The Place of Ascension

As a child, the Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ fascinated me, and I willingly entered into its mystery. Through my childlike vision, I believed. As I entered into my teens and early adulthood, I looked at the Ascension through physics and concluded it was impossible. However, in my early thirties when I became sober and realized that alcohol had made my life unmanageable, the Ascension brought me comfort because of its transcended divine reality.  As a broken individual, I needed a transformation and faith in God who could do all things.

As Jesus ‘was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight’ (Act 1:9), he revealed the transcendent nature of God. God cannot be limited by physics, rationalism, or empiricism. Also, the impossibility of ever being fully recovered from the disease of alcoholism relies on the transcendent reality of divine grace to take one step at a time, day by day. 

The Feast of the Ascension reminds us that we can ascend beyond our own limits, our own sins, and our own weaknesses as long as we have faith in God. Just as Jesus rose above the sins of the world during his lifetime, he rose physically from Mount Olivet to heaven. Therefore, we can rise with Christ into the divine reality which he inhabits. This is the place of ascension. 

The place of ascension may not be lost in the clouds, but it is within our souls which requires us to journey to arrive at the place where Christ calls us. Christ calls us to righteousness where love is poured into our hearts so that we can love others as Christ loves us. However, we must be willing to ascend beyond our own selfishness and become charitable in our words, thoughts, and deeds.

Without Christ there is no Ascension. Without Christ there is no recovery. I am approaching my 29^th years of sobriety and I still conclude each day I am not alone. I feel Christ is above me, giving guidance with each encounter I face. I feel Christ is deep within my soul waiting for my arrival, which is a transcended reality of my own divine nature fully integrated with Christ. Alcohol tried to throw roadblocks from that full integration of the human and divine. Alcohol weighed me down, preventing me from reaching my full potential as a child of God. 

Christ obtained the full integration of the human and divine—first through the incarnation then through his ascension into heaven. He calls us to pursue the authentic root of our being, which is God’s image within us. Christ empathizes with the suffering because he suffered. However, because of his suffering, God is glorified in our suffering. Consequently, we can rise above and ascend, in heart and soul, to a fully integrated life with Christ.

When I suffered from the disease of alcoholism, I dug a chasm between my worldly self—the self who the world tells us to be—and my authentic self, which is who God calls us to be. Christ provided the bridge over that self-made chasm which drew me back to God. I knew with Christ I could rise above the chaos of alcoholism. I could restore my sanity by admitting that I was powerless over alcohol and could only rise above its hold by turning ‘my will and life over to God.’

After Jesus ascended into heaven ‘and a cloud took him out of their sight,’ the disciples’ faith in him increased to the point where they were willing to do the impossible: take the gospel to the ends of the earth even if it meant dying. My entry into recovery made me believe in the impossible: living a life without alcohol. It also required a death to the old self, the old ways, and rising to life in Christ as a new person whose weakness was made perfect through the power of God.