By Holy Hieromartyr Sergius Mechev
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit!
For many of us, the Ascension is only a feast standing between Pascha and Pentecost, and it seems as though it does not possess the same inner content as the other feasts of the Holy Church. It may appear that the Lord ascended only in order to send the Teacher — the Holy Spirit. This feast seems to give nothing to man; indeed, it even appears to deprive man of the Lord’s presence here on earth. For in the past days you felt His presence in His appearances, as the Apostles once did, but now He has departed from us.
One would think that for the Apostles the Ascension of the Lord would have been a loss. Yet the Holy Fathers say that it is a great feast, for today it is not merely that “the Word became flesh,” but that flesh became divine. The New Adam does not descend, but ascends with the flesh into heaven.
For us, this feast is the touchstone of our understanding of Christ’s work upon earth.
God became man so that man might become god, so that He might raise man to heaven, says one of the Holy Fathers.
Today we rejoice together with the Apostles at the Lord’s ascent into heaven.
For the believer, the ascension of human flesh into heaven is filled with profound meaning.
We, who are immersed in merely human things and think only that something must be done here below, remain silent on this feast, forgetting that the chief purpose of human life is striving toward heaven, toward God. The Lord ascends into heaven, and likewise every believer who loves God may be raised to heaven. For us, the ascension of human nature into heaven — “deification,” as the Holy Fathers call it — is neither a dream nor a fantasy.
Christ came so that we might repent. But mere cleansing from the passions is not enough. Christ’s work only begins there. After purification from the passions comes perfection, deification — the beginning of that of which Christ said: “Be perfect, even as your Heavenly Father is perfect.”
Today Christ, in the flesh that was shown to the disciples, touched by them and seen by them, ascends into heaven. We begin in the opposite way. Christ was first born, passed through the whole earthly path, and only afterward ascended; but we, in the mysteries, first die and then are born, and in this feast we are given the possibility of ascending into heaven.
If we understand this, then the Ascension will not be for us merely a stage between Pascha and the Descent of the Holy Spirit, but a feast filled with joy, as it was for the Apostles, who, as the Gospel relates, returned not in sorrow because of their separation from the Lord, but in great joy, because they had become eyewitnesses that the words of the Lord had not been spoken in vain.
We live on this earth only temporarily and must prepare ourselves for the life to come. Even if we have been cleansed from sins, that is still not enough; we must prepare ourselves for the heavenly dwellings and live according to the commandments of blessedness. We must understand that spiritual labor is only beginning.
And if you come to feel that your true dwelling is not here but there, then in every action you undertake you will remember that the Lord ascended into heaven in His Most Pure Flesh. Then this earthly life will become for you a road leading to heaven. We shall carefully watch every action of ours — whether it raises us up or drags us down.
Then you will feel the full spiritual joy of the feast of the Ascension. You will realize that it is celebrated not merely to fill the place between Holy Pascha and Pentecost, but because it is the path which we all must travel. And this is not a “dream” or an “empty fantasy.” The Lord ascended into heaven and will come again to judge us — to raise with Himself into heaven those who are prepared, while others — especially those who even here on earth completely forgot heaven, who never looked toward heaven, who regarded the Ascension and deification as an “empty fantasy” — will not be ready.
Brothers and sisters, Christ calls us with Himself into heaven. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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