The Ascension and Pentecost are connected in this stained glass window. The two feasts are close together in the calendar, but the connection goes deeper than that. They represent the beginning of a new chapter in the Salvation Story, the chapter we twenty-first century Christians are mentioned in.
Saint Luke is our witness here. The end of his Gospel and the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles show how the disciples went from running scared to finding solidarity in shared fear and confusion, and finally on to boldness in proclaiming the Good News. What inspired this boldness? And where do we come in?
Saint Paul tells us: The things that are of God no man knoweth, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God. Which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom; but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
The sensual man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man judgeth all things; and he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that we may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:11-16
Even as he goes up to Heaven, Jesus bears the scars of this foolishness: the marks of the nails in his hands and feet. That foolish gesture of dying for us is recorded by the artist as an element of his glory. Hands raised as they were on the Cross, his seamless garment embroidered with his monogramme in case there was any doubt who this window is about. Yes, it is about Jesus, but it’s about us too, represented by the disciples gathered around him.
The disciples are present in the second window, linking the two chapters in our salvation story. Notice the descending dove of the Spirit, mirroring the outstretched arms of the risen Lord. He had to go away for the Spirit to come and take over but we remain in the care of the one God.
In this time between two feasts, between two Ages, let us pray that we may have the courage and strength to live with holy fire in our hearts, and to seek Jesus, not in Heaven but wherever in this world we may have been placed.
agnellusmirror 