Following several of you expressing appreciation for the two posts on Easter's meaning last month, I've tried to gather my thoughts on the significance of Ascension Day. In the hope of reminding a few of you that it's more than just a welcome holiday off work to be spent lengthwise on the sofa with the sports on - and back to what it's actually about.
Because everyone knows the image of Jesus hanging and hovering there in the air, like a cross between Superman and Scotty being "beamed up" - but many of us don't really know what this extremely potent symbolism actually illustrates.
...
So.
Forget everything you think you know about religion, faith and God. Set it aside for a moment - and let us reason on a different premise.
Imagine it's a story.
A narrative about a hero who comes from the Light - descends into the Dark, where he's mutilated and struck down in the most horrific way - and who against all odds rises again.
To finally return home.
But not alone - because he opens a path we others can follow.
That's what Ascension Day is about.
Many will naturally ridicule it.
Dismiss it and snort about "a man who flies up into the sky" - while rolling their eyes and assuring that they certainly don't fall for that kind of old-fashioned superstition.
But they're missing something crucial.
That the story's value doesn't lie in the literal - but in the allegory, in the symbolism, in what it's trying to tell us. About ourselves.
Because the story of Christ's Ascension isn't fantasy. It's spiritual psychology disguised as narrative. Images of a reality inside you - that shape how you meet the world.
The story is about the moment when Man's true nature is revealed - and our highest calling becomes visible.
It's an archetype.
A pattern.
A model.
That we're meant to learn from.
The hero descends into the Dark.
Meets the Dragon.
Loses something.
Finds Truth.
Returns - and becomes King.
But ONLY because he first learned to serve.
First sacrifice.
Then transformation.
Then ascension.
But let's take it from the beginning…
Imagine you're born into a world where you've forgotten who you are. You live in the dust. Work. Struggle. Fail. Love. Lose.
But something in you knows there must be more than this. That YOU are more than this.
Ascension Day - today - is about reminding you of this 'more'.
That you're not just flesh, habits and accidents.
That you are Spirit. Light. That what is truly 'you' is formed in God's image.
Jesus' role in the story was to show us who we were - before we forgot it. To reveal the divine potential that still dwells in us.
And when he "ascended into heaven" - when he returned home - he opened a way.
Not out of the world - but into the reality 'behind the world'.
That's why what we call the Ascension isn't escape.
It's TRANSFORMATION.
A description of Man's inner journey back to God.
Because if we - just for a moment - reach beyond the Christianity you might have encountered in confirmation classes (we both know you weren't really listening anyway...) - then Christ isn't just a historical man.
He is Logos. The Word made living. Truth. Order. The direction. The way.
The eternal consciousness that has always been, always is - and always will be.
And he - meaning Logos - dwells in you.
Lives in you.
Works through you.
He goes first - through death.
Rises - to show it's possible.
And then he ascends.
Not to abandon us - but to lift us with him.
Not as a flock meant to obey.
But as awakened souls who begin to remember who they truly are.
(Read the last two passages symbolically, if it's too difficult to take in)
That's the mystery behind the Ascension.
That Man has fallen - yes. We've forgotten ourselves, lost the connection and sunk down into our lower instincts.
But we're not forgotten.
We come from the Light.
And there's now a way back.
Not just in the hereafter - but here and now, through your own life, your own choices, your own heart's journey.
Christ's ascension is an image of your own inner ascension.
From living as a victim - to taking responsibility.
From being trapped in fear - to standing in faith.
From letting yourself be governed by desire, doubt and survival -
to living according to the Highest principles, values and ideals - what you know is true.
So. What you need to understand is that He left the earth to send the Spirit - so we no longer had to search for God in temples and texts, but find Him in the innermost room in ourselves - there where the longing lives.
That's why the world feels wrong when you only live for the external.
Because 'something in you' longs for home.
And the Ascension is that homecoming call.
A resonance in you that keeps reminding you that you don't belong in the darkness.
A call to rise from habit's slumber.
To raise your gaze.
To make your life Holy. (That means: to take your life maximally seriously - and bring it into harmony with what you most deeply believe.)
Not by fleeing the world - but by transforming it.
By letting the Spirit flow through you, and making you a living temple.
Christ ascended - not to leave us behind.
But to take up dwelling in us.
So what does the Ascension mean - concretely?
It means the heavenly now exists here and now.
That you are the bridge between earth and heaven.
That your journey - your calling - is to become more and more Human, so you can grow in unity with the divine you're created in the image of -
and make it visible, living and active.
(Read that last one again - there's good depth and it took me FOREVER to formulate for myself...)
Not through power.
But through Truth.
Through Love.
By Living as He lived.
And ascending - one decision, one forgiveness, one sacrifice at a time.
He showed how.
He ascended.
Now it's your turn and mine.
.....
Something like that.
Hope it's useful for others besides myself.
I write it primarily for myself, but share it because my experience is that so much of the explanations of our culture and faith that lie right in front of us and that we all take part in are rarely explained particularly well - or at anything beyond second-rate level. And if that's the level - then we're certain both culture and faith will disappear, because nobody cares. Great Prayer Day, anyone? What's next...
