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Why do you stand looking up towards heaven?

Lightenings viii


The annals say: when the monks of Clonmacnoise
Were all at prayers inside the oratory
A ship appeared above them in the air.
The anchor dragged along behind so deep
It hooked itself into the altar rails
And then, as the big hull rocked to a standstill,
A crewman shinned and grappled down the rope
And struggled to release it. But in vain.
‘This man can’t bear our life here and will drown,’
The abbot said, ‘unless we help him.’ So
They did, the freed ship sailed, and the man climbed back
Out of the marvellous as he had known it.
Seamus Heaney – Selected Poems by Seamus Heaney
From “Seeing Things”, 1991

© Seamus Heaney



To cite this section
MLA style: Poetry. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2020. 
Fri. 22 May 2020. <https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1995/8424-poetry-1995-2/>



Seamus Heaney's poem turns the story of the Ascension, for me, upside down. I like that because it makes me think differently, a bit askance, at what we have received. We are accustomed to hearing from stories in the Old Testament that no man can look at God and live: Moses has to cover his face, God has to hide his glory, there are clouds and cliffs, for instance. But this poem places our world as the alien world, into which a hapless other happens to fall, by mischance and accident, and in which he cannot live: 'This man can't bear out life down here and will drown'.

Of course this poem is not a poem about the Ascension, but, nonetheless, it makes me wonder about what it means to be 'at home' and the connotations of that word. The visitor was not meant to be in the world of the monks, he could not survive there. We are not accustomed, perhaps, to thinking about how our world has been crafted in every tiny detail to be the perfect home for us. Echoes of dualism that have unhelpfully infiltrated our Christian thinking have sometimes encouraged us to reject the material in favour of the spirit.

In the Orthodox Icon of the Ascension (below) Jesus is not the focus of attention - the disciples are encouraged not to look up at Heaven, but to the world in which they must continue Jesus' work. Perhaps we can be guilty of spending too much time looking upwards, hoping ourselves out of this world, thinking it's not good enough, or not right for us. That sort of escapist Christianity, which sees the realisation of our dreams in the after-life, to me, misses the point about Jesus' promises. Yes, we are not 'of the world', but at the same time, we wait for Jesus' return (to our world) when all things will be renewed. If we take the eschaton (end times) seriously, we know that the new heaven and the new earth involve the glorification of what we already inhabit - not the whisking away to some new alternative place and reality. The vertical axis which we so often utilise to understand the relationship between heaven and earth is of limited use; and the Feast of the Ascension in some sense makes this abundantly clear with the ridiculous images of Jesus' feet dangling from the Heavens!

'When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God will not come with observable signs, nor will people say, 'Here it is,' or 'There it is, 'because the kingdom of God is in your midst." Luke 17.21

Ascension Day locates the promises of God in our lived-reality - the coming of the Holy Spirit through which we will be led into all truth - is sent to enable us to continue God's work of redemption and renewal on earth.



Icon: The Ascension, Russian, 
XVIth century, The Isabella Steward Gardner Museum

Mary, the Mother of Jesus is at the centre of the Icon - she is the mother of Jesus and therefore also of the Church - created as it is out of Jesus' bodily absence. 'We' are now the Body of Christ. 

Source: The Meaning of Icons, Leopold Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky, 199, Seminary Press.

Christ Has No Body
Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
With compassion on this world.  Teresa of Avila
Come, Holy Spirit: Come among us, come upon us. Come, Spirit of Truth – enlighten our minds; Come, Spirit of Love – enlarge our hearts; Come, Holy Comforter – strengthen and heal us; Come, Holy Fire – enflame and purify us; Come, Breath of Life – inspire us in our witness: that all may be drawn to know you and to praise you One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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