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Remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord The state of glory of the Risen Christ ended on earth with His ascension into heaven. Christ, the Bishop of future blessings (Heb. 9:11), who offered Himself as one sacrifice for sins (Heb. VII. 27; IX. 26), had to enter not into a holy place made with hands, but into heaven itself, so that the face of God might appear about us (Heb. 9:24). The Lord predicted his ascension in the Old Testament through His prophets (Psalm 46:6), and during His earthly life he predicted: I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God your God (John 20:17). After His resurrection, the Savior appeared to His disciples and Apostles for fourty days, assured them of the truth of His resurrection and prepared them for His departure to heaven (1 Cor. 15:5–8). The Apostle Peter says: we eat and eat with Him after His resurrection from the dead (Acts 10:41). Before them He set Himself alive because of His suffering; He appeared to them in many true signs for forty days, speaking even about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3). He told them about His Divine power in heaven and on earth, about their Divine election to preach the Gospel to all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to keep all the Lord’s commandments; promised to be with His Church always, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18–20). On the last day of His visible sojourn on earth, the Lord, appearing to His disciples and Apostles, commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for the promised descent of the Holy Spirit. Leading them to the Mount of Olives, covered with olive trees, distant from Jerusalem on the Sabbath path (Acts 1:12), the Lord promised them miraculous power: you will receive the power that the Holy Spirit has brought upon you, and you will be My witnesses even to the last of the earth (Acts 1:8). After speaking to the disciples and apostles, the Lord lifted up His hand and blessed them. And when you blessed them, you departed from them and ascended to heaven. And they worshiped Him (Luke 24:50-52), and looked up at the sky as He ascended, and the cloud was lifted up from their sight. And behold, two men stood before them in white robes and said: This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven (Acts 1:9-11). The apostles returned to Jerusalem with great joy and until the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them they always remained in the church, praising and blessing God. Thus, having completed the redemption of the world, the Son of God, on the 40th day after His glorious resurrection, again ascended into heaven to God the Father with His humanity and sat at the right hand of God (Mark 16:19). You sat at the right hand of the Father, the Word, Showing off the faith of the disciples to the bride. The Savior ascended to heaven not like Enoch and Elijah: these were taken, but He ascended Himself by His omnipotence. In commemoration of the glorious Ascension of the Lord, the Church has long established a holiday, celebrated annually on the fourth of the sixth week after Easter. This holiday is an Apostolic one; it is mentioned in the Apostolic decrees and says: “After 40 days have passed from the first Sunday, celebrate the Ascension of the Lord.” Blessed Augustine also testifies to the Apostolic origin of the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord in his letter to Januarius, where he says: “What we preserve not according to scripture, but by tradition, and what is preserved throughout the world, was handed down either from the Apostles themselves, or from the councils. According to their saving establishment, rules and regulations are preserved in the Church, for example. regarding the annual celebration of the suffering, resurrection and ascension of the Lord into heaven and the descent of the Holy Spirit. Remembering the Descent of the Holy Spirit On the day of the New Testament Pentecost, on the 50th day after His descent from the tomb, and on the 10th day after His Ascension, the Lord, seated at the right hand of God the Father, sent down the Holy Spirit on all His disciples and Apostles. Church and St. the fathers, contemplating the event of the miraculous descent of the Holy Spirit, instructively explain this event on the basis of Scripture. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter (John 14:16), because He helps us in our weaknesses: He Himself intercedes for us with groanings that cannot be uttered (Rom. 8:26). “The Holy Spirit, says Gregory the Theologian, acted, firstly, in angelic and heavenly powers; their perfection, illumination and immobility towards evil are from the Holy Spirit. Then he acted in the fathers and prophets. After this he acted in the disciples of Christ, and in them three times, according to their comprehensibility, and at three different times: before the suffering of Christ - implicitly (Matthew 10:1,20), after His resurrection - more clearly (John 22:22), and on the day of Pentecost - essentially.” The descent of the Holy Spirit took place on a great holiday, so that this wonderful event would become known to many - on Pentecost, when in ancient times the revealed law of God was given to the people of God; for on the 50th day it was fitting for the Spirit of grace to be poured out, because Jesus Christ was devoured during the days of the Old Law Passover. Mount Sinai is there, the upper room is here; there is fire, there are tongues of fire. Instead of the darkness and thunder of Sinai, there is a noise from heaven, like a stormy breath, so that it is clear that it is one and the same Holy Spirit, then and now giving law, sanctifying and perfecting. The descent of the Holy Spirit was in the form of tongues in commemoration of the living and effective word, which the Apostles had to teach and convert all tongues to Christ. In the form of a fiery tongue, as a sign of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, as predicted by the Forerunner (Matthew 3:11), and the sanctification of the disciples of Christ. According to the voice of the Church, the descent of the Holy Spirit is a decisive cleansing of sins. And St. Gregory Dvoeslov talks: “When tongues of fire appeared from outside, then hearts began to burn inside with sincere love for God.” In the form of tongues of fire and divided - due to the different gifts of the Holy Spirit. As of old God, having mixed languages, divided and scattered those who spoke with one tongue; So now he divided the languages ​​and sent the Apostles into the whole world, in order to gather the scattered people throughout the entire universe into one holy one. Church . In the form of sitting tongues - to signify the resting of the Holy Spirit in the saints. In ancient times, “tongues were confused for the insolence of pandemonium: but now tongues are divided for the sake of the glory of the knowledge of God.” It was necessary, says Gregory of Nyssa, for the peoples scattered during material pandemonium to unite again during the spiritual construction of the Church.” In the form of a tongue sitting on the heads of the Apostles, in the sanctification of the main and ruling member, and the mind itself, with the power of which the tongue speaks, or, as it were, in the image of the ordination of the shepherds of the Church. The Blessed Spirit, resting on the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire, confirmed in their memory the sayings of Christ that saved people. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles is the fulfillment of a new eternal covenant with people, which the prophet predicted. Jeremiah: These days are coming, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant against the house of Israel and against the house of Judah. This is the covenant I bequeath, giving My laws in their minds and writing them on their hearts (Jer.31:31-34; Heb.8:8-12). The Holy Spirit, who descended on the Apostles, the Spirit of truth (John 16:13), the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph.1:17; Luke 11:20), instead of Sinai, inscribed the new Zionist law, which the prophet predicted. Isaiah (2, 3), not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of the heart of flesh (2 Cor. 3:3). The place of the law of Sinai was taken by the grace of the Holy Spirit, who lays the law, gives strength to fulfill the law, and utters justification to the believers not by works, but by grace (Rom. 5:16). “We will take Holy Pentecost from the Jewish books,” says the synaxar for this holiday. Just as they celebrate Pentecost, honoring the seventh day and having passed the fifty days of the Passover, they have received the law: so we too, celebrating the fifty days of the Passover, accept the All-Holy Spirit, who lays down the law and instructs in all truth, and commands it pleasing to God.” “As of old, the Church sings, the law laid out for Moses, clearly sets forth the greatness and law of grace of the New Testament, having been written in the hearts of the Apostles.” Bl. Jerome writes: “the law of Sinai and Zion took place on the 50th day after Easter. In Sinai, the earthquake shook the mountain; in Zion, the house of the Apostles shook. There, among the flames and sparkling lightning, thunder and a stormy voice were heard: here, with the fiery appearance of tongues, there came a noise from heaven, like a storm carried by the breath. There the sound of the trumpet sounded the words of the law: here the trumpet of the Gospel proclaimed through the mouth of the Apostles.” Thus, the day of Pentecost, which in ancient times was the annual remembrance of the giving of the law of God on Mount Sinai, became for Christians an annual holiday of the grand opening of this saint. The apostles have the power to teach, officiate and rule. On the 50th day after the resurrection of Christ the Lord, the Apostles received the Divine power of the Holy Spirit and became witnesses of Jesus Christ for the entire universe (Acts 1:8). The newly-begun Christian Church, before the descent of the Holy Spirit, had already celebrated its Pentecost, awaiting the descent of the Holy Spirit predicted by the prophets and the Savior, with unceasing and unanimous prayer (Luke 24:53; Acts 1:14). On the very day of Pentecost, all the Apostles were with one accord: and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues the greatness of God (Acts 2:1,4,11). After the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, the power of God to increase the triumph of Pentecost was immediately revealed in the powerful sermon of the Ap. Petra. The event of the miraculous outpouring of the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles on the feast of Pentecost attracted many people to them: then Apostle. Peter converted 3,000 people to the risen Jesus Christ with a short, inspired sermon. After the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles began to celebrate the day of Pentecost every year and commanded all Christians to remember it for the sake of the descent of the Holy Spirit. In Apostolic history we actually find indications of the celebration of the day of Pentecost, actually Christian, during the time of the Apostles. Ap. Paul, having set the intention to visit the Church of Corinth, wrote in a letter to her about this intention; but he added that he would still remain in Ephesus until Pentecost (1 Cor. 16:8), and above, speaking about the correction of some disorders in this Church, he made a clear hint about the celebration of Easter, but not the Jewish, but the Christian (1 Cor. 5: 6-8). If Easter here is of course Christian, and this Easter is a holiday; then, of course, so is the day of Pentecost. Why did the Apostle, who was so zealous for the freedom of Christians from the Jewish law, wait in Ephesus for the Jewish holiday? Soon after this we see the same Apostle hastening to Jerusalem for the Feast of Pentecost (Acts 20:16). Is it possible to think that the Apostle only meant to fulfill the requirement of the Law of Moses, which commanded every Israeli to appear on this day at the place of public worship? Isn’t it fairer to assume that in both cases, of course, the day of Pentecost, which the Apostle both in Ephesus and Jerusalem wanted to celebrate as a Christian holiday? St. Epiphanius and Blessed. Augustine claims that St. Ap. Paul and the Evangelist Luke in the indicated places mean a Christian, not a Jewish holiday. In the Apostolic decrees there is a direct commandment to celebrate Pentecost: “ten days after the Ascension is the fiftieth day from the first day of the Lord (Easter); Let this day be a great holiday. For at the third hour of this day the Lord Jesus sent the gift of the Holy Spirit.” Elsewhere in the Apostolic Decrees, among the days on which slaves should be free from work, after Easter and Ascension, Pentecost is also mentioned: “on Pentecost, slaves should be free from work for the coming of the Holy Spirit, given to those who believe in Christ.” Tertullian, using the word Pentecost and in the meaning of the entire fifty-day time, in another place expresses himself as follows: “on the Lord’s Day we consider it indecent to fast or kneel: we enjoy the same freedom from Easter to Pentecost (a die Paschae in Pentecostem usque).” Here, the name Pentecost obviously means one specific day, namely, the descent of the Holy Spirit, the conclusion of the entire fifty-day period beginning with Easter. Origen, citing pagan objections to Christian holidays, mentions Pentecost along with Easter. The Council of Elvira (about 306), in order to avert the unrest in the Spanish Church, by the way, decided to celebrate Pentecost, on the basis of Scripture, not on the fortieth, but on the fiftieth day after Easter. In the 4th century, Eusebius of Caesarea, St. Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Epiphanius and Chrysostom, also by Bl. Augustine and others often mention the feast of the descent of the Holy Spirit under the name of Pentecost. There is a legend that at the site of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, the first Christian church was built, which was restored by St. in the 4th century. Elena. The foundation of the holidays on the 50th day of Easter by St. The Trinity is mentioned in Scripture, and the beginning of this celebration dates back to the beginning of Christianity. Jesus Christ Himself, predicting to the Apostles about the most joyful event of the New Testament Pentecost, attributed its fulfillment to the Trinity, Consubstantial and Indivisible; About the descent of the Holy Spirit, the Lord said: Whenever the Comforter comes, Him I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He who testifies of Me (John 15:26). Moreover, the appearance of the Holy Spirit, descending from God the Father and sent by God the Son, spread in the world the grace-filled knowledge of the mystery of the Holy Trinity (John 16:8–15, 14:26). Therefore, from the time of the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles, the Orthodox Church, on the day of Pentecost, constantly worships and glorifies the Holy Trinity. Ap. Peter, in preaching the word of God to a large crowd on the day of Pentecost, explaining the appearance of fiery tongues to the Apostles, among other things said: God raised this Jesus, and to him we are all witnesses. He was exalted by the right hand of God, and the promise of the Holy Spirit was received from the Father, this is poured out, which you now see and hear (Acts 2:32-33). On the very day of the Holy Trinity, 3,000 of the listeners of St. Peter received the word of God and were baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:41). So the creation and redemption and sanctification of the world was accomplished by the love of God the Father, who sent the Savior to earth, by the grace of the Son of God, who redeemed men, and by the influx of the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies believers (Acts 2:17). Therefore, the day of Pentecost is a celebration both to the glory of God the Father, from Whom the Holy Spirit proceeds, and to God the Son, Who sent the Holy Spirit from the Father, and to the glory of the Holy Spirit, who apparently descended on the Holy Spirit. Apostles and disciples of Christ. Monday of Pentecost is called Spiritual Day. The name of the day comes from the ancient saints. fathers in their words on the day of Pentecost. At St. Gregory the Theologian, it is called the Day of the Spirit, by Bl. Augustine - the feast of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Day of the Spirits is a continuation of the Feast of Pentecost and was established in order, after the worship of the Most Holy Trinity, to give special worship to the Holy Spirit, who apparently descended on the Holy Spirit. The Apostles and by His descent called the believers to glorify the Holy Trinity. “The longed-for day has dawned on us, brethren,” says Bl. Augustine, and the Holy Church now shines in the eyes and flames in the hearts of believers. We celebrate the day on which the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified by the resurrection by ascension, sent the Holy Spirit. And suddenly there was a sound from heaven, like a storm of breath, and the nations appeared to be divided, like fire, sitting on one of them, and they began to speak with other tongues, as if the Spirit had given them utterance (Acts 2:2-4). For just as after the flood, the proud wickedness of people created a high tower against the will of the Lord, and the human race was then divided into different languages, so that each people, speaking in its own language, would not be understood by others: so the humble piety of the faithful turned the difference of languages ​​to the unity of the Church, so that what was scattered by discord would be gathered by love, and the scattered members of the human race, as members of one body, would be united under the one head of Christ, and by the fire of love they would be fused into one holy body. So, this gift of the Holy Spirit is completely alien to those who hate the grace of the world and do not maintain the fellowship of unity. Let them even gather now solemnly, let them hear readings telling how the Holy Spirit is promised and sent; they hear this to condemn themselves, and not for their benefit. For what good is it for them to accept with their ears what they reject with their hearts, and to celebrate that day whose light they hate? But you, my brothers, members of the body of Christ, branches of unity, sons of the world, you spend this day joyfully, celebrate safely. What was envisioned in those days when the Holy Spirit came is being fulfilled in you. Just as then everyone who received the Holy Spirit spoke in all languages, so now unity among all nations speaks in all languages. Abiding in this unity, you have the Holy Spirit, for you are not separated by any schism from the Church of Christ, which speaks in all tongues.” “So we have also received the Holy Spirit if we love the Church, if we are united by love, if we have the Catholic name and faith. We believe, brothers, that as many people love the Church of Christ as they have the Holy Spirit. The Apostle preferred love to the tongues of men and angels, he preferred it to the miracles of faith, he preferred it to knowledge and prophecy, he even preferred it to the great work of mercy - the distribution of all property to the poor, and finally he preferred it to the very suffering of the body (1 Cor. 13: 1 and e). Having love, you will have everything. And that love belongs to the Holy Spirit, heed the word of the Apostle: the love of God is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit given in us (Rom. 5:5). Why did the Lord deign to bestow this Spirit, by which the love of God was poured into our hearts, upon His resurrection? What did the sim mean? So that our love burns in our resurrection, so that it removes us from the love of the world, so that everything flows to God. For here we are born and die, let us not love what is here; Let us be filled with love and filled with grief, with the love that we have for God. The Lord did not promise us the good things of this world when He said: He who believes in Me may come and drink, and rivers of living waters will flow out of his belly. He promised eternal life, where there is no place for any illness, no confusion, where we will not pass away, where we will not die, where we do not mourn the dead and do not expect heirs. This is what He promised to those who love; and therefore he deigned to bestow the Spirit only upon his glorification, so that he might manifest in his body the life that we now do not have, but which we expect in the resurrection.”