Sunday Gospel Comment
Alberic Jacovone OSB
YEAR C ASCENSION OF THE LORD -20.5.07 Acts 1,1-11; Eph 1,17-23; Lk 24,46-53 Insights into “Kosmos and Cosmetics” Our Lord's “Ascension” In Australia, we no longer celebrate it on the 40th day after Easter (which occurred on a Thursday) but on the Sunday before Pentecost (which means 'Fiftieth Day'). Our present-day concept of 'ascending as moving-up into space' needs to be better focused and understood. In today's Preface we pray: “Since our Lord Jesus, - King of glory, conqueror of sin and death -, ascended the highest heavens (summa caelorum), He is our Mediator between God and us, Judge of the world (Kosmos) and Lord of all Powers. He has taken this place, not to cut himself off from our humble human condition (nostra humilitate discederet), but so that we can be united-in-faith (con-fidere) with him; and we who are 'members' of his 'body', can follow where He himself – as 'head and beginning' – has gone before us (prae-cessit). The English translation doesn't capture the Laten text: it says: 'Christ has gone beyond our sight not to abandon us but to be our hope; where he has gone we hope to follow'. (It seems to say 'out of sight = out of mind'!). Let's reflect on the language that Luke uses to describe Jesus' Ascension and Exaltation', since with this event he ends his Gospel and begins his other book, 'Acts of the Apostles' (today's first reading). Luke says that Jesus 'appeared' to his disciples, 'camping in the open' with them for 40 days and after that he departed: gave them a blessing (barakah), separated himself from them and was 'carried to heaven'. As he lifted himself up, they kept looking at him; and then a cloud withdrew him from their sight; and then two 'men in white' stood by them and said: why do you stand looking up into space (in heaven = ouranon): the same Jesus that you saw taken into space will come again as you saw him going into space. Cosmic Powers and Cosmic Christ Luke uses special words when he talks about Jesus' Ascension into heaven. He uses the term 'ouranos' to mean 'sky and atmosphere, visible space, starry heavens and even a third 'spiritual heaven beyond', where God and his saints abide. Elsewhere in his Gospel (11,50), the term 'kosmos' is used to mean the material universe in all its wonder, beauty and order. Remember that from 'kosmos' we get words like 'cosmetics, cosmic, cosmonaut, cosmology, cosmopolitan. 'Kosmos' carries in itself nuances that enhance beauty, order, ornament and decoration, especially as we fathom the grandeur of the universe. Scientists keep telling us that – for its vastness and intricacy – the universe (kosmos) should never work but it does; indeed there is wondrous beauty and harmony in the interplay of planets and stars. Today more than ever before, we are called to improve our images and visions of 'heaven', lest it degenerates into 'a pie in the sky when we die'. Ancient cosmology which prevailed universally in the Church, in our old liturgy and in our 'Creed' can no longer be held. Today we cannot hold to a flat world, surrounded by water, and covered by a dome-shaped canopy (Latin 'firmament' which means 'support' and in turn from the Greek 'stereoma ouranou', meaning 'support of the heavens'). Artists should inspire us with new visualisations. Jesus did not go 'above the clouds' as if He no longer is concerned about us. Orthodox Art depicts the Icon of Ascension in a way that Jesus' feet are dangling from the cloud, and He has evaporated into the cloud, which is the symbol of God's abiding presence (shekinah), and – like the cloud – can never be shaped, touched or manipulated by human effort. Jesus' Ascension and Exaltation must inspire us towards a 'Cosmic Power and a Cosmic Christ', by which Jesus is with God but also mysteriously with us, powerfully drawing all to himself, enhancing in us beauty an ______________________________________ |
