Reflection on the Word for the Sunday of May 29, 2022 ASCENSION IS FOR EVERYONE - ACTS 1:9-11 - 1:9 When he had said this, as they were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 1:10 While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. 1:11 They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven." ....................................................................................................... Ascension is for everyone. Heaven’s door is wide open. It is not really like that the Heaven’s door is specifically closed for specific people, though it just looks like that, that it is locked, however it is always open. The wicked are the ones, who reject Heaven and hate God. They are the ones who show their back to God, and they hate themselves as well, as they are allergic even to the thought of Heaven and godliness. Although it is unimaginable that murderers and thieves, cheaters, adulterers and idolaters might be admitted into Heaven, at least the application for the admittance is still a matter of a personal choice, as repentance also depends on the choices we make. Once upon a time, there lived a great sage in India, Vyasa, known as the “Splitter of the Vedas”, the divine teaching, which practically means that he was a great teacher. He is referred as the sage of assembling the text of the Mahabharata, one of the two great Hindu national epics written in Sanskrit around the events of the so called “Kurukshetra War” between to families, the Kauravas and the Pandavas. At 100,000 verses, the Mahābhārata is the longest epic poem ever written in the known human history. At about 1.8 million words in total, the Mahābhārata is roughly ten times the length of the Iliad and the Odyssey combined, written by Homer. The other epic, titled the Ramayana, encompasses around 24,000 verses. The Mahabharata also contains the Baghavad Ghita, one of the most sacred texts in Hinduism, which is practically a conversation between the Pandava prince Arjuna and his guide and charioteer Krishna about life and death, the warrior’s duty and fate in general, meanwhile also questioning the morality of war. The war ended with the victory of the Pandavas. On the advice of the sage, Vyasa, years after their victory the Pandavas decided to renounce their kingdom, and seeking for redemption after a bloody and internecine war. They set on a journey and headed to the Himalayas. They were lead by Yudhishthira,the righteous king of the Pandavas, accompanied by his brothers. During the journey a dog befriended them. On their path, the mountainous terrain kept increasing in height, decreasing in Oxygen level, and the travelers began to die one by one from physical exhaustion, but Yudhisthira was given also heavenly explanation, that this one died because of personal obsession, the other one because of pride, another one because of gluttony, an other one because of his narcissism. This view is even Biblical, where the Bible says that the ultimate cause of death and even aging is our sins and our weaknesses. Finally everyone died, except the king and the dog. The king did not even look back, perseveringly just kept going, undeterred by the loss of his friends, relatives and dear ones. He and the dog reached the border separating Earth from Heaven, and at the great boundary, Indra, the very King of the Gods descended in his chariot, asking Yudhishthira to board his chariot, so they could ascend to heaven together. But Yudhishthira rejected the offer by saying that he is not intending to go to Heaven without his loved ones. The Father of the Gods, Indra told him, that all the people he lost on this journey, they had been already admitted into Heaven, after they died on roadside. The small flaws they had in their characters were wiped away by the death event, and they ended up in Heaven. Maybe it is not needless to say that there is no short-cut here, because if someone hurt oneself to get faster to Heaven, his action is counter-productive, because even self-hurt is still damage causing or even murder, which can thwart one to get to Heaven. Good people die and they reach Heaven after death. Nonetheless, it is very rare, that someone is offered to get to Heaven without dying. These rare people are flawless, like Yudhisthira, according to the Mahabharata epic, or like Enokh and Elijah in the Bible. Although, he was advised that all his loved ones had been already in Heaven, he also demanded that the dog, who befriended him on the journey, must come with him together. However, the Father of the Gods told him that it is impossible for the dog to ride the chariot. Yudhisthira insisted, but Indra did not yield. Yudhisthira did not back off, neither Indra yielded. Finally, Yudhisthira declared, that if the dog is not allowed to accompany him, he, himself is not going to Heaven. Abandoning the dog, would be a sin, and he is committed to avoid sin, even if it means to give up the final reward of a righteous life, which is Heaven. According to the Mahabharata epic, the dog was the God of the Truth in disguise, thus finally Yudhisthira got into the chariot and ascended into Heaven. Interestingly, the Old Testament mentions this chariot, explicitly in the Book of Ezekiel, and a whole compartment of the Jewish mysticism is called the Chariot teaching or the so called Merkabah mysticism came around, where the aimed the path, how to ascend to Heaven. According to all traditions on Earth, including the Bible, ascending to Heaven without seeing death is a God provided opportunity to humans. For God, there is no need for ascension to Heaven, because God is already in Heaven, or more exactly, Heaven is there, where God is, like everywhere, but that is a subject of an other essay. Needless to say, that God never dies, so for God there is no extra reward in reaching Heaven without death. According to the Bible this opportunity is offered to humans, albeit it occurs rarely, but we can not say, never. On the life journey most of us fall, because of our weaknesses and hopefully little flaws, however in the Gospel of Matthew Jesus himself told it to the disciples that “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” As his disciples we can not aim less, especially as this bidding of him practically a commandment we used to overlook as impossible. However, when he calls us to follow him, he said that miracles will just begin to happen, as it is written in the Gospel of Mark that “These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." The Gospel than continues that “So then the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed.” The disciples were the witnesses that all of these really happened, and that the gate of the Heavens are open to everyone. May the Lord open our hearts too to hearken the Word of the Lord, to be empowered to put aside all of our desires and earthly vanities, in order to follow Jesus on the narrow road, which leads to Heaven, in this life and in the Afterlife, now and always, AMEN. https://korakowa.blogspot.com/p/sunday-sermons.html
