My favourite images of the Ascension of the Lord, celebrated on Thursday for at least 16 centuries – Thursday, not Sunday – are those charming medieval illuminations wherein the astonished Apostles gaze with Mary upward at the last glimpse of Our Lord’s feet just as they disappear into the cloud of heavenly glory. Benedict XVI commented on Christ’s fleeting feet:
Here we could reflect that we come as worshippers, following his trail, close to his footsteps. Praying, we go to him; praying, we touch him, even if in this world, so to speak, always only from below, only from afar, always only on the trail of his earthly steps. At the same time it becomes clear that we do not find the footprints of Christ when we look only below, when we measure only footprints and want to subsume faith in the obvious. The Lord is movement toward above, and only in moving ourselves, in looking up and ascending, do we recognise him.
