It is an easy story to miss. Nestled between Easter and Pentecost, the Ascension of Christ is a critical event in Christ's life and an important commemoration for the Church that often goes unnoticed. Christ’s physical body disappears from sight in preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Christ goes away in order to come near. Christ ascends in order that the Spirit might descend. His absence becomes a deeper kind of presence. Rowan Williams has put it this way,
This is what Ascension Day is like. It is the moment when Jesus “goes away”, stops being an object we concentrate on in itself, and yet becomes more deeply and permanently present: “I am with you always, to the end of time.” He is with us as the light we see by; we see the world in a new way because we see it through him, see it with his eyes.
In the Ascension, we discover that Jesus is no longer the light we are blinded by. He is the light we see by. May God’s Spirit empower us to see the world and one another by the light of the risen and ascended Christ.
Ascension: The Light We See By