Ascension Day : " Victory over absence"

Published on May 21 2020 by Fr. Roger Robert

During a conference, Thursday May 13, 2010, Fr. Roger Robert unfolds the mystery of the Ascension of Jesus at the heart of our lives.

What would I be without you, Jesus, who came to meet me? No one has to believe but the intensity of someone who comes to meet us is simply there.

Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror and said, "You are alive forever!"? When you do this, it rarely feels conclusive, even if we try to convince ourselves...But when it is someone else who says it to you ...? And then when someone dies...?

The Ascension of Jesus has an impact on how I will view the death of my own loved ones. Alternatively, it is simply all over and we are going to do the usual rites, try to manage as best as we can, and we will grieve... Or we will look to fill in with someone else...It is one of the great biblical temptations: to replace, and then we will do it all again, whatever! However, if I have learned from Jesus that those I love follow his own ascent, my relationship with them will change. I will no longer address them as "the dead", I will address them as I address Jesus. St Paul says: "The vigour, the power, the glory that has unfolded in Jesus Christ is the same that unfolds within us" (C.f. Ephesians 1.19) Victory over absence, is only valid to the extent that Christ is consistent within me. If I welcome him into my life, if I give him the right to exist, if I begin to live with him, to listen to what he says, I will discover his universe within me, his word, what comes from him, his way of existing and all my perspectives will change. The whole perception of myself, the whole perception of my relationships will change.

What seems to me to be a painful absence will continue because we are sensitive beings. It is not possible to get used to this situation overnight where someone I used to see, whom I loved, whom I could express my feelings to, whom I could talk to, touch, hold in my arms is no longer there. Is there anything left between us? Is it the end of our relationship since it is no longer reciprocal? Sometimes people, as a way of consolation say, "Time heals." If Christ were not in my life, I’d say to you, "What is the point?" That's the way it is, it's fate, we let things be and even wonder why we bother asking so many questions? Let's live and we'll see what happens! The inertia of the heart comes slowly but surely. And there is nothing worse in a relationship than this kind of inertia of the heart where there is nothing left, we simply make do...

Jesus is the only one who reveals within us: "I am here, you are not alone, I am alive!" It is the mystery of friendship. "If someone loves me, they will keep my word." Everything will happen in this solidarity with Him, in this trust in Him, simply because I believe in the one who says to me: "I love you".

What sets us apart from other men? Saint John replies, "And we have come to believe and trust in the love that God has for us." (1 John 4,16) Who are we as Christians? We are women, men, who trust God's love for us. The moment we enter into this relationship, we are nourished and we find a dimension in Christ, in the person of Jesus. Now let me ask you the question, as Jesus is about to retire, to "go to heaven", who is He to you? Are you the kind of person who simply needs what is "religious" or do you believe that in the person of Jesus, God tells each and every one of you, "You mean a lot to me, you are my heaven"?

On this Ascension feast, we hear that "Jesus ascended to heaven." We have to have some words to express it but how else can we say it? If I said to you, "Jesus has entered the realm of the divine," What does that mean? The divine, I do not know what it is apart from Him. Many people have conceptions of the divine as something extraordinary, as if it were there, above whereas "the divine" is what appeared in the person of Jesus only. Often, we see the divine linked to what is prestigious, a sort of deployment of grandeur, of unusualness, hence what Nathanael said to his friend Philip, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" (John 1.46) And at the very end, once Jesus had died, the disciples weren’t so sure whether he may have been an impostor after all. For a handful of men and women, Jesus was a prophet. This is what the disciples of Emmaus say, "The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all people... But with his death on the cross, everything fell apart. The religious authorities told us that he was an impostor, the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death and crucified Him." (Cf Luke 24,20-21) A prophet for them, an impostor for most of the others, where is the prestigious God? Where is the God that draws crowds? Am I the follower of a God who commands, who reigns, or am I a disciple of Jesus of Nazareth? Am I a disciple of this God-made-man who expressed his life in the ordinary day-to-day, in the joy of what one likes doing, in creativity, in relationships?

On their journey, the disciples begin to change by welcoming Christ who is speaking to them. Their universe opens up a little, they are with him. "It is better for you that I go away," Jesus said to his disciples, so that you may discover my soul, for when I am near you, you go back to your good old habits. Now I have to go away and I am in the hands of your enthusiasm. But that's not enough, your enthusiasm won't last long. That is why you're going to receive a force that comes from above, so you may experience this "divine" which is not prestigious greatness… You have to experience the divine density, the intensity." This is what will happen during Pentecost, the personal experience of Jesus can be communicated at last. Jesus blesses them, there is his goodness that rises within them and it will not stop ever after. It is as if the embers in a chimney had been lit and started to burn. Their incandescence emerges as and when they get close to each other, and these people, just like embers transmit their flame and give themselves Christ. We now see that Christ begins to appear in theirs faces, in their eyes, he is no longer visible, but he is alive within these men and women…

He is not alive as a memory. When someone I love dies, will I only have memories left? And to prevent my memories from fading, will I simply choose to look at photographs or films? This only makes sense for a short period of time. So, what is this intensity that makes "you stay alive inside me"? Jesus’ presence comes to live in all our relationships. Although we still have some memory, memories will die with us... But if there is the life of Christ, then, when I think of a loved one who has died, they will come to meet me, because they are filled with this divine friendship. Victory over absence. Just as Jesus came to meet the women on Easter morning, and then the disciples, those who died come to meet us.

That is where we take a closer look at our faith. Do I say about those I love and who have died the same thing I say about Christ? Saint Paul will say, "If Christ has been raised - or if he is raised but that only applies to him - we are of all men most to be pitied." (Cf1 Corinthians 15,14...17)

Christ who never ceases to come to meet us is not alone. He comes with all those who have shared our existence. Those with whom you have shared your life have found the paths of your body, your heart, your sensitivity, a child, a spouse, a father, a mother, a friend... They have found the paths of a certain intimacy. If someone dies and it's over, it is not worth maintaining the relationship. But if Christ has risen, in the knowledge of these paths of intimacy, these people you have known will become your evangelists. The whole universe is changing! The intensity I experience is not vague, it carries someone's face.

In the very first Christian document we have, the one you often hear at funerals, Paul says, "We are not without hope like those who do not know God, we believe that Christ died and was raised to life, just as those who die, come to meet us in Christ, they first, Christ second." (Cf 1Thessalonicians 4,13-14) Today I speak to you about the Ascension of Christ and the ascension of those who died, mine and yours. In the Ascension of Jesus, they too are the ones who rise within us. It is not simply a matter of celebrating the Ascension of Christ, but of entering into the celebration of "you who rises within me now". For example, for me, I cannot speak of the ascension of Jesus without also mentioning the one who, in a way, put me in closer contact with Christ. And just as Christ rises inside of us, Florin Callerand rises inside me. He comes up, I welcome him and that's it! He comes up, he is not a dead man whose body would be deposited at the clearing (the cemetery for our community). Everyone who has done us good rises up and they are still doing it to us. And those who have hurt us come inside us and say, "Do you forgive me?" And there are those who come to us, also bringing their forgiveness...

Fr. Roger Robert
13 Mai 2010

French to English translation by Debbie Garrick and Cécile Simon