Слово на Вознесение Господа нашего Иисуса Христа. Святого Прокла, архиепископа Константинопольского

Blessed be God! The created nature is divided into heaven and earth, but the grace that has now united their division does not allow me to see the division. In fact, who can tell me that heaven is different from earthly things, when my image reigns both above and below?.. However, below we are still enslaved to corruption and, languishing in our graves, we give the devil a chance to rejoice; when he looks at heaven, he puts aside joy, seeing above the root that gives resurrection to the dead below - seeing that the One who was betrayed by him on earth to the cross, being clothed in our body, remains in heaven. At the sight of this, the devil is overcome with fear, not understanding the power of economy. Oh, gain born for us out of loss! We gained heaven by losing paradise. Cast down to the abyss of hell, after the fall we ascended to heaven; wounded inside paradise, we found the help of the enemy outside it; slain near the tree of life, we were healed near the tree of Christ's murder; shipwrecked in the pier, we came to life in the waves of the sea. Where is your crime, tyrant? That cross that you erected for the Helmsman was salvation for drowned nature and led it to the heavenly harbors, freeing the earth from the sorrow into which it (the earth) was immersed before the ascension of the Lord, mourning its bodies. For just as the heavens tell the glory of God with their structure, glorifying the wisdom (of the Creator): likewise the earth cries with its sufferings, as if with voices, for for it there was no peace from misfortunes. She buried the one wounded by the serpent and, while she was still mourning him, she felt sorrow for Abel; when she mourned Abel, she saw another murder (committed) by Lamech (Gen. 4:23); when she mourned this murder, a global flood occurs (Gen. 7:23); then she loses her children to the Sodomites (Gen. 19:28); then he grows old under other misfortunes. As the beginning of consolation, the earth received God born of the Virgin: when He (the Lord) appeared, the earth saw the promised Savior; at His cradle the angels sang songs, He commands hell, the Father testifies about Him, the Holy Spirit descends on Him in the form of a dove; and one could see a wondrous miracle - the Lord being baptized according to the flesh in the Jordan by a slave. However, glory turned to sorrow when the earth saw the crucified Benefactor, saw the mortified joy, saw the source of joy lying in the tomb... The sun felt compassion for the misfortunes of the earth, the sky began to mourn with it and, taking off its shiny clothes, clothed itself, as in sackcloth, in darkness. But now the earth, stricken by such misfortunes, suppressed by unbearable sorrow, suddenly sees that the second Adam, the infinite Light of glory, the Giver of inalienable and unspeakable joy, has risen from hell - sees that He inscribes the tablets of immortality, preaches the gospel to the disciples, accepts worship as the Lord, ascends on a cloud from Mount Mount, comes with glory through the air, accompanied by angelic ranks. Some of them hastened to announce to the gatekeepers of heaven the entry of the All-King Christ, others rushed with fear on both sides of Him, others rejoiced with hymns in His face, others glorified Him with other songs; meanwhile He passed through the ethereal chamber: the Creator of heaven, as if through air, walked through the sky, receiving worship from every order of angels, and leaving behind the reverent armies. The disciples saw with their own eyes that He was ascending into heaven - not as if (as if) into heaven, but into heaven itself; and just as the gaze of the apostles from the earth was fixed on heaven, when the flesh (of Christ) little by little ascended upward: so the disembodied Powers in heaven with amazement shifted their gaze from heaven to heaven, when this corporeal nature before them ascended higher and higher, until He who had never been separated from the Father was received into the bosom of the Father. Sing again, O earth, sing a song instead of a sob! That nature for which you grieved has ascended to heaven—your kinship has moved to heaven. Look at the air that is now under Adam's feet - look at the sky that is open to your (children); If your eye cannot bear the sight of Christ's entry, then listen to how the angels herald His return. This, - they say, - Jesus ascended from you into heaven (and what is the benefit for people from the taking of Jesus - from this sight, which eyes will never see again?... Yes, - say the angels, - for He) will come in the same way, in the same way you saw Him going to heaven (Acts 1:11). So, the good hope of people is immutable: they have acquired a relative of the King in heaven, who will again appear to them in glory. Let us, believers in Christ, pray with hope (being established in this heavenly hope, we will rejoice). Let us do what pleases God, proving that we are grateful for salvation. As those who have received a blessing, let us correct our lives. Like fellow angels, let us renounce carnal lusts. As the church of God and members of sanctified humanity, let us perform holiness. Let us keep peace with God, who, instead of execution, gave us the kingdom and doubled the words of the Prophet. And truly, the Prophet cried out: heaven is the heaven of the Lord, but the earth has been given to the sons of men (Ps. 113:24); Now (the Lord) has given the earth to man and the heavens to man. Therefore, the Holy Spirit speaks through the Prophet: clasp your hands, all the nations. Why? - like the Lord is on High, awesome, great King in all the earth (Ps. 46:2). And again: God arose with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet (Ps. 46:6). This voice was the heavenly Powers, which cried out: holy, holy, holy, confessing the one Lord with three doxologies. To him be glory and power with the Holy Father and the Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages. Amen 91. Curs. Compl. Patrolog. edit. Migne, Tom. LXV, col. 833–838. 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