The Glorious Feast of the Ascension
We celebrated last Thursday the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven. And we would like to contemplate a little on this feast, the glorious Feast of the Ascension.
How was the Ascension…?
1- The Ascension was in the body, in the humanity:
For the divinity does not ascend nor descend. He is the One who fills all, present in heaven and on earth and in what is between them. So how would He ascend to heaven while He is already in it?! And how would He leave the earth and ascend to heaven, while remaining on earth during His Ascension?! Therefore we must say that the Lord Christ ascended in the body (which is united with the divinity). And this is what we say to Him in the Gregorian Liturgy: “And at Your Ascension into the heavens bodily…”
2- And some may ask: Did the Lord, in His Ascension, tread upon the law of gravity?
To answer this question, we mention two important points:
A- The natural laws were set by God for nature to submit to them, not for Him to submit to them! So was there in this matter a miracle?
B- It is a miracle for us, since we see the Lord Christ ascending with His body upward into heaven. But in reality, it is a natural matter with regard to the glorified body with which the Lord rose, about which it is said concerning us that He “will transform the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of His glory” (Phil. 3:21). Therefore the miracle is in this glorified body with which Christ ascended.
This spiritual, heavenly body—after whose example the Apostle said that man is raised a spiritual body, “and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly” (1 Cor. 15:44, 49)—this spiritual heavenly body is what Christ ascended with into heaven.
This Ascension was not in contradiction with nature; rather, it was an exaltation of the nature of the Resurrection and in harmony with it.
If a material body ascended to heaven, we would say this is against the laws of gravity. But that a spiritual heavenly body ascends—this is consistent with the exalted nature which the body receives in the Resurrection, becoming a spiritual body, “for flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50).
Truly, the body of the Resurrection or the body of the Ascension is the miracle.
The miracle is the transformation of the material body into a spiritual body, into a heavenly body, a glorified body capable of ascending upward. And this will also happen to us in the Resurrection when “we are glorified with Him,” and rise “in incorruption,” and “in power,” and “in glory” (1 Cor. 15:42–44). The living on the earth at the time of the Resurrection will be changed “in a moment,” “in the twinkling of an eye,” “at the last trumpet,” and “this mortal will put on immortality” (1 Cor. 15:52–53). “Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thess. 4:17). And here we mention another point about the Ascension:
3- The Ascension of the Lord was in the cloud:
“He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9). And the cloud in the Holy Scripture symbolized the glory of the Lord and His dwelling. In the story of blessing the seventy elders as helpers to Moses the Prophet, the Lord says concerning Moses, “Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke to him…” And at the completion of setting up the Tabernacle of Meeting, the divine revelation said: “Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter the tabernacle of meeting, because the cloud rested above it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle” (Ex. 40:34–35). In the New Testament, after the miracle of the Transfiguration, it was said: “And a cloud overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying: This is My beloved Son; hear Him” (Luke 9:35; Mark 9:7).
The Ascension gives the spirit of hope
Who would have thought during the sufferings of the crucifixion, with all its insults and humiliation, that it would end in this glory of the Resurrection and the Ascension and the sitting at the right hand of the Father?! Does this not give us fullness of hope when tribulations surround us, so we remember that after the sorrows of Golgotha come the joys of Resurrection and the glories of Ascension…
All the matter needs is faith, trust, and patience.
There are people who, when tribulation comes, it swallows them, and their souls remain imprisoned inside it, as if there is no salvation!! Such people end their lives at Golgotha, in despair without hope. And had the story of Christ ended with His crucifixion, we would have been the most miserable of people.
But we rejoice because the story of the crucifixion was followed by the Resurrection and then the Ascension. In the Resurrection death was destroyed, but Christ was still on earth. As for the Ascension, He rose above the earth—in glory—into heaven…
And His Ascension was a proof of His power and His divinity. It was a practical response to those who were stumbled by the crucifixion.
For just as He rose by His own power alone, without anyone raising Him, so also He ascended by His own power.
In Him was the power of Ascension, just as in Him was the power of Resurrection. In both, His glory appeared. He ascended upon a cloud in glory, as He will also come in His second coming upon the clouds in glory. Thus He said to the chief priests during His trial before the crucifixion: “From now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven” (Matt. 26:64). And this phrase adds that one of the glories of the Ascension is the sitting at the right hand of the Father.
Sitting at the right hand of the Father
This sitting has testimonies in the Old and New Testaments:
In the Old Testament we read in the Psalm: “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Ps. 110:1). And here—in the sitting—He calls Him Lord, with the glory of victory over His enemies.
In the New Testament the story of the Ascension is narrated in the Gospel of Mark: “So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God” (Mark 16:19). And this sitting appeared in the story of the martyrdom of Stephen the first deacon, when he said: “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56).
And how many references there are to His sitting at the right hand of the Father in the Epistle to the Hebrews, among them: “When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels” (Heb. 1:3) (see also Heb. 8:1; Heb. 12:2).
Here we ask: What is the meaning of sitting at the right hand of the Father?
God has no right or left, for He is unlimited, and there is no empty space at His right where someone could sit, for He fills all. But the word right means power, greatness, and righteousness, as it is said in the Psalm: “The right hand of the Lord has done valiantly; the right hand of the Lord has exalted me” (Ps. 117). And the meaning is that Christ sat in the greatness of the Father and in His power.
That is, the period of self-emptying (Phil. 2:7) has ended.
He had “emptied Himself” when He was incarnate, “taking the form of a servant, coming in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). But after His Ascension, He entered into His glory. And the phrase “sat at the right hand of the Father” means He settled. That is, it is a permanent glory, with no more emptying afterwards… the emptying through which He was born in a manger, lived poor with no place to lay His head, “a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief” (Isa. 53:3). Therefore when He comes in His second coming, He will come “with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:30), “in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him” (Matt. 25:31). Indeed it is said: “He will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works” (Matt. 16:27).
Contemplation on the glory of God
Many take the love of God, His humility, His gentleness, and His forgiveness as subjects for contemplation. And this is good and beneficial. But are there spiritual benefits when we contemplate the glory and greatness of God? Without doubt, they are abundant sources of spirituality.
A- Contemplating the glory of God leads us to reverence.
Some people, driven by uncontrolled feelings of love, fall into carelessness, saying in every laxity and transgression: “God is very compassionate and tender, and surely He will forgive,” as if forgiveness had no conditions of repentance and contrition! We need feelings of reverence when we contemplate God’s glory and greatness… God the unlimited, the incomprehensible, who is unapproachable light, before whom angels and archangels bow and worship… before whom the cherubim and seraphim tremble: with two wings they cover their faces, and with two wings they cover their feet… The Ascension plants in our hearts the feelings of reverence.
B- And also the glory of God plants in us fear and obedience.
And we need both, for without them we cannot reach perfect love that casts out fear (1 John 4:18), nor can we reach purity of heart by which we shall see God (Matt. 5:8).
And in the Ascension of the Lord, an embarrassing question may stand before us: Why do we rejoice in the Ascension of the Lord when by His Ascension He has left us?
Did He leave us in His Ascension?
No, He did not leave us at all, for He promised us saying:
“Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).
And He also said to us: “For where two or three are gathered together in My Name, I am there in the midst of them” (Matt. 18:20). And He is present with us on the table of the Eucharist, “Emmanuel our God, which is translated ‘God with us’” (Matt. 1:23). And He is also abiding in us and we in Him (John 17). And He also dwells in our hearts by faith (Eph. 3:17). All that is in the matter is that He is with us in an unseen manner.
For in the gifts of the New Covenant we have reached a state of spiritual maturity, living in Him according to the Lord’s saying: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). We believe in the presence of God with us without seeing Him, and we believe in the presence of the Holy Spirit in us without seeing Him. It is enough that we see His work and feel His hand in our lives.
The ten days:
Before the Ascension, the Lord promised His disciples that He would send them the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49). And ten days passed without Him sending the Spirit… They were days of waiting for the Lord, in faith: “Wait on the Lord; be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord” (Ps. 27:14). And they were also for preparing the hearts to receive the Spirit with joy…
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Article by His Holiness Pope Shenouda III, published in Watani Newspaper on 22-5-1988
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