When the Lord ascends into heaven, it is as if some connection that previously existed were torn asunder. His life on earth among us sinners, his participation in the sinful world, has come to an end. This rupture at the Ascension is a symbol of absolution. We, too, who have been absolved, cease for a moment to be what we were; a connection is torn asunder, a world is left behind us, and our souls are freed, for a moment at least, for the ascent to God. The soul no longer knows itself, because the rupture between it and what was is now fully real, because what was once a physical reality interwoven with sinful significance has become unreal and ineffective.

We are free with a freedom whose source is the ascending Son.