Even though most of us think of heaven and earth as distinct places, we also believe there can be “thin places” where the two are very close, overlapping even.
The Feast of the Ascension of our Lord has traditionally been celebrated on a Thursday, the fortieth day after Easter.
From a young age, I was taught that the ascension of Jesus meant that Jesus was the first human to ascend to heaven, and that we, his followers, would one day go to be with him there.
In Ezekiel’s dream, the breath of God awakens and reconnects the bones of the fragmented selves, renews their flesh and returns to them their own life’s breath before placing them back on their own soil.
Perhaps our perennial instinct to share food, drink and story as a response to grief and loss points to a gospel mystery in which we are all caught up.
In the resurrection of Jesus, we perceive what could be considered the big bang of God’s new creation exploding, as it were, as a renewing, recreating power in the midst of the old…