Praying the rosary so often since my retirement has been a bit of an eye opener into the various Mysteries. I often think of the Ascension as Jesus gone/ Jesus comes. As He , Himself told us He has to leave so that the Holy Spirit could come . This time in a deeper more significant way into our hearts as living Tabernacles. So our very own little hearts become New Jerusalems, Zions Temple where the Lamb of God dwells. Closer to us than we are to ourselves; the indwelling Jesus. Jesus reminded us that we must be born again of water and the Holy Spirit and Christ opens the door to this by leaving in the Ascension. He goes that He may come. For many Christians Christ is still, 'Out there', they think of Him as being up in heaven, or in Churches or statues or paintings. Not in a living personal relationship. Not as a Jesus that is closer to us than we are to ourselves. The Ascension points to this.
Galatians 2:20 20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
This life is so incomplete like a hunger that is never filled, an ache for completeness, a shadow of what is to come. Still I do love it. Some spiritual writers paint a very grim, sad picture of life. I have not found it to be so. It is a huge gift, the greatest of which is to grow into the likeness of Christ, from one degree of glory until the next. Padre Pio, despite his suffering was described as the happiest man in the world. The other morning one of the Park Rangers came up to me smiling. He said he had heard me singing on my own own in the woods. He said how pleasing it was to see someone so happy. This life may only be a shadow of what is to come but still it is a wonderful start.,
