And he dreamed and behold, there was a ladder set upon the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven…
Years ago, when we moved into our home, my boys delighted in discovering a hidden stairway. There was a trapdoor in the ceiling upstairs which could be pulled down to unfold a ladder leading to a small attic. Even though there was nothing remarkable up there, my boys didn’t mind; the mere idea of climbing those steps to explore a secret place upstairs excited them to no end. Indeed, stairways captivate any child’s imagination. They open up a pathway between two levels, two different realities.
Jacob’s Dream
Today’s Old Testament reading offers us the memorable story of Jacob’s dream, in which he beholds a stairway leading to heaven. Let us enter the scene for a moment: Jacob has fled home in order to escape the wrath of his brother Esau, and in the middle of the wilderness, he finds a place to sleep, using a stone as his pillow. It is during that slumber that he is given the luminous vision of a ladder reaching up to heaven, upon which he sees a throng of angels ascending and descending. When Jacob wakes from the vision, he realizes that God’s own presence has broken in upon him and exclaims: “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
The gift of this vision moves Jacob to reverence. He pours oil upon the stone and names the place Bethel, honoring it as a place of encounter with the Lord. Something remarkable has happened. Suddenly the life here on earth is blasted through with supernatural light, like a word that suddenly explodes with meaning. Why? Because God Himself has revealed a bridge, a divine stairway that would connect the life of man with the life of God.
Ascending and Descending
What strikes me as I reflect upon this vision of Jacob is the sense of movement and even power captured in the phrase, “ascending and descending.” The Lord’s relationship with His people is not a static thing but above all a dynamic, life-giving rhythm of movement between heaven and earth. We see this fulfilled in both the incarnation, passion, and death of Christ—God descending to us—and in the Resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit—the ascent. The Son of God comes down all the way to us, emptying Himself totally on the Cross, and then raises us up with Him to the heart of the Father. In a way, He has paved out the secret stairway back to the Father. Jesus Himself is the Way, the very ladder to heaven. In Him the worlds of heaven and earth meet.
Today, friends, I invite you to take to prayer this intriguing image of the angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth. Let us meditate upon this dual movement from one world to the other, and how we may enter more deeply into it. We live in the world, necessarily, but are called to share in the life of God, lived in “Spirit and truth.” And yet we do not remain there on the mountain but bring back to the world what we have received, the very gift and light of Christ. He calls us to participate in this movement of ascending and descending, between the life of the world and the life of the Spirit. How will you respond?
Wow, simply wow! What a beautiful reflection — not just in the imagery but in the way you wrote. I loved the way you connected Jesus with the ladder, uniting the supernatural world with the temporal world. Well done!