Sunday Reflection with Fr Robin Gibbons - 17th May 2015

Icon, Michurin, Bulgaria, 16C

The Ascension of the Lord The Byzantine Icon for the Feast of the Ascension shows the Lord Jesus robed in bright colours ascending to heaven seated within a mandorla, a round or almond shaped aureole of light representing divine life and cosmic energy. This is held up by the angelic beings. Below him are gathered the Theotokos (Mary) and the disciples who also include some like St Paul who would not have been present at the event but represent the early Church sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to spread the gospel 'to the ends of the earth'.

In this joyful icon, Christ blesses with his right hand and in his left holds a scroll. These are both symbols of his abiding power from heaven, both as the fountain of all blessings but also the continual source of knowledge and wisdom.

Here we see expressed in image what we hear in our scriptural readings for this feast, that Christ is head of the Church, his body, and the sovereign Lord of all. Until he comes again in glory he is our guide and teacher. We receive our commission and ministry to go out to all the world, from Him and we fulfils it through the gift and power of the Holy Spirit.

One of the Byzantine Hymns of the feast, the Kontakion expresses this in a succinctly theological way : O Christ our God, upon fulfilling Your dispensation for our sake, You ascended in Glory, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. You were never separate but remained inseparable, and cried out to those who love You, "I am with you and no one is against you."

We need to enter the mystery of the Ascension a little more, for me it also expresses something of the conundrum of earthly death, partly answering a question often put "where are the departed now, where have they gone?"

The answer is with Christ in heaven, who in his ascension unites heaven and earth, bringing together, as the hymn says, human and divine in the fullness of the Kingdom of God. It is a wonderful feast, yes it's a leave taking as all death and departures are, but not a farewell rather an 'adieu'.

It is also the sign post not only His return but of His abiding presence through the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are his body which can never be broken by death and sin, we are united in Him always.

Fr Robin Gibbons is an Eastern Rite Chaplain for the Melkite Greek Catholics in Great Britain.