Easter 7A (Acts 1:6-14)

​This reflection has two parts. The first one is a biblical analysis of two passages from 2 Kings and Acts.

1. Here’s some biblical analysis I would like us to engage in. Let’s compare today’s lesson with the story of Elijah and Elisha from 2 Kings 2:9-13. Below is the passage: 

When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me what I may do for you before I am taken from you.” Elisha said, “Please let me inherit a double share of your spirit.” He responded, “You have asked a hard thing, yet if you see me as I am being taken from you, it will be granted to you; if not, it will not.” As they continued walking and talking, a chariot of fire and horses of fire separated the two of them, and Elijah ascended in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha kept watching and crying out, “Father, father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” But when he could no longer see him, he grasped his own clothes and tore them in two pieces. He picked up the mantle of Elijah that had fallen from him and went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. 

We can clearly see the resemblance between these two stories. This simple comparison gives us a pretty good foundation to presume the intent of the storyteller of Jesus’ ascension account. The risen Christ, just like Elijah, does not face death. The metaphor used to express the move against death is a way of ascension to heaven. If death is downward, life is upward. The Hebrew concept of sheol fits in here that it is a place of darkness or the underworld after death. For us, whether to take this ascension of both Jesus and Elijah literalistically (asking “Did it really happen?”) is neither the essence of one’s faith nor the purpose of the lessons. We can step away from mythical thinking. The point is that the resurrection is never swallowed by death. The resurrection of life goes against the gravity of death. Ascension is then the way for those left behind to make sense of the absence of their teachers, Elijah and Jesus, and turn that into the message of hope. 

2. Nonetheless, no matter how dramatically both Elijah and Jesus exit, their friends are shocked and distraught. Elijah cries out, grasps his own clothes, and tears them in two pieces. Jesus’ friends mindlessly gaze up at the sky, and there’s no one. This big void is the only available presence. It can trigger fear, anxiety, and meaninglessness. They would be like “What now?!” There’s a sense of being lost. What are we doing now without Jesus? Where are we going from here? What’s the purpose when the true hero is no longer with us? What’s in it for us? These questions are our questions when we don’t physically see the risen Christ, which makes the ascension account our own. Moreover, don’t we all have such questions when we encounter an absence of our loved ones? 

Just as the angel in the empty tomb takes away fear and shock of Mary Magdalene and the other Mary and reminds them of what to do, two folks in white robes redirect Jesus’ friends, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” This is to call their attention to where they are in the present moment, to bring them where they are called to be. Don’t look at the other side. The grass may look greener but it’s because you are not there. If you get there and look at where you were, the grass on that side will look greener. The angels, whose literal meaning is a messenger, urge us to wake up and be right here and now to meet the risen Christ in a different mode of being. There’s no peace in this action of wandering around but restless, unsatisfied, and eventually alienated from oneself and reality. 

The risen Christ doesn’t leave us alone but reveals differently. To discover and see Christ in our midst, we need to cultivate to have a long loving look. Being grounded in the presence of the Spirit, we are gifted with the beatific vision. We see the Ultimate Mystery and Godhead which we call God only with the very limited sense that there’s no way that the word God can contain that which IS. Receiving the Holy Spirit is like inheriting the mantle of Elijah. 

One practical tool or technique for your meditation: imagine wearing Elijah’s mantle all around your body as you become attentive to each part of the body and each cell in the organs. Wear the Spirit on you and be here and now every second.