<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">Am in a writing mode this May; will have two columns and three editorials per week, and if you chance to wander into the Saipan Tribune website, the byline shows up on Mondays and Thursdays. Editorials are Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.</font></font>
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<div><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Wednesday editorial:</font></div>
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<!--StartFragment-->
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The ascent into
heaven<o:p></o:p></font></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The Vulgate’s <i>Ascensio
Iesu </i>led Christian catechism to Jesus rising to Heaven in front of apostles
occurring 40 days after he rose from the dead.
Angels informed disciples that Jesus “will come again” in a similar
manner. The second coming and millennial
reign equalized the playing field so the faithful were rewarded and the
infidels got their due.<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">A metaphorical
translation of this medieval scenario is what Christians do when they encounter
catechetical wisdom in graphic metaphors, in this case, a witness using a
pre-Copernican worldview with images out of Egyptian cosmology; Earth is flat,
upstairs is Heaven, while down in the underworld, in the murky Nile waters lies
dark Hades where the sun sets to rise again, i.e., if the Pharaoh is still in
good favor. Experts on cosmological
synthesis of economics, politics and cultures of the Balkan society carried
into the Greco-Roman Empire that shaped our dispensation.<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></div>
<div style="margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">The Creed recited on Sunday worship services
declares Jesus ascent into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father from
whence he shall come to judge the living and the dead. Read: he joined an on-going party, full of gladness
and glory, exuding spirit authenticity, of happiness begun (incarnate) even before
the point of joining. <o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Like Holy Writ,
the meaning of the recitation is in doing the ritual rather than the literal meaning
of what is declared; the significance is in the gesture rather than what
cognitive clarity the statement might make or imply. The emotive content of the doing is the communal
identity of the ritualizing folks committed to take care of each other in
covenant.<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">When
discipleship gets serious, what is said of the primal example also holds true
with the followers. The “ascent into
heaven” that as bodily true of the “savior” is also true of the “saved”. There is symmetry and justice in the scheme
that makes life whole from the perspective of universal eternity.<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">This was all
fine until Galileo changed the imagery, turning cosmology so that Earth lost
out as the center of the Universe. Newton
proposed a force called “gravity” that reduced the “will of God” to a natural
force, and Einstein relativized life as in flux, a process of change called
“evolution” rather than dictated from a heavenly “realm upstairs”. Progressives dub the change as a happening
for the better!<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">This metaphor
prevailed for two millennia. What it
might mean today depends on who takes the pulpit at Mass, that is, if the <i>Padre </i>is honest. But that is only for the numbered Church-going
schizophrenics awake to the authentic present but mouth the symbols and
metaphors of old. <o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">For many, the
ascent into heaven escapes the corporeal terminus with the worms at 6 ft. below
the ground. It denies authority of
apparitions seen while under influence of mental or liquid spirit, a
consequence of indigestion, or from sleep deprivation. Ten days after ascending into heaven in the liturgy,
the Holy Spirit descends, infuses common creatures and become whole.<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Rehearse the
reality of life, in its authenticity where lies its splendor. Ascend into heaven!<o:p></o:p></font></div>
<div class="MsoNormal"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"> </font></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br>
<div style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 18px; clear: both;"><i>j'aime la vie</i>
<div><i>yesterday, appreciate; tomorrow, anticipate; today, participate! in all, celebrate!<br>
</i>
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