Ascension Day

Ascension Day
May 29, 2025
 
Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that since we do believe
thy only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Chrsit, to have ascendended
into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend,
and with Him continually dwell,
who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost,
one God, world without end. Amen. (Collect, Ascension Day)
 
        
Today we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The imagery is, of course, that of rising back and returning to God the Father. Christians believe that Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, came from the Father and now goes back to the place of His origin. So, the Word, the Logos, having been made flesh, made man, now unites Himself with the incorruptible, perfect, and simple origin of His meaning and mission for us. What has come from God, for us men and for our salvation, now unites Himself with the source of our redemption and salvation. Thus, today, we must study Christ’s return to God, His call for us to follow Him, and the character of soul that will ensure our eventual home with Him in Heaven.
        
Christ’s return to God is the reconciliation of His person with the Godhead. His person, in time and space, was, of course, human, and so with Christ’s ascension we celebrate the return of glorified man to the Father. What we believe in the Ascension is that there is a return of man to God, in Jesus Christ. What this means is that man’s nature has been rendered complete in Jesus Christ. Being made complete means that man is once again made whole and one with the Creator. And this healthy restoration means that man once again can live in the presence of God the Father forever, not limited to the conditions of the creation, but with the Creator in Heaven. That the Ascension, in literal terms, is the God/Man’s reconciliation with Heaven, gives our minds an image of Christ’s return to what is above, superior, greater, better, and most perfect. The outward and visible Ascension of Christ draws our minds to what signifies perfection, to the grand expanse of the universe above our heads and into vast heavenly galaxies, and then beyond that into Heaven itself.
        
But the significance of the Ascension is found in Christ’s intention for us. His Ascension is not the record of a selfish Son of God returning to the state of His own primordial Goodness alone. Christ calls us to follow Him. The Nature of God is that perfect love that longs eternally for his creatures to be one with Himself, in knowledge through His love. Christ Himself had promised the Apostles and Disciples that His most holy Incarnation, His being made man, was for the express purpose of sharing the blessings and benefits of His life and death with those who would believe and follow Him. Having been crucified by man’s sin, Christ returned in Easter Tide’s Resurrection to reveal His victory over sin, death, and Satan. Rather than expecting his followers to honor a dead hero, Christ invited his followers to enter into the new life that He had won for them. At this time, to his Apostles, Christ

shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
 
The Apostles were eyewitnesses of Christ’s Resurrection from the dead. To them, Christ promised the coming of the Holy Ghost, that they might share in His risen life. And to ensure that they might partake of the merits and blessings of His Resurrection, Christ would have to leave them. From Heaven, with the Father, Christ’s Incarnation would expand and grow in the hearts of all men who would believe and allow His union with God to change, transform, and perfect their lives for a future with Him in the Kingdom. Christ was then calling them, and men in all ages, to prepare for the coming of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. He was inviting them in heart and mind to thither ascend, to follow Him in His Ascension back to the Father. By ascending back to the Father, as St. Leo reminds us, Christ was not abandoning us but providing us with a more universal and sacramental presence. (De Resurr. Sermon II). In His Ascension, Christ is no longer demanding His physical presence in time and space for comfort, relief, and happiness. Rather, in His Ascension, Christ now will be present to us inwardly and spiritually, in heart and mind, in as many places as there are believers in the world. Rather than limiting Himself to ancient Palestine, two thousand years ago, now Christ promises to be present to all believers in all places until His coming again. But what is key, is that He will be present only in hearts and minds that thither ascend, rising up and into the presence of His union with our Father in Heaven. With willing desire and strong belief, you and I are invited to ascend into the presence of God the Father, through Jesus Christ our Lord, by the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. Again with St. Leo, Christ ascended that faith might be more excellent and stronger, sight gave way to doctrine, the authority of which was to be accepted by believing hearts enlightened with rays from above. (idem) True faith in Christ was to be perfected not by the outward and visible presence of Christ the God/Man but by His inward and invisible presence in the soul.
        
But lest we mistakenly believe that our belief in the Ascension is solely about Christ in Himself and for Himself, our Collect reminds us that the end of the Ascension is that we should with Him continually dwell. The Ascension reveals to us Christ’s sovereignty over all human life, which he now returns to the Father. He returns it to the Father so that we might embrace His power over sin, death, and Satan in our lives for as long as we live. Redemption and salvation are habits of soul which can be perfected in us, here and now, if we dwell in Christ. Belief in the ascended Christ will be followed by signs and confirmations of our dwelling in Him. In today’s Gospel, Christ promises that

In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. (St. Mark xvi, 17, 18)
 
If we continually dwell with Christ, His Grace shall enable us to slay all our devils, speak with new tongues in a new language about His wisdom, power, and love alive in us, destroy the attacks of any serpentine generation of vipers, and if we drink any deadly poison, our faith shall remain strong and secure.  
        
My friends, Ascension Day exhorts us to ascend and dwell with Christ who pleads our cause at the right hand of the Father. St. Paul asks, If God be for us, who can be against us? (Romans viii. 31) In Christ, we find the love of God made flesh, the love of God who died for us, slayed sin, made death into the seed bed of new life, and put the devil in his place. In Christ we find the love of God as man returned to God to prepare a place for us. In Christ we find the love of God still with us and for us in the coming of the Holy Ghost. If we continually dwell with Christ, He will repair and redeem us for salvation and ultimate union with the Father. And then, also with St. Paul, we shall believe and know that

neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (ibid, 38, 39)
 
Amen.
©wjsmartin
        
        

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