The Feet of the Ascension

"You too may wish to take hold of the feet of Jesus."

May 14, 2026

And they came up and took hold
of his feet
and worshiped him.
Matthew 28:9

Ascension is among the most quirky and delightful subjects for pious art, with a number of artists simply showing the feet of Jesus as the clouds take him away. This shifts the focus from Jesus to the observers, and thus to the viewer, drawing us into the experience of the Ascension in a way a full body figure wouldn’t quite do.

Feet had their own significance in the Gospel: at the last supper, with the woman who washed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair, in parables, in the nails that pierces him, and in the very idea of a peripatetic preacher whose feet carried him on dusty roads all across the land. By elevating them above the crowd, they give this humble part of the anatomy a devotional focus that is unique. The last part of Jesus to disappear from view are the very things to carry each of us across the land to spread the Gospel.

St. John Chrysostom:

Some among you may desire to be like these faithful women. You too may wish to take hold of the feet of Jesus. You can, even now. You can embrace not only his feet but also his hands and even his sacred head. You too can today receive these awesome mysteries with a pure conscience. You can embrace him not only in this life but also even more fully on that day when you shall see him coming with unspeakable glory, with a multitude of the angels. If you are so disposed, along with him, to be compassionate, you shall hear not only these words, “All hail!” but also those others: “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation of the world.”(Chrysostom, Homily on Matthew 89.3)

In most dioceses, at least in the US, Ascension Thursday is transferred to Sunday under the new calendar. This is grotesque, since it’s a fixed and certain time-period in scripture: “He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.” Thus: forty days after the Resurrection.

I was at a local Amish shop this weekend which noted it was Closed on Ascension Thursday. Yes, the Amish consider it a major holy day in which no work may be done, due to their roots in the Anabaptists. They consider it the final act of His earthly ministry, a completion of His work, and a promise of His return. Which it is.

Catholics used to understand that.