Trauma-Bonded
A Messy Meditation for Ascension Day
Ascension Day commemorates the story of Jesus ascending to his Father in heaven after a season of post-Resurrection appearances to his disciples. It’s presented as a joyous event, one that reinforces Jesus’s divinity as the Son of God, Yet despite all of the hymns that celebrate Christ’s kingship in glory everlasting (cue the choirs of Angels here), I always imagine the grief of his closest friends and followers. Was it so happy for them, really? After all, they experienced the pain and suffering of his gruesome Crucifixion on Golgotha, only to witness him resurrected on the third day. The disciples lost their master and teacher in a horrific death, and then he was given back to them, only to have him ripped away from them yet again. Hardly a happy scenario.
