Christ
Ascension Day is forty days after Easter. After Jesus rose again, he spent forty days with the disciples, then, “…he parted from them and was carried up into heaven” (Luke 24:51). His ascension marked the beginning of his absence.
Imagine the roller coaster ride the disciples went through, from their disappointment at Jesus’s death to their elation at his resurrection, only to see him ascend and leave. Ascension Day helps us live in that moment. Jesus did leave. In an important and powerful sense, he is absent.
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He is Truly With Us
We know that Jesus promised to send another Comforter, the Holy Spirit. We know he is present in the sacraments, which we call his Real Presence. We know that the Church is the body of Christ. We know he promises that,
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.
Matthew 18:19
We also know that he said, “I will never leave you or forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5). We are not alone; he is manifesting his presence to us through the Holy Spirit, baptism, the Eucharist, and each other, despite his absence.
Jesus is Truly Present
The Lord is truly present with us; he is also corporeally absent. He has not yet returned, and though the new time has dawned, it is not yet fully manifest.
And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
Acts 1:9-11
There is difficulty with this tension. We tend to ignore the absence of Christ and act as if things are already made new, which is only half of the picture. We still have a sense of longing. Like the martyrs under the altar in Revelation 6:10, our souls are crying out, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long?” It is normal and natural that we would feel a sense of incompleteness and longing. It shouldn’t surprise us, but it does.
One reason it surprises us is that we tend to be triumphalist. We talk and act as if heaven has already merged with earth and Christ has already returned. We expect things to be perfect if we pray or try hard enough. And yet, they won’t be perfected until later. We have to wait. We must be at peace, even as we seek to be a presence of love in this broken world as wounded healers, accepting his absence.
This sense of longing will remain until we are fully reunited with Christ (1 Corinthians 13:8-12), but amid this longing, he speaks peace to us,
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid..
John 14:27
Jesus knew that we would yearn for him. He knew we would live in the tension of the already, but not yet. He knew we would sense his absence, even though we experience his comfort now. He gives us the gift of peace within that tension. We can settle into the tension of the now, knowing that we are not alone, even as we wait. Our task is to be at peace with the world as it is while seeking to bring the transforming love of Christ into it.
Living in the Tension
The Ascension of Christ is a perfect blend of sadness and joy. The sadness is there, and we can’t deny it, because he departed to be with our Father in heaven. In his absence, we want to be with Christ and for him to be with us. The joy is there, too, because he has not left us alone; he gives us the Comforter.
Christians can live in this tension with peace. Peace, because he is Lord. Peace, because he gave us the Comforter, and is the Prince of Peace. Peace, because he will return to us. Peace, because we are his body on earth, who takes his grace and presence wherever we go. We can bring this peace that passes all understanding to a world that badly needs it, despite his absence.
The challenge of Ascension Day is to rest in the tension of the absence of Jesus and, at the same time, receive his presence right now. This paradox or mystery of faith may not always be comfortable or easy to describe, but it is real. Even with all their confusion, the disciples understood this in some way. After Jesus ascended, they “…worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luke 24:52). They knew that his ascension was not an end but a beginning. It was a call to worship and to serve, and eventually, they would see that it was a call to take his presence among them to the ends of the earth.
Image by: Giotto di Bondone – No. 38 Scenes from the Life of Christ – 22. Ascension from Wikimedia Commons
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