Homily for the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord #
Our Lord Jesus Christ, for forty days after His Resurrection, remained with His disciples, teaching them “the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven” and preparing them for the reception of Divine grace. For forty days we have glorified the Risen Christ, and today we glorify His Ascension— the completion of His earthly ministry. At the same time, this day marks His farewell to His disciples. Having loosed the bonds of death and risen from the dead, the Savior of the world, while remaining on earth those forty days, appeared to His disciples to confirm them in the truth of His glorious Resurrection.
The number forty itself is filled with deep significance. After His birth from the Virgin Mary, Christ, according to the Law, as the Firstborn, was brought by His parents to the temple on the fortieth day. Likewise, in His Resurrection from the dead— which may be called a second birth— He, after the course of forty days, ascends to the Heavenly Temple as the Savior of mankind, having become “the Firstborn from the dead” (1 Corinthians 15:20), offering Himself as a holy and spotless sacrifice. Parting from His disciples, He spoke to them in His farewell discourse: “Again I leave the world, and go unto the Father” (John 16:28). After the Resurrection, appearing to Mary Magdalene, He said: “I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God” (John 20:17).
The earthly labor of the Son of God had reached its fulfillment; He had completed the work entrusted to Him by the Heavenly Father. And now He must enter into His glory— the glory He had before the world was made. He had accomplished all that for which He had been sent by the Father. Having conquered death, the Risen Lord could no longer remain on earth, subject to corruption. Yet the Lord, who lovingly cared for His beloved disciples, during His appearances to them prior to His Ascension, continued to instruct them in the understanding of the Holy Scriptures and spoke to them concerning the Kingdom of God. He revealed to them His authority in heaven and on earth, and that they had been chosen to proclaim to all nations the glad tidings of the Resurrection, to forgive sins, to baptize, and to teach all that He had commanded. Christ was preparing the disciples for their great calling— the apostolic ministry— entrusting them with the continuation of His work.
During one of His appearances, the Lord commanded the disciples to gather in Jerusalem. When they were all assembled, the Lord appeared to them mysteriously. He explained why it had been necessary for Him to suffer and die for mankind, and He called them to preach. Thereafter, He consoled them in their sorrow at His departure with the promise of the Father— the gift of the Comforter, the Holy Ghost— and commanded them to remain in Jerusalem until they were endued with power from on high.
While speaking with His disciples, the Lord led them out of the city and went toward Bethany. There, upon the summit of the Mount of Olives, He halted, lifted up His hands, and blessed the apostles. Before the astonished gaze of the disciples, He began to ascend into heaven, rising higher and higher, growing distant from them. Suddenly, two radiant Angels appeared before them and said: “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven!” The Angels declared to the disciples that the Lord would return to the earth just as unexpectedly and gloriously as He had now departed.
After the Angels had spoken, the apostles bowed down in reverence before the Ascended Lord and, as it is written, “returned to Jerusalem with great joy,” and remained in the temple. They rejoiced in the glory of their Teacher, for in the Ascension they were finally convinced that He is indeed God— the Lord of heaven and earth. In His Ascension were revealed the triumph of God’s righteousness and the glory of Him who was once crucified, but who rose again and conquered evil and death— the Savior who destroyed hell and opened the gates of paradise.
Their joy was also in this: that the Lord had given them the promise that He would return again to the world in glory, just as He now ascended. That return will mark the end of human history— the consummation of the history of the world’s salvation.
The Mother of God also was a witness to the Ascension, as the Church service attests, and as is shown in the icon of the feast. The God-bearer, who suffered more than all in beholding the torment of her Son upon the Cross, now rejoiced more than all, beholding His glory.
The Ascension is not merely a remembrance of an event that occurred two thousand years ago. The Feast of the Ascension of the Lord bears meaning for people of all times and carries a profound dogmatic significance. Christ was both God and man, and by ascending into heaven and sitting at the right hand of God the Father, He raised our human nature to heaven. Man has become a partaker of the Divine dwelling-place, where our true life is. “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20), says the Apostle.
We Christians are members of His Body. If within us there is the light of His meekness, love, humility, and compassion toward others, then we are partakers of His life. The Church is the Body of Christ, and to the extent that we are united to the Church, we are already near to heaven, even while on earth. At His parting, the Lord instructed His disciples to remain in the temple, glorifying God, until they would be clothed with power from on high— that is, with the grace of the Holy Ghost. And if we also strive more often to be in the temple of God, lifting up our hearts on high, then we too shall be clothed with this Power. The Lord gave us His command: “Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.” And when we gather in the Church, the Lord is present among us in the celebration of the Mysteries. If, having received so many blessings from the Lord— who did not spare His own life for our salvation, who took upon Himself our infirmities and sins— we grow slothful in attending church, neglect repentance, and disregard the fasts, then this will show our indifference toward the Lord, a certain rejection of God.
The Lord commanded His disciples to remain united with one another, overshadowed them with the grace of the Holy Ghost, and bound them together with the bond of love. He preached peace to them. “Peace be unto you”—this was the greeting Jesus spoke when He came to His disciples after the Resurrection. He commanded that they preserve peace with God by faithfully keeping His commandments, and peace with one another, which is born of fulfilling the Gospel teachings. This command—to preserve peace—was given by the Lord to His disciples when He instructed His apostles: “And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house” (Luke 10:5).
According to the Divine and great design for the salvation of mankind, it was necessary that Christ should ascend in the very flesh which He took upon Himself at His Nativity. Becoming the Mediator between God and man, and ascending, He presented to the Father His sinless body, wounded for our sake. Christ brought His body to the Cross as a pure and blameless sacrifice, to propitiate the Father for our sins. The Prophet Isaiah says that Christ bore our infirmities upon His shoulders, and that by His wounds we are healed (Isaiah 53). The Risen Christ, appearing to His disciples, allowed them to touch His wounds, and invited the Apostle Thomas to probe the reality and depth of the wounds in His hands, His feet, and His side. And when He ascended to the Throne of Glory in heaven and sat at the right hand of God the Father, Christ still bore upon His human flesh the wounds inflicted by the sins of mankind—by the sins of each one of us. Even now, He bears until the end of the world all the sorrow of the earth, all the pain and horror of human transgressions. Christ did not cast these off at the Resurrection or the Ascension, but remains the Lamb of God, who offers Himself in sacrifice for the salvation of each one of us, from the foundation of the world until His Second Coming.
On the day of Pentecost, God the Father sends the Holy Ghost upon the entire Church, at the intercession of the Son, the Church that is called to be His Body. And we, though unworthy and sinful, partake of this inestimable gift because we belong to Christ, are joined to Him in a manner beyond comprehension, and are members of His Church. Christ said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” This He said, signifying by what manner of death He should die (John reading 42).
And though our Divine Father and Teacher has ascended from earth to heaven, yet He has not left us orphaned. Just as Elijah the Tishbite, when taken up in a fiery chariot, left his mantle behind to comfort his disciple Elisha, so too did the Lord, in order to comfort us, leave us the garment of His divinity— the Holy Ghost— and His Divine flesh in the Mystery of Holy Communion, that He might remain with us inseparably. Consoling His disciples, He said: “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20).
Therefore, as we prepare for the coming feast of Pentecost, we must with all the thirst of our feeble souls cry out to the Lord in prayer, that He would come and grant us the gift of the Holy Ghost. Let us reverently implore the Comforter in prayer: “Come and dwell within us!”— with all love for Him, with all humility, giving thanks to Him that we, who live in sin— we, the sinful and of little faith— are so greatly loved by Him. Let us give thanks to the Father, who sends down to us His promise— the Holy Ghost— and the unbreakable bond of love and peace.
Let us entreat our Lord Jesus Christ, that He who “ascended into heaven, from whence also He came down,” might not abandon us, but make us partakers of Divine grace: through the mystery of confession and the remission of sins, through communion of His Most Pure Body and Blood, and through the hope of always being sharers in His ineffable and unending glory, and beholders of His Divine Countenance!