His Present Absence …
“the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.”
A veteran of the Armed Forces and New York native, Danny Hahlbohm is a self-taught but well-established producer of religious and inspiring paintings for a mass consumer audience. His Ascension meets the moment well: we see Christ going up, and the Spirit coming down, but the main thing we see is the clouds. Jesus has his back to us: he is ascending to our Father. We feel his absence and his occlusion. Light streaks outward from the gap in the heavens, but it is incidental to the composition of the piece: it neither illuminates, nor involves the viewer. There is just this gentle, neigh-photorealistic snapshot of a Jesus going away.
There is an additional, ironic layer to this image. As a painter of “consumer” images, Hahlbohm’s paintings have a certain ephemeral and “consumable” quality to them, lacking the distinctive presence and depth that attends classic and traditional art. Here is another tragic absence, but an absence in the midst of ubiquity.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
— Jesus Christ, the Son of God (John 17:24)
The Seventh Sunday of Easter (Sunday after Ascension)
Texts for Today
Prayer
O God, the King of glory, you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph to your kingdom in heaven: Do not leave us comfortless, but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us, and exalt us to that place where our Savior Christ has gone before; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, in glory everlasting.
Outbursts of Joy
Though the bulk of the pieces of Olivier Messiaen’s L’Ascension were originally scored for full orchestra, the solo organ adaptation has become a landmark of 20th C church music, and a staple of French organ performance pieces. Here is the movement written specifically for the organ arrangement: Transports de joie d'une âme devant la gloire du Christ qui est la sienne — Outbursts of joy from a soul before the glory of Christ which is its own glory.
The same organist — Richard McVeigh — did a live performance of the whole organ suite, with readings and reflections in French and English, which you can watch here.
