“He was received up into heaven”
The seventh and last sonnet in John Donne’s cycle of sonnets called La Corona is Ascension. La Corona is a remarkable literary achievement. It consists of seven sonnets which are all closely connected in such a way that they form a crown, a circle, la corona. The last line of each of the seven sonnets becomes the first line of the next sonnet. Thus the last sonnet entitled Ascension ends with what becomes the first words of the first sonnet, “Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.” In other words, the seven sonnets form a “crown of prayer and praise” based on the sequence of creedal and doctrinal moments in the life of Christ. The Ascension marks the beginning and the ending of a perfect circle, a redire ad principia, at once a going forth and a return to God.
Donne’s poetic achievement captures the significance doctrinally of the substantial moments in Christ’s life. The sonnet on the Ascension reflects on the mystery of the Ascension. What is that mystery? It is the homecoming of the Son to the Father in the Spirit having accomplished all that belongs to human redemption. “Salute the last and everlasting day” – such is the Ascension. We are opened out to the homeland of the spirit, our true homeland. The Ascension proclaims our spiritual identity and home; the truth of our humanity is found in God. This is the counter to our worldly preoccupations and yet provides us with the means to live in the world without being defined by its concerns and follies. Such is prayer.
The ancient fathers of the early Church speak of the Ascension as “the exaltation of our humanity.” We are lifted up in Christ’s being lifted up. “We ascend,” Augustine says, “in the ascension of our hearts.” Our humanity finds its truth in God. We participate in that homeland of the spirit here and now through prayer. Prayer signifies all the service that we ever do unto God. In prayer we are lifted up into the life of God. There we place our cares and concerns about others, about our world and day, especially in a world and day fraught with despair and destruction. We place these cares and concerns with God because of Christ’s Ascension.
There is “joy at the uprising of this sun, and son” because he has prepared a place for us. “Nor doth he by ascending, show alone,/ But first he, and he first enters the way.” Donne suggests something of the scriptural tenor of the Ascension as a kind of breaking into heaven. “O strong ram, which hast battered heaven for me” but then in almost complete contrast, Christ is also the “mild lamb, which with thy blood, hast marked the path”, the path for us to follow. The Ascension inspires us to prayer and praise. “Deign at my hands this crown of prayer and praise.” All because he was received up into heaven.
Fr. David Curry
Ascension Day, May 25th, 2017