Word XIV. On the Most Glorious Ascension in the Flesh of Our Lord Jesus Christ

May 31, 1907.

“«He Who descended, the same is He Who also ascended above all the heavens, in order to fill all»” (heaven and earth) (Eph 4:10).

These words that I have cited, beloved brothers and sisters, are taken from the epistle of the holy Apostle Paul to the inhabitants of the pagan city of Ephesus, converted to the Christian faith. He says that Christ God, who descended in the flesh to the earth for our salvation, after accomplishing His great work, ascended again into heaven, or far above all the heavens—but ascended now as God incarnate, or as God and, at the same time, Man, in two natures, but in one Person, undivided, unseparated, unconfused. The Apostle also shows the reason why the Lord did not remain on earth, but ascended into the heavens. The reason is this: to fill all things with Himself—heaven and earth—to be the Head of heaven, of all the angels, or the heavenly powers, principalities, authorities, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come (Eph 1:21), and, at the same time, the Head of the earthly Church, which He purchased with His own Blood, and which He united to Himself, becoming its Head.

Christ ascended into heaven, but did not abandon us, His children; He remains always, and will remain with us until the end of the age, according to His own word. He ascended also for this reason—that in His place He might send down to earth, upon His Church, the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Most Holy Trinity, coeternal, coeval, life-giving, equal in power, equal in glory, all-holy, all-good, all-righteous, all-powerful, all-wise, almighty—that He might take an open, solemnly equal part in the salvation of the human race, redeemed by the precious Blood of Christ.

If Christ had remained on earth, the Holy Spirit would not have come to earth, as Christ Himself declared, and this was impossible, by reason of the equality of the Persons of the Most Holy Trinity and the equality of their action and cooperation. As the whole world was created by the hypostatic Word of God the Father, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, so too the redemption and salvation of the human race had to be accomplished with the necessary cooperation of the All-Holy Spirit. Glory to Your all-good, all-wise, and all-saving providence, Most Holy Trinity, our God, Father, Son, and All-Holy Spirit.

To what thoughts and remembrances does the Lord’s ascension into the heavens lead us? — To lofty, all-joyful thoughts and remembrances. Before Jesus Christ could ascend from earth to heaven, He first had to descend to earth; He had to be conceived, to become incarnate, to be born of the Holy Spirit from the Most Holy Virgin, to be an Infant, or a divine Infant, to be called Jesus, to grow gradually, to reach the age of a child and then of a man, to receive baptism from John in the Jordan, to be subjected, for our salvation, to temptation from the devil, to conquer him, to put to shame him who gloried in his own power and dominion over the earth; the God-Man had to preach the word of God to men, to have fellowship with them for their salvation, to eat and drink with publicans and sinners, to converse with harlots and fornicators, that He might make them chaste, to have fellowship with publicans and Pharisees, to instruct and rebuke them, to heal every sickness, to raise the dead—to show forth His own divine power over all the elements, the winds, the waters; to show forth His power over the evil spirits and the whole kingdom of Satan, His power over death; He had to endure every injustice from evil men, to suffer and die upon the cross, to descend into hell, to destroy it, to take from it its multitude of captive souls, to deprive Satan of all the power in which he boasted and which he thought to hold forever; He had to overcome the sting of death, and to raise the dead, and to rise Himself from the dead, victor over hell and death.

Before His ascension into the heavens, He established the saving Mysteries: baptism, repentance, and the Mystery of Mysteries—the Mystical Supper, or the Communion of His own most pure Body and Blood, as a sign of His boundless love for men, of unceasing communion, for the cleansing, sanctification, renewal, and deification of our nature, restored from its deepest fall and corruption.

Before His ascension into the heavens, He founded on earth His own Church, the divine society of men saved in Christ, united to one another by one faith, the law of God, divine worship, the sacred hierarchy, and the Mysteries.

Such, then, are the thoughts and remembrances to which our Lord’s most glorious ascension into the heavens leads us.

Having laid the foundation of the Church, He entrusted its further building up to the apostles, with the cooperation of the Holy Spirit, whom they were to receive on the great day of Holy Pentecost.

And the Church of God, planted on earth, blossomed like a lily, and, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, raised up a countless multitude of saints from every nation and tribe, from every rank and condition of men, of both sexes; especially in the first centuries the earth became heaven, by reason of the countless multitude of saints who shone forth in the Church, in the ranks of the apostles, the hierarchs, the martyrs, in the ranks of the venerable holy fathers, the unmercenary healers, the righteous, and all the saints.

The Church of Christ on earth was, and is, the greatest of miracles; in her the wondrous renewal of mankind was, and is, accomplished; sincerely believing people became heavenly angels, adorned with every heavenly virtue. They adorned the Church both by their holy lives and by their immortal, divinely wise writings, which to this day delight our ears and edify the faithful children of the Church.

Glory to You, Christ our God, who ascended in glory, who has not forsaken us, who works in us and saves us. Amen.