On this Solemnity of the Ascension,

the Scriptures describe Jesus as being lifted up into the cloud.

We hear a lot about “the cloud” these days.

We can put our documents in the cloud.

Or we can keep our pictures in the cloud.

We can even put our music and books in the cloud.

It’s really convenient having our music or all of our books

at our fingertips.

But for many of us,

switching to the cloud can be a difficult transition.

We’ve probably got file cabinets

full of folders that contain important legal documents.

Maybe we have boxes of CDs, or cassette tapes, or even records.

We’ve also got shelves full of photo albums or cases full of books.

Putting items like these in the cloud is a bit scary

and hard to get used to.

Where do they all go? Are they secure?

Plus, we like the idea of having the concrete items to hold on to.

We like the way they feel and to see them organized on a shelf.

There’s a security in being able

to physically flip through an album of pictures

or hold a book in our hands

rather than looking at them on a tablet or e-reader.

The disciples are facing a similar problem in the first reading today.

As they were looking on,

Jesus “was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.”

Jesus has moved to “the cloud.”

He is no longer physically with his disciples on earth.

They stand there “looking intently at the sky” as he ascends to the cloud.

They would like him to stay on earth, in the flesh,

rather than vanish within the cloud.

Like those of us who would rather feel the pages of a paper book

or see our photos in a leather-bound album,

the disciples would rather be able to see Jesus,

to place a hand on his shoulder,

to speak directly to him.

And I suspect many of us feel the same way.

It’s hard to place our faith in a person we can’t see or hear or touch.

Maybe we would have liked it better if Jesus had not ascended,

but stayed on earth with us.

What if that would have happened instead?

What if Jesus had simply continued living on earth

for all these centuries?

Maybe he’d have continued living near Jerusalem

for a few decades more,

and then maybe he’d have gone on to Africa, or China.

After that he could have made his way through Russia

to Europe and then the Americas.

He could have traveled all over

and been seen by millions of people in the flesh.

But there would have been many more who could not have seen him.

Billions of people who lacked the money or the time

to travel to where Jesus was.

Even if Jesus was alive today

in this era of planes, trains, and automobiles,

even with Skype or FaceTime,

there would still be people who could not get to Jesus:

the poor, the homebound, those in war zones, or in prison.

And even if Jesus went to visit them, he couldn’t get to everybody.

And that’s where the cloud can help us understand.

When we keep our documents and photos and music and books

in the cloud,

they’re available to us everywhere:

on our desktop computers, our laptops, our tablets, our e-readers,

and even on our smart phones.

We can share them with others with the simple click of a button.

Though it seems like our documents, our pictures, our music, our books,

are nowhere,

they’re really everywhere.

In a similar way,

though it seems like Jesus is nowhere,

he is really everywhere.

All because he was lifted up to the cloud.

The cloud is an ancient image for the presence and glory of God.

For instance, when God called Moses up to Mt. Sinai

to receive the tablets of the law

a cloud covered the mountain for six days,