by Joan Mitchell, CSJ
When the trees leaf out in cities, they hide the stars at night. But summer trips often take us beyond the well-lighted streets of cities to lakes and mountains where the stars shine bigger and brighter than we usually see them. We can see ourselves at home in our galaxy, spread across the night. The stars open us to the mystery of space.
Before we earthlings saw our planet home from space, the heavens belonged unassailably to God. In ancient Mesopotamia people imagined God lived in the heavens, commanding storms and hosts of heavenly beings, a divine army.
One of the names ancient Canaanites called their god was Cloud Rider. In the Old Testament book of Daniel, the prophet sees “one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven” (7.14). Christians draw on this imagery to picture Jesus coming again in glory.
Today humans ride the clouds regularly in planes. The Hubble telescope captures the spidery webs of light from other galaxies. The Church that in the 16th century suppressed Galileo’s proofs that Earth revolved around the sun today welcomes the work of scientists as they expand the edge of mystery in space and in matter.
Recently physicists heard the sound of two black holes colliding more than 1.2 light years away, a chirp like running one’s finger up the piano to middle C. It proves Einstein’s general theory of relativity is right. Human ears can listen for gravitational waves as well as look for our origins in the stars.
In the cosmology of Jesus’ time, God and the heavens were up and human beings and Earth were below. Our 2,000-year-old gospel tells the story of the risen Jesus’ return to God in the worldview everyone assumed in the first century. To return to God is to go to the heavens.
As the Church celebrates Jesus’ ascension into heaven today, we wonder where he goes, where God’s home is. We hunger for lasting communion with our loved ones.
- How do you imagine communion with God?
- How does science affect your faith?