Two feet sticking out of a cloud, and nothing else. In many illuminated manuscripts and prints from the late Middle Ages, that is how the Ascension is shown: Christ has almost vanished, and down below the apostles stare upward, mouths open. As an Ascension emoji, it would be hard to beat.
The account in the Acts of the Apostles is wonderfully down to earth. Jesus is lifted up, a cloud hides him, and two men in white have to nudge the disciples who are still gazing at the sky: “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” (Acts 1:11). The feast falls forty days after Easter, hence its old name, Ascension Thursday, although many dioceses now keep it on the following Sunday. Either way, staring at the clouds was never meant to be a full-time job.
Christ is not slipping out of the party early. He enters the glory of the Father and gives his friends a mission: be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. On the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, a small chapel even shows a stone said to bear the print of his foot. Two feet and a cloud ☁️, a little crowd looking up, a footprint on a rock: try your own version in the form just below.
Amen !by AI Generator
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