The last ten days of Eastertide are known as Ascensiontide, which began on Ascension Day itself on Thursday, May 14, and continues through Saturday, May 23. (A webcast of the 5:30pm Ascension Day service is now available.)
The event of the Ascension marks an end to the “earthly life” of Christ until, as we say in the creeds, “his coming again.” For forty days after the Resurrection, as Saint Luke tells us in the first chapter of Acts, Jesus, “showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs … speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.” Now, on Mount Olivet, having promised that the disciples would receive power from on high to bear witness to him (an event we celebrate on the Day of Pentecost on May 24), Jesus is taken up into heaven as a cloud receives him out of their sight. This cloud is the shekinah, the cloud of glory involved in divine manifestations from Mount Sinai to the Mount of Transfiguration. So the death of Christ, his descent among the dead, his resurrection on the third day, and his glorious ascension into heaven are all one event. It is an event of cosmic significance: through it Christ has taken his glory to every corner of the universe. There is nothing in all creation that is beyond or outside his saving embrace.
But the Ascension also means that Jesus is not present to us anymore in the same way that he was present in those first decades of the first century. In this middle time between his Ascension and his coming again at the Last Day, we cannot look upon the face of Jesus of Nazareth, nor touch his person directly as some people could in the first century. Instead, Jesus is present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, a holy mystery that we celebrate at Saint Thomas every day of the year. At each service of Holy Communion, we receive “the body of Christ” in the form of bread and wine. Second, Jesus is present as the people of God, also referred to as “the body of Christ.” And, Jesus remains accessible to us through prayer and known to us through Holy Scripture. Therefore it is the job of the Church, animated by the Holy Spirit, to make Christ known to the world in these ways.
It is the birthday of this Church that we celebrate on the Day of Pentecost on May 24, at 8am, 9am and 11am. On this great feast day of the Church, we mark the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Counselor, the Comforter. The arrival of the Spirit fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus transformed the apostles, turning them from fearful and self-conscious men and women into fearless and selfless evangelists for Christ. Thus, the feast of Pentecost is also the acknowledgement and celebration of the ongoing action of God in our lives, through the Holy Spirit.
