As one has written just as the resurrection completes the crucifixion, the ascension completes the resurrection. Some maintain that Jesus returning to the Father is the most neglected doctrine of the Church and that we cannot understand Jesus apart from it. Perhaps we can best appreciate it by hearing how Peter sums it up in a sermon from the book of Acts, “This Jesus” proclaims Peter, “is exalted at the right hand of God.” We must remember that these early followers didn’t hang their heads low when Jesus left. They didn’t kick the can all the way back to Jerusalem. They didn’t say, “Well. That’s that.” No, Luke tells us: “And it came about that while he was blessing them, he parted from them, and they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple, praising God.”

Early church leaders taught that when we speak, we should do so only from silence. A person who hasn’t been quiet and still, will only speak from a noisy and busy heart. If a heart is noisy and busy, how and when is God able to give His wisdom? If we speak without such wisdom, we let loose an undisciplined, unfettered tongue that James calls “a restless evil full of deadly poison.” There was even a rule of thumb: if words are used to defend self or offend others, they don’t have their birth in stillness. Words that are used to restore and heal can only come from silence and then “much can be said without much being spoken.”