A real presence in the physical absence, a relationship in the distance: this is the meaning of the ascension, which asks Christians to walk in the light of faith, not of sight (see 2 Corinthians 5:7), developing the sensitiveness of faith, the “spiritual senses,” i.e. the ability of the human heart to see, listen, touch, taste and smell. The mystery confessing Christ as next to God and present in history and inside all men teaches us the transcendence of the other: the other’s face, which is irreducibly his, evokes a mystery of transcendence and “beyondness” and asks for respect and communion. The ascension opposes all our greed and yearning for possession, both in the relationship with God and in the ones with the other men: this is really a great teaching of freedom.

Translated from:

ENZO BIANCHI
{link_prodotto:id=320}: Le feste cristiane,
Edizioni Qiqajon, 2003, pp. 97-99.