Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans

Description

Acts 1:9 (according to St. Luke’s Aramaic expression, abounding in Scriptural meaning):

… ועננא קבלתה …

… v e AN a Nâ (ועננא) Q a B a LT ā H (קבלתה) …

… and a cloud [= Hebrew ענן, reference to the cloud associated with the descend of the indwelling of the divine Presence and glory in the desert and in the Temple, lit. SHeKHiNaH , שכינה, from the root form of “dwelling,” “tabernacling”/שכן, see Exo 40:38, precisely combining the cloud over and the divine Presence in the tabernacle] received [= Hebrew קיבל = “transmitting the tradition” -> קבלה/QaBalaH , which primarily refers to both Mosaic tradition/pre-Catholicism and Apostolic tradition/Catholicism] Him …

As it is a glorious cloud (gloriosa), it is also a bright one (lucida), while also “taking Him out of their [and our] sight,” and thereby hiding Him (even though “ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus, usque ad consummationem saeculi”), cf. Psalm 97[Vul. 98]:2:

… עָנָן וַעֲרָפֶל סְבִיבָיו

Spiritus Sanctus sit semper vobiscum.