Ascension 17.5.07
Our Lord leaves us, blazing a trail to heaven. His intention is to come back and to take us by the same path to Heaven.
This feast opens up a strong light on our mundane lives.
We go about trying to find enough money to pay the bills, going to the doctor, taking children to soccer training, going to bed, getting up again… so it goes on.
We barely make ends meet, only just keep our heads above water.
Into all this we have this glorious light shining. It is almost more than we know what to do with.
Heaven is so far out of our daily thoughts that we find it hard to fit in when it does intrude.
Heaven is in a way more happiness than we want. Most times we are happy with just a slight improvement.
If we move from a small house to a bigger one, we are happy. If we get a slight pay rise at work we are happy. If our football team wins, hooray.
It does not take much because we do not expect much. We have become accustomed to being beaten about by life and we welcome any relief, or any scrap of good news that comes our way.
We come to mistake the difficulty of this life for the full product. We think it is meant to be difficult, and will always be like this.
If Jesus offered us, not eternal life, but say another 50 years of reasonable health, we would be delighted with that.
But no, we have to settle for eternal life, in heaven. It strains our imagination beyond breaking point. We cannot take it in.
No matter, we will discover the fulness of joy as we encounter it.
The fact is we are more blessed than we are capable of realizing, happier than we would ever presume to expect.
The present life, with all its pains, difficulties, sorrows, will pass away and only eternal glory remains.
This feast reminds us of how richly blessed we are.
It should cheer us up considerably and also help us to live in a more realistic way.
The temptation we all face is to try to accumulate as many pleasures in this life, like beggars looking for scraps.
This is not the way for those who are honoured to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
We are called to much higher things and we will not debase ourselves or insult Him by grasping only for earthly pleasures.
We will calmly endure certain privations here, knowing that a rich reward awaits us if we stay faithful to Him.
And such earthly consolations as do come our way we will not overvalue, but see them just as foretastes of much greater happiness to come.
Where He has gone we hope to follow. In the meantime we focus on Heaven. We look to it expectantly, for His return.
We make all our earthly decisions with Heaven in mind. We do not have to think about it every moment, just be habitually aware of its presence.
Never again must we complain about this life and how hard it is. What do we expect in a war zone? The war, however, is coming to an end. And we are on the winning side.
