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May 20, 2004
Ascension Day
The Gospel of St Luke, Chapter 24 verse 51 says, "While He was blessing them, He left them, and was taken up into heaven."
So Luke records the last time Jesus appeared to His disciples after His crucifixion and resurrection. It is a strange way to put it and suggests that the ascension as we now call it, was less dramatic and more a sort of "fade out", perhaps a transfer from one state of being to another, or even the full affirmation of the new state of being.
I find it personally difficult to subscribe to such fundamentalist concepts as "the Rapture" and a Heaven filled with waving grass, houses (or mansions), fountains, floating angels strumming harps, and the rest. I am not certain what heaven is like - nor can I be until I, hopefully, get translated to that state of being where I am able to enter it. Of one thing I am certain, I do not think it is so much a place in finite terms but rather a totally different "state".
Today we mark Christ's going ahead of us into that state and must rely on His promise that we, too, will one day follow.
May peace and joy be with you all.
Posted by The Gray Monk at May 20, 2004 02:11 PM
Comments
My thought is that only a spark within us is real, and that that spark is divine. It is the original spark of god which became seperate from Him, and on our physical death, it returns to the unity of god. So we cease to exist in the separated form, and become part of the divine.
Posted by: harryj at May 20, 2004 03:46 PM
However we perceive it Harry, it is that part of us which is destined for glory and the "immortal" life that lies ahead. It is for that we hope and trust in God.
Posted by: The Gray Monk at May 21, 2004 08:47 AM