Слово на Вознесение Господне. Святого Льва Великого, папы Римского

The mystery of our salvation, beloved, acquired at the price of the blood of the Creator of the universe, was accomplished from the day of the birth of the Lord in the flesh until the end of His suffering, along the path of humiliation. And although numerous rays of the Divine shone through the slave’s face; however, the deeds He performed at this time were actually supposed to confirm the truth that He took upon Himself human nature. After suffering, when the bonds of death were dissolved, which lost its power, strengthening to hold on to Him who knew no sin, weakness changed into power, mortality into immortality, reproach into glory. The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this glory in many true signs, that is, with many true proofs (Acts 1:3) in the eyes of many, before He transferred the triumph of His victory over death to heaven. So, just as during the Easter celebration, the Resurrection of the Lord was the reason for our joy, so the Ascension of the Savior into heaven is the subject of our real joy. We remember now and according to our heritage we honor that day on which our mortal nature was exalted in Christ to the throne of God the Father, above all the armies of heaven, above all ethereal Powers, above all Powers. We are based and established on such and such an arrangement of Divine affairs. The goodness of God here appears even more wonderful, having hidden from the eyes of men that which itself aroused reverence, - hiding for the purpose that faith should not become scarce, hope would not waver, love would not grow cold: since the strength of great souls, the light of truly believing hearts consists, precisely, in the fact that they do not hesitate to believe what we cannot see with the bodily eye - and rush with desire to where we do not we can penetrate with our gaze. But how could such pious feelings be born in our hearts, or how could anyone be justified by faith, if our salvation depended only on what is before our eyes? Therefore, to the Apostle, who said that he would doubt the resurrection of Christ until he saw and touched the traces, the Lord said: for when you saw Me, you believed: blessed are you who have not seen and believed (John 20:29). In order to make us participants in this bliss, our Lord Jesus Christ, having fulfilled everything that was in accordance with the predictions and mysteries of the New Testament, on the fortieth day after His resurrection, ascended into heaven in the presence of the apostles. Having put an end to His sojourn on earth in the flesh, He will sit at the right hand of the Father until the time appointed by God for the multiplication of the children of the Church is fulfilled, and until He comes to judge the living and the dead in the same flesh with which He ascended into heaven. Thus, what was visible in our Redeemer has now become a sacrament, and in order for our faith to become more sublime and unshakable, teaching followed, and the hearts of believers, illuminated by heavenly rays, submit to its great power. This faith, strengthened by the Ascension of the Lord and confirmed by the action of the All-Holy Spirit, was not frightened by bonds, prisons, imprisonment, famine, fire, the cruelty of animals, or the torment invented by the cruelty of the persecutors. Not only men, but also wives, not only young men, but also virgins, fought for this faith to the point of blood throughout the entire universe; This faith cast out demons, healed diseases, and raised the dead. For this reason, the blessed apostles themselves, who, having been confirmed by such miracles, taught by such conversations, were, however, afraid of the cruelty of the Lord’s suffering and, not without emotion, were convinced of the truth of His resurrection - through the Ascension of the Lord they achieved such perfection that for them that which had previously aroused fear and apprehension turned into joy. And this is precisely because the apostles now directed all the contemplation of their spirit to the Divinity of the One who had ascended to the right hand of the Father - that bodily vision no longer prevented them from directing all the powers of the mind to the One Who, having descended to earth, did not leave the Father and, having ascended to heaven, was not separated from the disciples. Therefore, beloved, having entered into the glory of the greatness of the Father, the Son of Man more solemnly and more sacredly revealed Himself as the Son of God and in some unspoken way became closer to us in Divinity, having become more distant in humanity. Then faith began to approach the Son more reliably, having recognized His equality with the Father: for it, the touch of the carnal nature in Christ became no longer necessary: ​​since, after this nature was glorified, the faith of believers began to cry out to where the Only Begotten, equal to the One who begot, can be touched not with a carnal hand, but with a spiritual understanding. From this we can understand what the Lord said after His resurrection to Mary Magdalene (representing the Church), when she was in a hurry to touch Christ: touch me not, lest I sigh unto my Father (John 20:17). “I do not want you to come to Me physically and for you to know Me by the sense of the flesh alone. I am raising you to the highest, I am preparing more for you: when I ascend to the Father, then you will know Me more perfectly and truly - then you will know what you cannot touch - and believe what you do not see.” When the apostles looked with special amazement as the Lord ascended into heaven, then two angels appeared to them, whose clothes shone with amazing whiteness, and who said to them: men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven? This Jesus, who ascended from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him going into heaven (Acts 1:11). With these words, all the children of the Church are taught to believe that Jesus Christ will apparently come in the same flesh with which He ascended into heaven, and that (one cannot doubt that) everything has been subjugated to Him Whom the angels served from the very beginning of His birth in the flesh. And truly, as the Angel announced to the Virgin the conception of Christ from the Holy Spirit: so the voice of the heavenly armies sang to the shepherds and His birth from the Virgin; just as the resurrection from the dead, first of all, was witnessed by the heavenly messengers: so the angels also proclaimed that the Lord would come to judge the world with the same flesh with which he ascended into heaven. From here we must conclude that the future Judge will come with the same Powers that were submissive to Him even before the onset of this judgment. Let us rejoice, beloved, with spiritual joy and rejoice in the worthy outpouring of our thanksgiving before God - let us direct the gaze of our hearts to the height on which Christ dwells. Let earthly desires not burden the souls of those called to heavenly things; let that which is destined to perish not possess those who are pre-elected for eternal bliss; let it not slow down the progress of those who have entered the path of truth. Believers must go through the earthly journey in such a way as to always remember that they are strangers in the vale of this world: if there are any benefits here that deceive us, then they are such that they should be carefully avoided, and not strenuously desired. The blessed Apostle Peter encourages us to this pious disposition of the heart and, beseeching us with the love that was aroused in him by the Lord’s threefold question about love, with the command to feed the sheep of Christ, he says: Beloved, I pray that strangers and strangers will be saved from carnal lusts, which war upon the soul (1 Pet. 2:11). And for whom do carnal lusts fight, if not for the devil, who rejoices when, with the love of corruptible goods, he binds souls striving for heavenly things, and when he removes them from the home from which he himself was expelled? Every believer must be vigilantly vigilant against his evil intentions and temptations in order to be able to resist them. But, beloved, nothing is so strong against the evil of the devil as the goodness of mercy and the abundance of love, through which every sin is either rejected or overcome. However, we can ascend to the heights of this virtue not before overthrowing everything that is contrary to it. And what could be so incompatible with mercy and works of love as the love of silver, from which, as from a root, all evil grows (1 Tim. 6:10)?.. If it is not suppressed at the very bud, then in the field of the heart, in which this evil has grown and taken root, of necessity, thorns and thistles of vices will always be born rather than the seeds of true virtues grow. So, let us resist this pernicious evil and follow love, without which not a single virtue will shine, so that by the same path of love by which Christ the Lord descended to us, we too may ascend to our Savior, to Whom is honor and glory with God the Father and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen 92. Leo Magn., papa. Opera omnia. Lugduni, 1700 ann. Serm. LXXII, p.p. 153–155; Wed Christian Read, 1839, II, pp. 180–189; Sunday Read XXI (1857–58), pp. 49–52. You might be interested in: