Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father but promises to be with us always. He promises us an absence that is brimming over with divine presence. “It is better for you that I go,” he has said, not to abandon us but to be with us always in the Spirit, not time bound or Palestine-bound but always, “always, until the end of the age.” We are left to learn how to appreciate an emptiness that makes us available to a greater but truly mysterious divine fullness. We begin the novena of prayer to the Holy Spirit in these days of Ascensiontide preceding Pentecost.
