{"id":931,"date":"2014-05-29T00:38:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T05:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/?p=931"},"modified":"2015-05-14T07:56:35","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T12:56:35","slug":"why-does-the-ascension-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jenniferfitz\/2014\/05\/why-does-the-ascension-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Does the Ascension Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"File:AscensionofChrist2.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At Mass Wednesday, Father E., who can\u2019t get his hair cut without every daily-Mass-goer weighing in on the wisdom of his grooming habits, did a preemptive strike on What Happened to Ascension Thursday?!<\/strong> complainers. \u00a0 The thrust of his homily: The bishops in their wisdom moved the observance of the feast to Sunday so that as many people as possible might hear this most important message.<\/p>\n

How important is this message? \u00a0It\u2019s so pivotal to our faith that when\u00a0Melanie Bettinelli<\/a>\u00a0invited a pile of writers to contribute to her\u00a0CREDO: Professing the Creed for the Year of Faith<\/a>\u00a0series, I did a happy dance when I got assigned to write on the Ascension<\/a>. \u00a0You would too, right?<\/p>\n

Naturally you\u2019ll want to compare your essay with mine, so here\u2019s the reprint.<\/p>\n

Also, did I mention you should subscribe to The Wine-Dark Sea<\/a>? \u00a0Well yes, you should. \u00a0Even if you\u2019re like me and it took you a little while to figure out the title.<\/em><\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

We think of atheists as the people who actively deny the existence of God, but there\u2019s a much more pernicious and widespread atheism among religious people today: Faithy-ism. We talk about God, and do God-themed activities, but we don\u2019t really mean it.\u00a0 It\u2019s all just a metaphor.\u00a0 Our spirituality consists of our deeply felt emotions and our mental catalog of Good Things That Happen, wrapped up all pretty in a cellophane bag of inspirational poetry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a vapid illusion, but an understandable one.\u00a0 When someone dies, what do we see?\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 To all appearances, the human soul is snuffed out.\u00a0 We\u2019re left with a decaying corpse and a collection of memories.\u00a0 It\u2019s hardly surprising if we conclude that \u201ceternal life\u201d must consist of little more than remembering the beloved family stories, combined with a reverent observation of how the well the oaks grow when their roots hit graveyard compost.<\/p>\n

Want to find the world\u2019s most diehard atheists? Pop into a parish and listen to the unscripted bits.\u00a0 If the songs and sermons are mostly about the works of good Christians, and not so much about the worship of God, you\u2019ve found your spot.<\/p>\n

The Ascension is the punch in the shoulder to this religious atheism.<\/p>\n

And his companions asked him, Lord, dost thou mean to restore the dominion to Israel here and now? 7 But he told them, It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 Enough for you, that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and you will receive strength from him; you are to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and throughout Judaea, in Samaria, yes, and to the ends of the earth. 9 When he had said this, they saw him lifted up, and a cloud caught him away from their sight. 10 And as they strained their eyes towards heaven, to watch his journey, all at once two men in white garments were standing at their side. 11 Men of Galilee, they said, why do you stand here looking heavenwards? He who has been taken from you into heaven, this same Jesus, will come back in the same fashion, just as you have watched him going into heaven.
\n(Acts 1: 6-11<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s our Lord, fully man and fully God, body and soul united in one resurrected, eternally-enduring piece.\u00a0 He appears among the disciples for forty days, cooking, eating, admonishing \u2013 all the things a person ought to do.\u00a0 You can touch Him.\u00a0 You can split a fish sandwich with Him.<\/p>\n

And when He ascends into Heaven, He doesn\u2019t just wisp away like the cheshire cat.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t slip out the door and into the sunset.\u00a0 There He goes, up into the sky towards eternity, and there\u2019s no nitrogen-rich corpse left behind.\u00a0 The body goes with.<\/p>\n

That is our eternal destiny.<\/strong>\u00a0 Why do we recoil against death?\u00a0 Because we were made for something so much better.\u00a0 So much cleaner.\u00a0 So much more comprehensible.<\/p>\n

And the clincher to the Ascension \u2013 and to the Assumption, and to the taking up of Elijah in the angelic chariot \u2013 is that we\u2019ve got a handful of people who are waiting for us somewhere.\u00a0 We\u2019re not sure where.\u00a0 But they\u2019re out there.\u00a0 The place beyond all places is a place.\u00a0 Even as we sit here at our computers goofing off reading blogs, Our Lord, the Blessed Mother, and some debatable number of other humans are hanging out, body-n-soul, in a Heavenly place.\u00a0 They\u2019re in a place where they can be touched, with a hand like your hand.\u00a0 They can breathe on you with breath like your breath.<\/p>\n

Jesus isn\u2019t just a warm feeling before we slip into eternal nothing.\u00a0 Heaven is no abstraction.\u00a0 It\u2019s real. And we can go there.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
Artwork: Benvenuto Tisi [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons<\/a><\/em><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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