Since the Ascension, we have found it easier to
realize the love of God, because it is mirrored for us in the human sympathy of
Jesus Christ. But there is something else—since the Ascension, it has been
easier for us to imagine heaven as a desirable goal. Try as we will, the idea
of heaven eludes us. Are we to think of it as place, from which every element
of unhappiness is excluded? But we know how much our love of places is
conditioned by moods and sentiments, by the desire for change, by association and
by history! Or are we to think of it as a state? But then, how are we to think
of a state except in terms of selfish enjoyment? Or should we look forward to
being reunited with those we have loved? But how frail they are, these earthly
bonds; how time impairs them! No, when we have tried everything, we shall find
no better window on eternity than St Paul's formula, "to depart and be
with Christ". If he has left us, and gone to heaven, it is so that we may
no longer be disconcerted by the barrier of cloud that stands between us and
it. We are not concerned to "go" here or there, to be in this or that
state of existence. We want to find him. So little, and so much it is given us
to know about the ascended Christ.
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