In this week’s Pearls of the Interior Life we focus on what Christ’s Ascension means for our interior life – with particular guidance from St. Catherine of Siena to whom God the Father gave imagery of Christ as a bridge that starts in our interior, crosses over the hazards of the fallen world, and brings us to sharing in the glory of the Ascension.
Christ’s Ascension is loaded with additional imagery. Scripture tells us He appeared to be “lifted up” and “a cloud took Him from sight.”
Lifted up – we instinctively know that upward is positive (“things are looking up!”) and downward is negative (“why so down in the mouth?”) Scripture builds on this instinct. After Cain murders his brother, he lowers his head so he doesn’t have to face God. And Peter walks over the water like a champ so long as he looks at Jesus, but he sinks after he looks down at the churning waves.
On the other hand, Jesus “raised” people from the dead and “raised His eyes to heaven” to pray to Father.
And just so, Jesus is “lifted up” into Heaven. But the spiritual masters teach us that Heaven isn’t actually “up there” so much as “in here” – in our soul. For example, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent” (St. John Climacus), “The Ascent of Mount Carmel” (St. John of the Cross), “The Mind’s Road to God” (St. Bonaventure) all focus on the interior journey to God. But many spiritual masters use imagery of ascending to God to enter into prayer.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux would begin his time in meditation by imagining leaving all of his responsibilities and concerns at the base of a mountain, and then walking up to meet God.
And how about those clouds? More imagery of the manifestation of God. Here we might think of the mystical classic, “The Cloud of Unknowing,” that likens the mystery of God to a dense cloud that obscures all of our senses.
St. Catherine of Siena’s message is that we are meant to follow the path of Jesus’ ascent to Heaven in this life. To employ the imagery of scripture, we are meant to go through life with our head lifted up into the clouds.
How else can we explain the Saints, who lived lives so counter to the ways of the world? Anytime we say “no” to the world and “yes” to higher ideals we are lifting our head to the clouds.
When we were first considering home schooling all the usual worldly objections rushed to mind – “our kids will end up weird,” and “who are we to try to teach them,” and “will they be able to get into college,” and so on. But then we lifted our heads to the clouds and all those objections faded away.
Steve was just pealing an orange and reminded of C.S. Lewis’ reflection on how an orange reveals God’s goodness – “The good things even of this world are far too good ever to be reached by imagination. Even the common orange, you know, no one could have imagined it before he tasted it. How much less Heaven.”
In the week ahead we have endless opportunities from things as simple as an orange to the biggest questions and trials to keep our head in the clouds.
Ascension blessings –
Steve and Karen Smith