Now, just a minute. This just plain is not true: “Whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” How many examples of honest-to-goodness requests – and good ones, not simply trying to win the lotto – do you want me to cite that were flat out turned down by God?
The key here is, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name.” To pray in Jesus' name doesn’t mean to invoke a magical formula (like “abracadabra” which was thought to be a secret formula to force the gods to do something.) Rather, it means to pray in union with Jesus.
If what I pray for is in tune with what will ultimately help bring about what is good for me and for all creation, it will always be granted…for these are requests that further God’s good work.
God wants what is good for me and for all creation. That is an absolute. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is quite clear on this: “What father among you would hand his son a snake when he asks for a fish…If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Now that deserves some conversation with the Lord.
The word “ascension” is used in two different senses:
(1) The Resurrection Ascension
At the moment Jesus was raised from the dead he went not back to earth, but to the Father. He ascended to the Father, and it is from there that he appeared to the disciples. (Just as his Resurrection was not witnessed by anyone, neither was this Ascension.)
(2) The End of the Special Appearances
Jesus, after his Resurrection/Ascension was no longer limited by time and space. He was and is present to his followers even more closely than before. In the days after his Resurrection/Ascension, Jesus manifested himself to the disciples at various times and places in an extraordinary, visible way.
At some point, these special appearances came to an end. Luke dramatizes the end of these extraordinary visible appearances by describing Christ visibly ascending to heaven.
Actually, Christians are used to connecting the Ascension with the Resurrection. The Nicene Creed says: “(He) suffered, died and was buried. On the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the Scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.”
In some diocese, the Feast of the Ascension is celebrated today.