The icons of the great feasts. The Ascension

THE ICONS OF THE GREAT FEASTS

THE ASCENSION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

By S. V. BULGAKOV1

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1. From the Manual for Ortbodox Priests (Nastolnaya Kniga), Kharkov, 1900.


THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION is celebrated on the fortieth day after Easter, which always falls on Thursday of the sixth week. It received its name from the event commemorated and glorified on this day: the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ bodily into heaven (St. Mark 16: 16-20; St. Luke 24: 50-53; Acts 1: 4-12).

On the final day of His visible sojourn on earth the Lord Jesus Christ, having appeared to all the Apostles assembled together and commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promised descent of the Holy Spirit, led them out as far as to Bethany (St. Luke 24: 50), to the Mount of Olives, conversing with them on the way concerning the establishing of His Church on earth. At the summit of the Mount the Lord, explaining to the Apostles in what their calling should consist, said to them: Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). Having said this, the Saviour raised His Divine hands and blessed His disciples. And it came to pass, while He blessed them, He was parted from them, and carried up into heaven (St Luke 24: 51). The Apostles devoutly prostrated themselves before the Lord as He was blessing them, and with trembling amazement they beheld how He ascended to heaven, until finally a cloud hid Him from their gaze.


Troparion, Tone 4

Thou didst ascend in glory, O Christ our God, Having bestowed joy on Thy disciples By the promise of the Holy Spirit, And by having assured them by Thy blessing That Thou art the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world.


But the Lord did not delay to console His disciples in a separation so unexpected and sorrowful for them. Immediately there appeared to the Apostles two men in white clothing. These were Angels, whom the ascended Saviour, as Lord and Master of the angels, had sent on earth to the Apostles. The angels told them: Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven Acts (1:11). Having heard from the angels such consoling news, the Apostles, being filled with deepest joy, left the Mount of Olives and returned to Jerusalem.

With such glory did Jesus Christ ascend visibly to heaven, as His divine disciples inform us: yet even more glorious was His further invisible ascension to His Father, into the eternal Divine Kingdom, as this is expressed in the Church hymns of this day, in accordance with the prophecies of the Old Testament Prophets.

Angels greeted the ascended Lord with the sound of trumpets and accompanied Him (Ps. 46:6). The Holy Spirit commanded the heavenly Powers to open to the Redeemer the gates of the eternal Kingdom of Glory: Lift up your gates, ye princes, and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in (Ps. 23:7). And our Saviour, having "ascended into heaven, whence He had come," as the Son of God, Consubstantial with God the Father, assumed that Divine Glory which He had had with the Father before the world's existence; He ascended into heaven as the Son of Man, exalting humanity in His Person far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion (Eph. 1:21). God the Father Himself awaited with love and received to Himself His beloved Son, the God-man Jesus Christ, Whom He placed at His right hand, as was expressed already in the Old Testament by the holy Psalmist: The Lord said to my Lord, Sit Thou on My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool (Ps. 109:1; cf. Rom. 8:34, Heb 8:1). Thus our Saviour not only ascended into heaven, but was also enthroned at the right hand of God the Father, i.e., as God-man and Redeemer of the world received also according to human nature all the authority, grandeur, and glory that belong to Him according to Divinity, as He Himself said to the Apostles after His Resurrection: All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth (St Matt. 28:18).

The feast of the Ascension has great significance, since it assures us of the fulfillment of the Divine plan for the salvation of men and the whole world and for the most exalted glorification of human nature, which in the Person of Jesus Christ was raised higher than the light bearing spirits and placed upon a throne of Divine Glory; and this assures us all that from henceforth the gate to heaven is open to those dwelling on earth, for thither the Forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus (Heb 6:20), and thither on the path by which He went to heaven all His true followers will ascend.

Moreover, the present feast," as the Blessed Augustine says, "reveals to us in Jesus Christ the mystery of man and God," testifying of the indivisible yet unconfused union of Divinity and humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ, "Who ascended in two natures."

In the Divine services of this feast, although there are also expressed the sorrowful reflections into which the Apostles at first were plunged, being left orphans, still they are preeminently penetrated by an exalted feeling of joy; for, as St John Chrysostom teaches us, "Now men resemble angels, humanity has been joined to the incorporeal powers, and from this affinity has sprung a great bond; the Lord of all, ascended to heaven, has reconciled the human race with His Father; we who by all appearances were unworthy of earth, are now raised to heaven with our very nature; and nature, against which the Cherubim defended paradise, is now itself enthroned among the Cherubim." This is why the holy Church, in the hymns of this day, calling believers to sing a song of victory to the ascended Lord Who has placed us at the right hand of the Father, cries out: "The earth exults, heaven too rejoices in the Ascension of the Lord, the holy Church at the same time, in conformity to the words of the angels spoken to the Apostles at the Lord's Ascension (Acts 1:11), reminds us also in her hymns for this day of the Second Coming, strengthening thus our impulse to lift up "eyes and thoughts to the heights," to direct our gaze "together with our feeling to the heavenly gates of death" and beseech the Lord to "have mercy on our souls, granting remission of transgressions."

In conformity with this St. Gregory of Rome, too, instructs us in his sermon on Ascension Day: "Let us hasten, beloved, with all our heart to follow Him thither, whither He has ascended. Let us renounce every passion for earthly objects; having part in the inheritance with Him of heavenly dwellings, let us not seek blessedness on earth. We must take care and thought for the fact that He, although now He ascends into heaven with meekness, will at some time appear with terror and in threatening form, and will demand from us with strictness all that He now teaches us with meekness. Let none despise the time given for repentance; let none be negligent of himeslf while there is time. At the Last Judgement the Saviour will the more strictly demand an account of us, the more He is longsuffering with us now. Never, O brethren, let this escape your memory. Let strong waves agitate your spirit in the midst of the present sea of life; soon you will reach harbor in the heavenly homeland; soon you will be in the light of unapproachable glory. Now the Lord ascends for us into heaven. Let us the more often and the more attentively reflect on what faith teaches us. If we have not yet become strong in deeds of faith and piety, if our bodily powers are still weak, then at least let us follow our Saviour by our preparedness and love of Him."

The establishment of the feast of the Ascension without doubt goes back to the profoundest antiquity. Apart from the importance of the event commemorated in this feast, the antiquity of the feast is also attested by positive proofs. Thus, Apostolic decrees already prescribe its celebration on the fortieth day after Easter. St. John Chrysostom calls this feast great and most important, and refers it to the class of the other feasts certainly established by the Apostles: Easter and Pentecost. Blessed Augustine also calls it a feast most ancient and universal.