So, I’m wondering: Did Jesus enjoy a cuppa joe first thing in the morning?
How did he tend to start his days when he walked the earth, walked among the disciples? I’m wondering, because a cuppa joe provides an essential ingredient to my mornings.
Typically, I drink coffee with friends – the “after-6:30-daily-Mass-boys” at my parish. But even when I’m away from home, the cuppa joe remains a constant. The sign of a caffeine addiction, to be sure. But also (I notice) a quiet, simple, treasured font – a source of joy.
I think of Jesus when I think of joy. It’s one of the gifts he’s given me in the decades of my adult life – to see the link between those precious fleeting unmistakable moments of joy … and Jesus’ promise to remain with us. When I encounter joy, I feel his Real Presence, remaining and at work in the world.
Surely, this is a great mystery. This week, after all, we mark the Ascension of the Lord. The feast of Jesus’ going away from us, being lifted up into heaven, leaving his bemused disciples to stare mutely at the bottoms of his feet.
So how did we get from there … to here? From a band of bemused men, standing bereft in a field near Bethany … to me, enjoying a cuppa morning joe in the presence of the Holy One?
All I can figure is that Jesus is a man of his word. He did send his Spirit, just as he promised – a Spirit packing some mind-boggling power, the power to turn reluctant humans … into witnesses of the coming of the kingdom. Witnesses, to the ends of the earth.
Saint Paul wasn’t there, in that field near Bethany. But he became a witness, praying for the folks in his day – that “the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to [Jesus’] call, what are the riches of his glory … the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe…”
Only it’s a strange sort of power, isn’t it? A power of “already” and “not yet.” Already, Christ reigns far above us, in heaven (wherever that is, whatever it is). Already, Christ reigns deep within us. We feel his presence, often in the most ordinary ways – such as sharing in the fellowship of a morning cuppa joe.
Already, Christ reigns. We have seen it. We feel it. Even so, it is “not yet.” Not yet complete – like a pot still brewing. The world, with all of its joys, often moulders in pain and expectation, pouring out on any given day a bitter brew.
We are called, on this feast of the Ascension, to somehow hold all these things in tension. To wrap our hands around the mug and savor the moment. To know that we are in Christ, the very same victorious Christ proclaimed by Paul. And if we are in Christ, then all is well.
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 