Слово на Вознесение Господа нашего Иисуса Христа. Блаженного Диадоха, епископа Фотики Эпирской (V в.)

Now come the Jewish priests to me: for this is the time of victorious words; here - and you, messenger of Christ, speak and paint powerfully with your truthfulness, how they paid the soldiers the silver of their malice, thinking to cover up the vast truth with lies; but how now we meet the Lord, who on the third day rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, constantly boasting of that Savior, Whom the heavens received in a magnificent miracle that appeared before us, and the earth, as being held by His will, was unable to hold. That Savior, Whom was clearly lifted up by a bright cloud, fulfilling the image of the prophecy, and the angels accompanied them with hymns to the thrones of their fathers, crying incessantly: The Lord of hosts, He is the king of glory (Ps. 23:10), - Whose return from earth to heaven the Psalmist, foreseeing in the Holy Spirit, sang: God is gone with a shout, the Lord with a sound of a trumpet (Ps. 46:6): for the Divine also foresaw the singing of the holy Gospels. But those who are proud of their believing father, Abraham, do not want the Savior of us all to rise from the dead, thinking, pathetic, with unfounded rumors to daily stain the beauty of such a great truth (for this word has rushed through the Jews even to this day. Matt. 28:15), which even the demons recognized, and those who claimed to have accepted the commandments of God do not even dare to honor (it) with a word, although the Prophet himself says: O Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Thy name in all the earth: for Thy splendor is taken above the heavens: ascend into heaven, O God, and Thy glory is throughout all the earth (Ps. 8:2; 56:6). But the evil sophists are not able to pervert this, even if in their wisdom they even reached the lies of their father (John 8:44): for he who was lifted up and ascended above the heavens is truly the Lord, because, having first descended to earth, He ascended to heaven. That is why the Prophet proclaimed in another place, saying: Lord, bow the heavens, and come down, touch the mountains, and they will rise: flash lightning and make me wife (Ps. 143: 5, 6). He said this, foretelling to those still sitting under the shadow of death the crushing of the forces of hell; and that it has been carried out since the time of the burial and resurrection of the Lord - we are assured of this by many things. Why does the Psalmist say in another place: You ascended on high and took captivity captive, and gave gifts to man (Eph. 4:8; Ps. 67:19). For the Only Begotten Son of God, having by His resurrection rescued humanity from the captivity of death and ascended above heaven, prepared weapons for those who desire righteousness (since He is the King of glory), daily strengthening with rational armor those recruited by Him with the seal of humility (for, truly, the seal of piety is humility). We, brethren, will again philosophize about the sayings of the Psalmist, so that we may again see with the eyes of the mind the Lord who ascended on a cloud to heaven. This word prompts me to remain silent for now about the testimony of the apostles, so that I would not appear to the foolish as defending myself, while every apostolic word is testified by prophetic truth: since their words are known by the generation of prophetic utterances. After all, what the prophets hinted at in the foreknowledge of the Lord’s incarnation, the same thing the apostles, inspired by the same Holy Spirit, made clear by knowledge. At some time, - it is written, - when you come near in the summer, you will be known: when the time has come, you will appear (Hab. 3:2). Therefore, let us say again: Lord our Lord, how wonderful is Your name in all the earth: how Your splendor is taken above the heavens (Ps. 8:2), so that we clearly know that the incarnation of the Lord and His return from earth to heaven, the memory of which we celebrate today, filled the world with the knowledge of God. For while He was on earth, many thought little of the greatness of His glory; but after He clearly ascended into heaven, having fulfilled, as was fitting, all the will of the Father, the whole creation was filled with knowledge and wonder, beholding the Lord of all ascending, that is, being lifted up. They are taken up, that is, he was exalted above all the heavens, according to prophecy, as a man; He has come forth as God: for, it is said, God has come forth with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet (Ps. 47:6). The Prophet would not have used these words if, with the eyes of foreknowledge, he had not unmistakably foreseen His descent. How could he say consistently: ascend into heaven, God, and throughout all the earth your glory? Or again: God ascended with an exclamation, if by the foreknowledge of the Spirit the theologian had not contemplated both His descent and ascension? Therefore, in one place he calls Christ ascended, and in another - ascended, so that we may believe that the Lord is God and man in one Hypostasis: He ascended according to Divinity, it is said; but He was taken up according to the body, that is, He was lifted up. Therefore, from everything we must understand that he who descended is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, that he may fulfill all things (Eph. 4:10), by His goodness and the descent of the Holy Spirit, having first freed the apostles from sinful passions, and finally exalted (them). For what did He say? - Ascend into heaven, O God, and Thy glory throughout all the earth, for let Thy loves be delivered (Ps. 107:7), those who have truly shared His suffering in everything and have become witnesses and messengers of His greatness are primarily His beloved. Consequently, the prophets proclaimed one and the same Lord, but they did not merge the image of His incarnation into one nature. They chose divinely the words relating to the Divinity, but those relating to the body - manifoldly, in order to teach clearly that the Lord who ascended, that is, ascended into heaven, essentially has his being from the Father, and that which came from the Virgin remains a man, being one in appearance and one in Hypostasis: for the incorporeal, having given Himself a form by taking on the flesh, clearly therefore ascended to where it was invisible descended and incarnated. Therefore, the Lord ascended in glory, and they believed in Him with power (1 Tim. 3:16), and they are expected in fear, because at His return He will again have a prophetic cloud as a servant (for the prophets predicted that even then the cloud would be in His service, so that a certain corporeal and light essence would appear again holding the Lord). Christ holds everything by His will, like God, and He will hold it with a cloud, like man, so that He, the soul-loving One, would not renounce even then the laws of nature, which He had assumed. Therefore, the Divine Paul also taught us that the saints also will be caught up in the clouds (1 Thessalonians 4:17), when the Lord, who is awaited to come, comes: since that which befits God incarnate in body, these also are those who have become gods according to the riches of His grace (since God is pleased to make men gods). Therefore, let no one think, brethren, that the density of human nature, of which the Word of God has essentially been implicated, has been changed by the radiances of His Divine essence: for the Glorious One was incarnated not in order to show His ghost, but in order by His communication to finally destroy the habit implanted by the serpent in human nature. Consequently, skill, and not nature, changed the embodiment of glory, so that we would put off the remembrance of evil, but would be clothed with the love of God, not changing into what we were not, but through the change being renewed with glory into what we were. So, glory and power to Him, who descended from heaven invisibly, and ascended into heaven visibly, existing before the ages, now and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen 227. See Study by K. D. Popov: “Blessed Diadochos (V–ro centuries), Bishop of Photiki of Ancient Epirus and his creations.” Volume one. Kyiv. 1903, pp. 557–569. You might be interested in: