39. Слово Вознесения Господня

(Spoken at the Archangel Council on May 15; printed separately both in the Christian Reading of 1838 and in the collections of 1844 and 1848) 196. And when I look up to heaven, I go to Him, and behold, two hundred men are standing before them in white clothing, like the one who said: Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? Acts 1:10–11. And it seems amazing to me that you, luminous men, ask these men of Galilee why they look at heaven. How can they not look at heaven, where Jesus ascended, where their treasure was transferred, where their hope and joy were taken, where their life was hidden? If they were now looking at the earth: then it would be necessary to ask them - and one should ask all the followers of Jesus Christ 198 who look at the earth with a partial eye: why are you looking at the earth? What should you look for on it after your and her only Treasure, found in Bethlehem, scattered throughout Judea and Samaria, passed through the hands of robbers in Gethsemane, in Jerusalem, on Golgotha, hidden under a stone in the garden of Joseph of Arimathea, was taken and carried into the heavenly treasury? It has been told to you, and so it must be, that “where your treasure is, there your heart will also be” (Matthew 6:21): So, if your treasure is in heaven, there must your heart also be; there 199 your eyes, your thoughts, your desires should be directed. “Two men in white clothing,” who immediately, after the Ascension of the Lord, appeared to the Apostles and asked them why they were looking at heaven, without a doubt, they themselves were heavenly inhabitants: therefore, one cannot think that this was unpleasant for them, and that they wanted to turn the gaze of the men of Galilee somewhere else. No! They only want to stop the inactive amazement of the Apostles: “Why are you standing looking at heaven?” Having awakened them from this amazement, they lead them into meditation and instruct the Apostles, and us, with what thoughts we should look to heaven in the wake of the Lord Jesus, who ascended there. “This Jesus,” they continue, “who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven” (Acts 1:11). Although many times our Lord, after His resurrection, appeared to the Apostles and became invisible; and therefore they could in some way get used to these wonderful contingencies: but when, being separated from them on the Mount of Olives, He not only withdrew, or became invisible, but rising visibly above the clouds, only because of the immeasurable height, He ceased to be visible to them; There is no doubt that this new image of His departure seemed to them, even after getting used to the miraculous, extraordinary, and especially significant. They then saw a clear 200 fulfillment of His words, which Mary Magdalene retold to them: “I will ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” (John 20:17). It was necessary to conclude that these joyful visits to Him, these instructive conversations with Him, these tangible communications with His God-manhood, which lasted for fourty days, are stopped by the present moment. When hands and voice could no longer reach the Ascendant: He was pursued by gazes that wanted to hold Him back. “Looking up at the sky, I go to Him.” One can imagine what immeasurable deprivation the Apostles must have felt 201 after the departure to heaven of Jesus, Who was One for them all in the world. And 202 heavenly powers hasten to make up for this immeasurable deprivation. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven... will come.” Christian! If you have known the Lord Jesus at all and “tasted that the Lord is good” (Ps. 33:9): then, of course, you more or less notice what an emptiness there is in the world without Him, you feel what an emptiness there is in your heart without Him. This is how it should be: because everything that is in the world is “vanity of vanities” (Eccl. 1:2); and vanity cannot fill a heart created by Truth for truth: “everything in the world” is “lust,” or an object, the bait of lust in different forms; and just as “the world passes away and its lust” (1 John 2:16-17), or in other words, objects that excite lust soon disappear, no matter how great the world is, no matter how varied its benefits, no matter how abundant the streams of its pleasures, all this cannot fill the small vessel of the human heart, which, being immortal, can only be filled with eternal life. If, with such a feeling of emptiness in creatures, it seems to you that the Lord, Who is your truth, your life, your desire and the fullness of all desires, moves away from you, hides, leaves you not only without consolation, but also in sorrow, not only alone, but also among the enemies of your salvation; if your weary gaze does not penetrate the heavens covered with a cloud, and the unimaginable fates of the Almighty present you with nothing but the unknown: accept from the heavenly Powers a powerful word that can fill your emptiness, alleviate sorrow, end loneliness, clarify the darkness, resolve the unknown, revive your spirit with undeceiving and imperishable hope. “This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come.” To the comforting and saving testimony of the future coming of the Ascended Lord, His heavenly messengers add some explanation of how this coming will follow. They say that the coming of the Lord will be similar to His departure, or ascension. “He will come in the same way as you saw Him going to heaven.” Heavenly preachers certainly do not talk idlely, as we sometimes do on earth; but even in small words they give great instruction to those who are attentive. Let's be careful! “He will come in the same way as you saw Him going to heaven.” According to this instruction, turning to the circumstances of the departure of Jesus Christ to heaven, firstly, we can notice the blessing that He gave to the Apostles at that time. “It happened,” the Evangelist Luke narrates, “whenever you blessed them, you departed from them and ascended to heaven” (Luke 24:51). The Lord Himself will bring this circumstance of His ascension into heaven, and separation from His chosen ones, to them as a reminder, “when He comes in His glory” (Matthew 25:31), and meeting with them again, He will call them to truly possess His kingdom: for “then the King says to those on His right hand: Come, blessed of My Father” (Matthew 25:34 ). What an endless stream of Christ’s blessing is revealed to us, Christians! He begins the blessing, and, without finishing it, ascends. “When you blessed them, you were lifted up.” Thus, having ascended, He still continues to invisibly teach blessing. It flows and descends incessantly on the Apostles; through them it is poured on those whom they bless in the name of Jesus Christ; those who received Christ's blessing through the Apostles spread it to others; thus, all who belong to the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church become partakers of the single blessing of Jesus Christ and His Father, “blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly things in Christ” (Eph. 1:3); like the dew of “Aermon, descending on the mountains of Zion” (Psalm 132:3), this blessing of peace descends on every soul that rises above passions and lusts, above the vanities and cares of the world; like an indelible seal, it marks those who are Christ’s, so that at the end of the age, according to this sign, He will call them out from among the entire human race: “Come, blessed ones!” Let us think, brethren, how we need to take care now in order to acquire and preserve the blessing of the Ascended Lord, which descends on us through the Apostles and the Apostolic Church. If we have received and preserve it, then we, together with the Apostles and with all the Saints, at the future coming of Jesus Christ will be called to participate in His kingdom: “Come, blessed ones!” And if then, as He calls “the blessed of His Father,” either no blessing is found on us, or we have only the false blessing of people who themselves have not graciously and mysteriously inherited the blessing of the Heavenly Father: then what will happen to us? Yes, I tell you, let us think and take care of this in good time! Another circumstance of the Ascension of the Lord, noted 203 in view of the expected coming of the Lord, is that the Lord ascended before the eyes of His disciples openly and solemnly. “He is taken away by them that see, and the cloud is lifted up from their sight” (Acts 1:9). What kind of cloud? - A cloud of light and glory, which once overshadowed and filled the tabernacle of Moses and the temple of Solomon. There they saw glory, but they did not see the Lord of glory; Afterwards they saw Him, but not in glory, and therefore they did not recognize Him and did not glorify Him: here glory does not hide the Glorified One, and the Glorified One does not hide the glory. The apostles beheld the glory of the Ascended 204 Lord: The Prophet also heard it when he himself solemnly exclaimed: “God has risen with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet” (Ps. 46:6). So, when the luminous preachers announced to us that He would come in the same way as they saw Him going into heaven: through this they made us understand that He would come clearly and solemnly. This is exactly how the Lord predicted about Himself that “the Son of man will come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him” (Matthew 25:31). So the Apostle explains that “the Lord will come down from heaven with a commandment,” or by foretelling, “with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). But why, another might think, are these details noticed, apparently more arousing curiosity than giving instruction: for they predict in order to be able to recognize and accept with faith an event sent from God; and who will not recognize the glorious coming of Christ, even if he has not been forewarned of its details? – Do not rush, beloved, to conclude that these details are excessive. No! The Apostles, Angels, and the Lord Himself say nothing for curiosity, but everything for instruction. That the coming of Christ will be obvious and solemn - this is predicted so that there will be heralds of the opposite of this, when the spirit of deception will be sent to unworthy, unfaithful and corrupt Christians. “The hour is coming,” or the time of temptation (maybe “even now”) when they will say: “Behold, here is Christ, or onde!.. Behold, there is in the desert!” Behold in treasures" (Matthew 24:23, 26)! Here He is with us, say the renegades 205, who, having left the city of God, the spiritual Jerusalem, the Apostolic Church, flee not into the true desert of peace and silence, but into spiritual and sensual desolation, where there is neither sound teaching, nor the holiness of the sacraments, nor good rules of private and public life. Here He is with us, say the secretly heretical, pointing to their secret gatherings 206, as if the sun should shine only underground; as if He had not said and commanded: “What I say to you in the darkness, shout in the light; and if you hear in your ears, preach on the housetops” (Matthew 10:27). Hearing such cries or whispers, remember, Christians, the Angelic voice and the sermon about the Ascended Lord: “He will come in the same way as you saw Him going to heaven,” just as clearly, just as solemnly. And therefore, “if anyone says to you: Here is Christ, or here: do not have faith.” Neither rude cries nor cunning whispers resemble the proclamation of the Archangel and the trumpet of God. “Do not go out” after those who call you from the city of the Lord; remain in your place and take care of your faith for the true coming of Christ, glorious and solemn. The third circumstance of the Ascension of the Lord, noteworthy for the future, is that it was unexpected and unforeseen for His disciples. This happened, as much as can be learned from the short narratives of the Gospels, in such a way that He, appearing to them in Jerusalem, as happened many times, and departing, led them behind Him as accompanying people, talking with them, as usual, about the kingdom of God, and especially about the approaching descent of the Holy Spirit; “He brought them out from Jerusalem as far as Bethany, and lifted up His hands, and blessed them; and when you had blessed them, you departed from them and ascended to heaven” (Luke 24:50–51). It was not only by his own will that He did not warn them about this great event; but even when they asked about the times of the great events of His kingdom, he resolutely refused them this knowledge. “He said to them: You cannot understand the times and seasons which the Father has ordained in His power” (Acts 1:7). This refusal to understand the times obviously extends to the times of the future coming of Christ, and relates primarily to this. Even before, He impressed upon His disciples the suddenness of this event, likening it to lightning, which is the most striking image of complete suddenness in nature. “As lightning comes from the east and comes to the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:27). Likewise, the Apostle explains: “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2). From this suddenness of His future coming, the Lord Himself draws for us, Christians, a saving warning. “Be on guard,” he says, “for you do not know at what hour the Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42). Do not be carried away by curiosity or gullibility, when Christians, thinking to know more than what is given from Christ, will count for you the times of His kingdom, and determine the years of His anticipated appearance: “You cannot understand the times and years” (Acts 1:7); try to better understand your sins, count your falls, and find their limits in repentance. Be especially careful if you hear what the scoffers predicted by the Apostle will say: “Where is the promise of His coming? Henceforth the fathers fell asleep, and all things continue from the beginning of creation” (2 Peter 3:4). Beware lest the dark dreams of the sons of this age, closing their eyes from the light of the age to come, darken your heart, blind your mind, and lull your spirit to that longed-for and terrible hour when “the day of the Lord comes, like a thief in the night.” “Beloved! Longing for these, strive to be undefiled and undefiled so that He may be found in peace” (2 Peter 3:14). Amen. This word, according to the obligatory message from Fr. Rector of Moscow Spirit. Academy of Archpriest A.V. Gorsky, we had in the manuscript the author himself, which, along with many others, was transferred by him during his lifetime to the Academic Library. In the manuscript of the author, in the European collection, dep. ed. and in Christ. Thu: stolen. According to the author's manuscript. and Hebrew collection: the ascended Jesus,... According to the author's manuscript. and Hebrew collection: if your heart is there, there... According to the European collection: sensual. In the author’s manuscript, “sensual” is crossed out and “manifest” is written. In the manuscript of the author, in the European collection, dep. ed. and Christ. Read: what a void remained in the hearts of the Apostles, and for them in the whole world... In the manuscript of the author, in the European collection, dep. ed. and Christ. Thu: And this terrible emptiness is suddenly filled with a single word... According to the author's manuscript. and European collection: remarkable... According to the author's manuscript. and Hebrew collection: Ascending... According to the Hebrew collection: people,... The same word was also in the author’s manuscript, but was corrected by him. According to the Hebrew collection: hidden in dens and caves, or in secret churches... 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