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May 17, 2007
Himmelfahrt
What?
Ascension Day to the rest of us. And my abiding image of the Baroque Church in which I first came face to face with the 18th Century vision of the Ascension is of a cloud covered apse - with a pair of sandalled feet protruding from the clouds. It is pretty arresting - and then my schoolboy sense of humour kicked in with a too literal interpretation of the German word for journey.....
It is an important day in the churches year, the day on which the risen Christ parted company with his disciples and was "taken up into heaven". The words of the angel to the disciples spring immediately to mind whenever I think of that pianted Baroque ceiling, "why stand do you stand here looking up into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
The Ascension is the final act in the drama that is the crucifixion, resurrection and appearances to his followers. In his departure there is the promise of a return. That is why the Church marks this as a Day of Obligation.
Strange then, that the UK, almost alone of all the EU, does not have a Bank Holiday to mark it. Secular France does, so does Germany and most others, but not the UK. Napoleon had it right when he called us a Nation of Shopkeepers. if you tried to have the day declared a holiday now you would have all the Boards of all our companies screaming that it would cut their profits. Maybe it is time they did - after all, it won't actually damage their annual profits and might even boost them if just occassionally, they did something for the benefit of someone like their workforce instead of for themselves.
The Ascension is something we should all mark with thought and prayer. Have a blessed Ascension Day.
Posted by The Gray Monk at May 17, 2007 04:35 PM
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