Passage for Ascension Day
Where then, in all my
spreading world is Jesus Christ, the man risen and glorified? When clouds
received him from our sight, into what height, what distance did he go? However
far away I place him, I gain nothing by it: he fits no better beyond Orion than
behind the nearest trees. His risen being is no part of our interlocked system
of bodily force, whether far or near. He is nowhere in this world. He is not
outside it, either, for it hasn’t got an outside where he could be. Where is he
then?
It is useless to start
from me, and to fan out and out, looking for Jesus Christ: I must start from
Jesus Christ, and fan out from there until, I reach myself.…
At first it may seem
that we have two answers, spreading on independent planes and nowhere touching
at a single point. Christ’s universe of spirit, and ours of physical force. Yet
thinking further we perceive that it cannot be so. For while it is indeed
impossible to place heaven in the world, it is impossible not to place the world
in heaven. If Christ’s knowledge is spiritual, as ours is physical, then he
knows us, for we are spirits too, spirits in fleshly bodies; and if he knows our
spirits, he knows what our spirits know, including their bodily knowledge. He
hears us speak from within our throats; he thinks our thoughts as fast as we can
form them. But he feels in our fingers too, and looks through our eyes; he lives
out along the lines of our vision, and our sun, moon and stars are his. By sheer
love, heaven grafts the world into itself, and roots our universe in its own
heart.
Jesus Christ, living Son
of the living God, clothed in our nature, I cannot place you in my world, but
neither can I escape from yours. I cannot reach you by many steps, but I can
reach you by one, the single step of faith, which lands me in the heart of
heaven. If ever I am to end with you, it is from you I must begin. Thou God
seest me; and if ever I am to see across the gulf from me to you, it will be by
starting with you, and seeing myself through your holy and compassionate eyes.
