https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/052922-ascension.cfm
I quote:
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,
and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,
throughout Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
While they were looking intently at the sky as he was going,
suddenly two men dressed in white garments stood beside them.
They said, “Men of Galilee,
why are you standing there looking at the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
end quote
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “Jesus’ final apparition ends with the irreversible entry of his humanity into divine glory, symbolized by the cloud and by heaven, where he is seated from that time forward at God’s right hand” (No. 659).
Symbolism reflects the wish of the human person to view life in terms that appear sensible to the human senses. Abstract understandings convey little, or nothing more than words. Poetry contributes a better understanding of the human condition than a black, and white appreciation might convey to its witness. This is how the Apostles understood the mystery that we know as The Ascension that they had witnessed before their eyes.
Rather than attempt to enter into a long, ponderous post ( I confess to not being a wordsmith) I will relay a numinous experience that I had encountered some twenty years at the ancient Greek religious shrine at Delphi. (1)
I received a visit from a cousin (Denise) who wished to visit Delphi. Delphi is built on a steep mountain side with a giant Ben Hur type sports stadium at its peak. On returning along the earth track Denise was side tracked by an American woman seeking advice. I entered onto the piste of a small amphi-theatre where I stood alone. Within a minute an apparition appeared to me, at a distance of some several metres. The woman was dressed in the costume of an ancient Greek actress, with the face of Irene Papas, born 1926 (the international Greek actress alive, and well). We communicated via telepathy she introducing herself as Theadora (Dorothy) (gift of God) asking for my help, so she might help me. In simple terms the apparition reflects the intervention of the divine mystery.
I will not dwell on this matter for it was clear to me that day, that I had been invited to embrace the invitation of The Father,(as I understood the feminine presence of Divine Wisdom), to follow God through the rest of my life.
The human condition views our relationship with the divine mystery in terms that we can understand.
Artistic representation often provides the observer with an understanding better reflecting all that Our Father wishes us to accept as His presence in all life. Our actions speak louder, than our words enabling us to witness to all that we believe reflects our purpose for being alive.
(1) https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/delphi-greece
end
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