[Sundaycommunity] Fwd: Fw: Ascension

[Maryanne Stone-Jimenez]

>From Sylvia!

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: sylvia skrepichuk <sylviaskre at hotmail.com>
Date: Sun, 21 May 2023, 13:41
Subject: Fw: Ascension
To: Maryanne Stone-Jimenez <maryannestone.jimenez at gmail.com>


Hi Maryanne
I had to bother you with this but again I sent something out and it bounced
back.  Would you mind sending out the email below.  It is very interesting.
Peace
Sylvia
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*From:* sylvia skrepichuk <sylviaskre at hotmail.com>
*Sent:* May 21, 2023 1:39 PM
*To:* sundaycommunity at intregralshift.ca <sundaycommunity at intregralshift.ca>
*Subject:* Fw: Ascension

Hi
I received this today and thought I would send it to you.  It reflects a
little of what we were speaking about today.
Peace
Sylvia

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*Subject:* Ascension

Good afternoon. Ilia Delio, a Franciscan Sister gives us this reflection.

The Ascension marks the culmination of the Easter message. In his *Letter
to the Colossians* Saint Paul writes: “If then you were raised with Christ,
seek what is above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God; think
of what is above, not of what is on earth” (Col. 3:1-2). The language of
“above” and “not what is earthly” has created a consciousness of dualism:
heaven and earth; body and spirit; God and world. But the ascension of
Christ is not about a heavenly rocket ship launched into heaven, it is
about our humanity now permanently inserted into the life of God in and
through Jesus Christ. We have become a new creation, and God has become new
as well. Heaven is earth’s openness to its completion in God.

Bernard of Clairvaux spoke of three comings of Christ, the first coming of
Christ at his birth, his second coming of at the end of time and a
*third* coming
of Christ, into our midst, into our hearts, each day. The ascension of
Christ is the third coming of Christ; in this Big Bang universe, Christ is
always emerging in us as we seek to grow in love. Jesus’ ascension into
heaven conveys to us a new reality, that our humanity is fulfilled in God,
and God is fulfilled in us, as Jesus proclaimed: “I am with you always,
until the end of time” (Matt 28:20).

The humanity of Jesus is our humanity; hence, Jesus is the Christ and we
too are the Christ. We ascend to God when we descend into the truth of our
lives where the Spirit of God dwells in love. When we live from this center
of Truth, Christ is born in us over and over again, so that the whole
paschal mystery forms the evolution of our lives. To ascend with Christ
does not mean we are to “go up” but to “go down” into the depths of our
lives, to live from a center of humility, to accept the truth of each
moment gifted by the power of God’s love. To think of “what is above,” of
what is heavenly, is to think out of a deeper center of consciousness, not
a consciousness of the isolated self but a consciousness of deep
interconnectedness, and to realize that heaven begins here on earth when we
realize that we are bound together in the unity of God’s ever-flowing love.
To attain this unity in love amidst the chaos of world is to ascend with
Christ.
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