Collect for Ascension Day

Prayer book and Breviary
GRANT, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended 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.


Reflection
The Ascension of Our Lord is very revealing. Until we see the Lord ascend, there is no reason to suppose that He has descended. In rising again from the dead, He shows that it is possible for human beings to rise from the dead, and therefore, if he promises that we will rise again from the dead He has given us some physical handle to back up that promise.


But he ascends into Heaven. He shows that it is possible for a human being to ascend into Heaven and that gives a physical handle to back up the promise that we will see Him again in Heaven, or at least in an existence that transcends but does not obliterate our present existence. It also gives us a physical handle into the truth of His promise that He is God Himself, the Son of God, the Word Incarnate. We see proof that He is precisely Who He has always claimed to be. If He ascends, then He must have descended first. What comes down must go up!


In ascending, Our Lord pulls humanity up with Him, pulling its fabric up into the Godhead like a carpet. If our hearts and minds are with Him, then they will be lifted with Him into the Heavens. That is the promise that He gives us, and the promise that we seek in seeking God in Christ.