The Ascension of the Lord and the Ascending Spirit of the Deceased in the Smoke out of the Crematorium's Smokeatack

Images play significant roles not only in human psychology but also in Catholic theology, as well as in many religious traditions, including Buddhism.

Today is the feast day of the Ascension of the Lord. This is the second glorious mystery in the Rosary, following the Resurrection of the Lord, preceding the Descent of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost).

Because religions are based on memories passed on throughout generations, it is about reminiscence (anamnesis/  ἀνάμνησις) of early religious and mystical experiences. So, on this feast day of the Ascension, we remember how Jesus ascended into heaven, as we always say in the Nicene Creed, through Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:1-11, which is the first reading for the Ascension Mass, regardless of the liturgical year.

In Acts 1:1-11, there is this image of the risen Jesus, being taken up into heaven, the whole body, immediately after giving his last instruction to the disciples and assuring them of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them.

Images often brings another images for associations.  It is to make sense and to discern meaning out of images in religious or theological concepts, such as what Luke 1:1-11 describes about the Ascension.

What an image of the Ascension from Luke 1:1-11 triggers out of my own personal memories is an image of the black smoke billowing out of a crematorium in my grandmother’s town in my childhood. And, the memory of my grandmother explaining to me that the smoke coming out of the crematorium’s tall smokestack means the spirit of the deceased person is rising into heaven, just as the smoke was rising. 

Whenever I imagine Jesus’s whole risen body being taken up into heaven, this image of the crematorium’s billowing black smoke comes back to the surface of my consciousness from my memory storage in the subconscious domain.  

I remember that day as if it were yesterday, when I asked my grandmother what the black smoke coming out of the tall smokestack next to a small building at the far corner of the cemetery. It was back in the 1970s, when we used to have crematoriums with tall smokestacks in Japan – though most crematoriums in Japan are “smokeless”: no tall smokestacks and no smokes.  This change is mainly due to environmental concerns, as many people in recent years have found tall smokestacks of crematoriums and smokes are eyesores, besides environmental concerns about the smoke.

 But, back in the 1970s, black smokes from tall smokestacks of crematoriums were common memories of attending funerals, as a funeral process in Japan continues all the way until picking up white dry bones in crematorium and placing the cremated remains at home upon returning from the crematorium.  Usually, during the first seven days of intense prayers, the cremated remains in the urn are placed at the mourners’ home.

As it says, the cremated remains are remains – just dry bone fragments. It has no spirit, as the spirit was released from the flesh of the corpse through the fire of cremation. Thus, the smokes from crematorium’s smokestacks  were believed to be the spirits of the deceased being released and rising into heaven, as my grandmother said to me.

Jesus did not ascend into heaven as smokes. He was not taken into heaven in smokes. He was not dead when his whole body was taken into heaven. He was alive, when he rose into heaven out of the sight of his disciples on the Mount of Olives, between Bethany and Jerusalem.

But, because I did not personally witnessed this event together with the disciples on the Mount of Olives in the Holy Land, about 2,000 years ago, while relying on the anamnesis passed on through the scripture narratives, such as Acts 1-11, I can only relate to this significant event with my personal relevant experiences, such as my memory of the rising smoke out of the crematorium and my grandmother explaining it as the spirit of the deceased rising into heaven.

Once again, I am reminded how personal life experience can affect the way we understand religious truth and how we appreciate images in religions and religious experiences. Not to mention, as our life is affected by culture, there are some cultural bearings to the way we make sense out of religious concepts and truths, including the Ascension of the Lord. In my case, it is my visual memory of the rising smoke out of the crematorium’s smokestack.

My grandmother’s explanation of the smoke as the rising spirit plays a very important role for me to associate the visual memory of the smoke out of the crematorium’s smokestack to the Ascension of the Lord.

When we die, it is our bodies – flesh – that die and disappear.  The essence of life, the spirit, is released from the bodies that no longer function. When our bodies stopped working, then, the spirit no longer need to be with the flesh. So, the spirit is totally free – as free as the air that fills the sky. And, it also becomes winds that blows.

So, now, the song, “I am a Thousand Winds” comes nicely in connecting my memory of the rising smoke from the crematorium’s tall smokestack and the feast of the Ascension of the Lord.

Don't stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am the sunlight on the ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain

I am a thousand winds
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint on snow
I am a thousand winds that blow

Don't stand at my grave and cry
I am not there, I did not die
I am the swift rush of birds in flight
Soft stars that shine at night

I am a thousand winds
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint on snow
I am a thousand winds that blow

Don't stand at my grave and weep
I am not there, I do not sleep
I am the sunlight on the ripened grain
I am the gentle autumn rain

I am a thousand winds
I am a thousand winds that blow
I am the diamond glint on snow
I am a thousand winds that blow

I am the diamond glint on snow
I am a thousand winds that blow

Though our remains, though they may become cremated remains or even completely integrated into the earth, will not be raised until Parousia, the spirits of the deceased continue to be around us, just as winds, which are movements of the air.

As the rising smokes from the crematorium’s smokestacks are becoming part of the air in the sky, we know that the spirits of the deceased as alive and well, as free as the air in the sky. And, they remind us that they are always with us, just as we cannot live without the air, as blowing winds.

The above song is based on Mary Frye’s 1932 poem, “Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep”.

Do not stand at my grave and weep

I am not there. I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow.

I am the diamond glints on the snow.

I am the sunlight on ripened grain.

I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush

I am the swift uplifting rush

Of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night.

Do not stand at my grave and cry;

I am not there. I did not die.

Let us remember those who have gone before us and now with us in the air we feel through winds and we breathe to sustain life on earth, as we remember the Ascension of the risen Lord.