Fly

Flying dreams are such a gift. I get them every now and then. I do not know how my subconscious does it. Perhaps it is my mind’s way of escaping the mundane. Maybe I’ve just been to many marvel comics type of movies, but it is a wondrous experience, this lift, this high. When it happens in dream world, my mind is somehow able to propel my body upward, in defiance of gravity. What do I do when I am airborne? I glide and go to all sorts of places and meet new and old faces. I even teach them how easy it is to fly. Dreams are the stuff of serendipity.

Then I wake up. Even if I sigh a bit about coming back to earth, I am thankful nonetheless for the exhilarating ride. And I look forward to the next one even if I have no idea when that would be.

Actually, the Lord’s ascension was not a dream or flight of fancy. He really did not have to fly to heaven to take his seat at the right hand of God. In his “glorious,” risen state, he was already defying gravity, tunneling through different dimensions as evidenced by his being in several places at the same time. Aside from confirming the eternal truths that proclaim love to be risen, and life to be greater than death, the resurrection appearances support the scientific intuition that the world is not what it seems.

The Ascension is a confirmation of this intuition. It leaves us looking at the sky, leaves us pondering those transcendent realities that are far greater than our plans in this world. The Ascension does that, perhaps in the same way dreams (or even Disney or Marvel movies) are sometimes able to project things that are larger than life, things that are timeless like true power or beauty or destiny.

The glorious mystery of the Ascension may be seen as a departure of sorts or as an epilogue to the resurrection encounters, but as the gospel today indicates, the Ascension is not what it seems:

“So then the Lord Jesus, after he spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and took his seat at the right hand of God. But they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the word through accompanying signs.”

How can someone who has exited and ascended from us continue to work with us and confirm the things we proclaim through various signs? That is possible if we see that heaven may not be as distant or disconnected from us as we sometimes think it is.

The mystery of the Ascension ushers us to a doorway that opens to another dimension of the Lord’s presence in our world. While that presence may no longer be direct or face-to-face, it is no less real. After the Ascension, the incarnation of God in our world is subtler; once more, love takes flesh, but this time in human hearts not his. Love descends and reaches us in the interior realms of inspiration.

The Ascension signals this time of grace that engages human freedom anew in the transformation and re-creation of the world. It signifies our ascending to a higher level of responsibility for one another and for the world. After all, this is what it means for us to be his friends, his very own. When the Ascension signals our participation in the work of redemption, in this new order, we are to be treated as slaves no longer. There is no fear or coercion, only love and inspiration.

As the experience of the early church teaches us, this engagement was exhilarating and edifying even if the human response was dodgy at times and uneven. To this day, we know what a struggle it is to discern and act on the prodding of grace in our lives. Despite the signs that accompany the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we know how slow we are to move, how we can be weighed down by fear and doubt. Even in this time of Easter grace, we can be tempted to lose heart with ourselves and with the messiness of the world.

We can hope of course for fleeting dreams that have us flying away from all this. But why wait for transient serendipity when we only need to ponder deeply what the Lord’s ascension assures us. For all its messiness, “the world is charged with the grandeur of God.” Life is no longer what it seems. And we have been charged as friends to take part in its wonderful re-creation.

It is a risk the Lord takes when he elevates us and entrusts to us such responsibility. It is a risk we do wisely to take as well.

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Fr. Jose Ramon T Villarin SJ is President of the Ateneo de Manila University. For feedback on this column, email [email protected]