26. Слово на Вознесение Господне (радость Церкви, празднующей Вознесение Господне, которое есть величайшее Его прославление. Что значит Вознесение Господа для мира видимого и невидимого?)

“And they” (the Apostles) “worshiped Him” (the Ascended Lord) “and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” Lk. 24, 52 Parting with those whom we sincerely love, we cannot help but grieve, we cannot help but feel sadness, and the apostles, from the Mount of Olives, where they were separated from the Lord, returned with great joy. The Beloved Teacher, Who alone revealed to them all truth and dispelled the darkness of doubt that sometimes fell on their souls, leaves them as if to themselves, and they rejoice; their only Patron and Defender leaves them among the Jews, a people hostile to Christ and everything of Christ, and they rejoice; Christ the Lord, from conversation with whom their hearts were filled with living joy, leaves them in a world full of displeasure, sorrows, all kinds of disasters, and they rejoice. An incomprehensible feeling! And we will not understand it, brothers, if we look at the apostles as simple people and talk about them like human beings. Before the Resurrection of the Lord, when they were closer to us in thoughts and feelings, and their heart, like ours, was filled with sorrow when the Lord told them that He wanted to leave them; but now, when the risen Lord spoke to them for forty days about the establishment of His Kingdom on earth, when the breath of His communicated Spirit purified and enlightened their thoughts and feelings and, perhaps, primarily revealed to them the mystery of the Ascension of the Lord - now they no longer understood the Ascension of Christ in the flesh and therefore could not harbor sorrowful feelings of separation similar to ours, now they themselves clearly understood that it was better to eat, may the Lord depart from them. The confidence that high blessings were associated with the Ascension of the Lord not only drove out every shadow of sadness from their souls, but, on the contrary, filled them with great and inexplicable joy. In our time, brothers, there is no need to reveal the lofty fruits of the Ascension of Christ for the purpose of satisfying the sadness of the Lord’s abandonment of the earth, sadness that can darken the brightness of the present triumph. The holy joy of the Apostles in the Ascension of the Lord was inherited by the Church and is now heard in songs of praise to the Ascended One. But nevertheless, we must know the power of the Ascension of the Lord, nevertheless we are obliged to reverently delve into its mystery and significance in the dispensation of our salvation in order to elevate and inspire, and perhaps arouse, a feeling of unfeigned joy with which the Holy Church triumphs in the Ascension of the Lord. Let me occupy your pious attention at this time with reflection on this sublime sign and power of the Ascension. What does Ascension mean for the ascended Savior Himself? For the Savior Himself, the Ascension is, according to the teaching of the Fathers of the Church, his highest glorification and endowment with Royal Divine power. There is the highest glorification. – Our Lord Jesus Christ is the God-man – perfect God and perfect man. The perfect man is in himself high and glorious; How much must he become higher and more glorious when God is clothed in his nature and united with him in an internal union? – Here his creative glory rises to the Creative, Divine glory. So the Lord Savior, by his nature, should always be clothed with unfading glory and endless greatness. But since the “principal of salvation” of ours, according to the incomprehensible Council of God, “had to be made to suffer” (Heb. 2:10), then the Lord hid for a time his Divine glory in deep obscurity, his Godhead in humiliated humanity, his dominion in the humble form of a servant, in a word, he diminished himself in everything, so that in an unglorious form he would go through the torment of the crucifixion. Now that the cross has already been raised, when the diseases on it have healed the ulcers of humanity, the punishment has been removed from our world, death has been trampled upon, hell has been abolished - now what could prevent the Lord from being clothed with the glory that He had with the Father, before the world did not exist? Humiliation has served its purpose—why remain in it any longer? - The Name of God has been revealed - it remained, according to the law of God’s Truth, to glorify the One by whom it was revealed. – And now “we see Jesus crowned with glory and honor for accepting death” (Heb. 2:9). “God has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name above every name” (Phil. 2:9)... “having seated Him at His right hand in those who are in heaven, above all principality and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the one to come” (Eph. 1:21-22). In the Ascension, the Savior was clothed with Royal, Divine authority and power. The Kingdom of God, founded by the Savior on earth, was still as small as a mustard seed. It was necessary to spread it to all ends of the earth, to decorate and exalt it according to its dignity, to strengthen and protect it against everything hostile to it, to arrange it and manage it until the fulfillment of everything predetermined in the Eternal Council of God about this Kingdom. But for this, its Founder and Founder must have power not only over the human race, of which this Kingdom consists, but also over the Angels, in order to send them to serve those who want to inherit salvation; over evil spirits, to protect people from their deceit, malice and violence, over nature, so that its flow can be directed to the conversion, strengthening and glorification of the sons of the Kingdom, - in general, over the whole world, so that its things can be given such a course that people could easily come to Him, and through Him to God, and so that, thus, the Kingdom of God would grow, strengthen and glorify. Therefore, the ascended Lord, sitting at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty, assumed “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:19). God anointed Him “to be King” (Apoc. 19:16), “subject all things under His nose” (Eph. 1:22), and bowed before Him “every knee of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth” (Phil. 2:10), so that nothing remained unsubdued to Him, “except Him who put all things under Him” (1 Cor. 15:27). By this royal power, by this wise preservation of the Church and its direction to its destined glory, the Lord always abides in it and will abide all the days - until the years of the dispensation of all (Eph. 1:10). “When at last all things are submitted to Him, then He Himself will submit all things to Him who submits all things, so that God may have all things in all” (1 Cor. 15:28). What does the Ascension of the Lord mean for the whole world, visible and invisible? We could not have even thought about the significance of the Ascension of the Lord in this vast respect with our weak, abbreviated and half-bowed thoughts, if the Apostle Paul had not guided us on this path of reverent contemplation of the glory of the Ascension Lord, who, having the mind of Christ, measured the entire depth, height and breadth of the power of the Ascension of Christ. “He who came down,” he says, “is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, that all things may be fulfilled” (Eph. 4:10)... “for in Him He (the Father) was pleased that all fulfillment should dwell, and thereby to reconcile all things within Himself, having pacified through the blood of His cross, through Him, whether things are on earth or in heaven” (Col. 1:19-20), - deign to “preside over all things in Christ, both in heaven and on earth in Him” (Eph. 1:10). That is, according to the teachings of the Apostle, with His Ascension the Lord filled the universe and headed in Himself everything that is in heaven and that is on earth. This teaching is lofty and mysterious. Only one who has a mind similar to the mind of the Apostle Paul can understand it completely and explain it. For our part, we only dare to add the following thoughts, with which we think to get at least somewhat closer to the Divine Apostolic teaching. Nature represents an unbroken chain of beings, which begins with the lower classes and extends to the very Kingdom of pure spirits. The integrity of this chain, and consequently the integrity of all nature, requires that each class of beings live and act in accordance with its place - its nature and its purpose. For only in this case can its harmonious order remain inviolable. When man fell, became criminal, began to live differently from how man should have lived, and therefore moved out, so to speak, from his place where the wise right hand of the Creator had placed him, then the orderly order of nature was disrupted, one link from the continuous chain of its beings fell out, and a certain emptiness opened up in the universe. The Son of God came down from heaven, took on man, descended to the depths of his fall, cleansed him, sanctified him, and in Himself elevated him to the rank in which he stood and in which he should stand by his nature. By this action of the infinite goodness of God, the fall, the emptiness that had opened in the universe was again filled, its disrupted order was restored, the broken chain was again reunited. The Apostle reveals this hidden power of the Ascension when he says: “He who descended, He who also ascended above all the heavens, may He fulfill all things, for in Him He willed (the Father) for all fulfillment to dwell.” What does the Ascension of the Lord mean, finally, for the human race—for ourselves, brothers? For us, the Ascension of the Lord is everything. In it is our glory and greatness, in it is the undoubted hope of salvation, from it we receive Divine strength for life and piety, it is the stronghold of our hope. The Lord Jesus Christ is our Lord. Therefore, all the power, all the fruit of His Ascension belongs to us. “Having ascended on high, He took captivity captive and gave gifts” primarily to us, “man” (Eph. 4:8). The glory of the Ascension of the Lord is our glory. The Ascended Lord accepted Divine honor and glory without a doubt over humanity, for His Divinity always shone with unchanging Divine glory. But for whom did He perceive this humanity, if not for us? – For us He was born, for us He suffered, for us He rose and ascended. In Him we were born to new life, in Him we suffered, in Him we were resurrected, ascended into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. It is us, the Apostle teaches, that God “has raised us up and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Eph. 2:6). Man fell deeply, as deeply as he dreamed of rising. The ineffable goodness of God, saving him in Christ, now lifts him up as high as he fell deeply. You will be like a god - this is what the infernal cunning has placed as a stumbling block! And true Christians are now truly like gods in Christ Jesus our Lord. “Sing, all people, a song of victory to Christ, who ascended in glory into heaven and has seated us at the right hand of God the Father!” (See 1st canticle of the Canon for the Ascension). The glory of the Ascension of the Lord is the undoubted hope of our salvation. Man, by crime, became an enemy of God, separated from him, wandered in darkness, and could not and did not dare to approach the Throne of God. The Lord found him wandering, took him upon Himself and reunited him with God. Now we see man in heaven, at the Throne of God, reconciled to God and adopted by Him. The Only Begotten Son of God - says Epiphanius, Archbishop of Cyprus - like a good shepherd, left ninety-nine sheep - Angels - in the heights of heaven to find one that was lost, and having found it, He took it on His shoulder and, now handing it over to His Father, says: “Father! I found a lost sheep, which the evil serpent, insidiously deceiving, led into the path of sin and darkened the purity of the knowledge of God with idolatry. Seeing her mired in the mire of wickedness, I quickly snatched her up with My omnipotence, washed her in the streams of the Jordan and anointed her with the fragrance of My Holy Spirit, now through the Resurrection I have come to You, bearing a gift worthy of Your Divinity - this spiritual sheep.” (Word on the Ascension. Sunday Reading. 1839. No. 7. ) Glory to the Lord, who ascended and by His Ascension reconciled us with God and reunited us with Him! Through the Ascension of the Lord, all Divine powers were given to us, including life and piety. The Lord, by His Ascension, exalted man, reconciled him with God and adopted him as sons. But initially these lofty blessings were combined only in Him Alone - in His intercessory, redemptive Person. In order for every person to be clothed with His glory, to enter into peace with God and to receive sonship, for this it is necessary for him to first be clothed with the death of Christ, to appropriate for himself the power of the merits of the Redeemer and to be like Him in everything. But who is happy? Here we must be enlivened by saving faith, but faith is not from us - we must kindle strong love, instill meekness, humility, mercy, obedience in the heart; But it is up to us to want such good dispositions, but we do not find it to create it - to arouse and confirm it in ourselves. All our hope in this matter is the Divine power and grace of the All-Holy Spirit. And this saving grace, so necessary for us, did not exist on earth until the Lord ascended to heaven. “The Holy Spirit was not with him,” the Evangelist John testifies, “for Jesus was not glorified” (John 7:39). The Lord Himself connects the sending of the Holy Spirit so closely with His Ascension that, as He says, without His Ascension the Holy Spirit would not have descended to us. “You have no food,” so He consoled the apostles who mourned His departure, “You have no food, that I may go; If I do not go, the Comforter will not come... If I do go, I will send Him to you” (John 16:7). Why the Ascension of the Lord is necessary for the sending of the Holy Spirit is a mystery to us. Without a doubt, on the one hand, this was required by the order of the dispensation of our salvation, according to which the Holy Spirit had to sanctify the human race by investing Him in the merits of Christ, which he could not begin until Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, completed His work; on the other, the state of our heavy and coarsened nature, which could not contain the Spirit until the Lord sanctified it in Himself and thus made it convenient for the Spirit to pass through Himself to the entire human race, united with Him by faith; but how all this is accomplished in the economy of our salvation, we do not comprehend this. We only know that there was no Spirit on earth, for Jesus Christ was not yet glorified. Now, having ascended, He is clothed with Divine glory and the Holy Spirit is in the world. We know that the Comforter would not have descended if the Lord had not ascended. Now the Lord has ascended - and the Comforter dwells with us, acts in us, gives life and leads us to God - following Christ. Glory to the ascended Lord, who by His Ascension has given us the grace of the All-Holy Spirit. The Ascension of the Lord is the stronghold of our hope. Whoever, zealous for the glory of the ascended Lord, begins to seek those on high, “where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God,” begins to philosophize “on high things, not on earth,” and to hide his life with Christ in God (Col. 3:3), in this glorious work he necessarily encounters two main temptations, which can greatly shake the soul, shake the firmness of its intentions, and weaken the determination to steadily follow Christ. These are internal and external sorrows and inevitable falls - in both cases - a strong shield for the soul is the contemplation of the glory of the ascended Lord. Now let all kinds of disasters gather over the head of a Christian, let the whole world and all hell arm themselves against him, let internal warfare with all its malice arise from the depths of an uncleaned heart, he will not waver - his courageous firmness will increase even more, the determination of his will will become even stronger. He is convinced that his residence is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), where Christ is, he is convinced that “the passions of this present time are not worthy of the glory that desires to appear” in him (Rom. 8:18), the glory with which he sees the ascended Christ clothed, he is convinced that the one who overcomes to the end will receive the honor of sitting on the Throne of Glory, as Christ conquered and sat down. Therefore, forgetting everything, he strives for the honor of a higher title, as if the course of the external circumstances of his life and the temporary turmoil of his soul were a matter that did not concern him at all. Much more sensitive and dangerous than the troubles and sorrows of the Fall, to which a person is exposed due to weakness or imprudence. They constrain the freedom of his good thoughts and feelings, stop the progress of his good intentions, cover him with shame before himself, weaken his boldness before the Lord, and with greater tension they diminish his holy determination, plunge him into indifference and carelessness and bring him closer to despair. Danger is imminent and dire; but he who contemplates with his intelligent eye the ascended Lord, one might say, does not even know such danger. There, “at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,” the “High Priest” is revealed to him, who “with his blood entered into the Holy One, having gained eternal redemption,” - entered “into heaven itself, that the face of God might appear for us” (Heb. 8, 1, 9:12, 24), there he sees “the great bishop who has passed through the heavens” ( Heb. 4, 14), Who “only offered sacrifice for sins, sits at the right hand of God” (Heb. 10, 12)... “he is always alive to make intercession” for us (Heb. 7, 25). And from here pours into his soul the unshakable conviction that now there is no longer a decisive, inevitable, unchangeable condemnation, a conviction that inspires him to confess out loud to everyone the bold hope of salvation in Christ Jesus: who can accuse the elect of God? - God justifies them. Who dares to condemn? - Christ (Jesus) died, but He is risen, He is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us (Rom. 8:33-34). So, brethren, the glorification and enthronement of the Lord, the fulfillment and leadership of what is above and below, the exaltation, reconciliation, sanctification and strengthening of people seeking salvation - these are the glorious fruits of the Ascension of the Lord, which now raise both heaven and earth, Angels and men to the glorification and thanksgiving of the ascended Lord and to the expression of mutual joy in Him. “Let us therefore give greatness to God, let us exclaim a victorious song to Him, let us rejoice, sing, and applaud Him! Our God ascends from earth to heaven, Angels and Archangels greet Him there as their Creator and Master” (See the 8th canon of the Canon for the Ascension). But beholding the glory of God with our revealed face, let us be inspired, for the sake of that same glory, with zeal to be transformed into the same image “from glory to glory” (2 Cor. 3:18). Seated in Christ in heavenly places, where it is more natural to dwell in thought, feeling, and desire, if not where our Lord Jesus Christ ascended and seated us in Himself. Amen. You might be interested in: