Reflections on the Feast of the Ascension

Saint Pope Shenouda III reflects on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, explaining that the Ascension was not a departure from His disciples, but a transition from visible existence to invisible existence, while remaining with them always.
Christ wanted to raise His disciples from the level of the senses and sight to the level of faith, so that they would believe in Him without His physical visibility being a condition for His presence in their lives.
He emphasizes that faith is confidence in things that are not seen, and that not seeing Christ with the senses does not mean that He is absent, because He is present with believers and dwells by faith in their hearts.

Spiritual Message

Pope Shenouda explains that the Ascension was a sign of the disciples’ maturity in faith. After they had needed to see Christ, touch Him, and sit with Him physically, they now had to learn to live with Him through faith.
He also explains that the Ascension revealed Christ’s glory and power, and that the body which ascended was the glorified body, proclaiming the hope of resurrection and of God’s children sharing in glory.
He further emphasizes that the Ascension marked the end of the stage of self-emptying, and that Christ will come again in His great glory, as the angels promised the disciples.

Educational Lesson

Pope Shenouda distinguishes between the Ascension in its bodily aspect and the divinity, explaining that divinity does not ascend or descend because it is present everywhere, while it was the body that ascended into heaven.
The Ascension is also presented as a process of spiritual weaning for the disciples, because Christ was no longer to do everything before them; instead, He began to give them room to work and serve, while remaining with them in an invisible way.
He compares this to a father teaching his son to swim or an eagle teaching its young to fly, allowing them to practice on their own without abandoning them.

Practical Application

Pope Shenouda calls us to have the Feast of the Ascension continually present in our lives, not merely as an occasion we celebrate, by allowing our thoughts to rise from the material level to the spiritual level and our desires to rise from the earthly level to the heavenly level.
A person should therefore lift his heart toward heaven, because where his treasure is, there his heart will also be, and he should learn to recognize Christ’s presence through faith even when his eyes cannot see Him.
The Ascension is also an act of love, because Christ went to prepare a place for His children and promised to come and take them to Himself so that they may be with Him always.
Therefore, the believer should long for life with the Lord, live with the hope of heavenly glory, and not allow his heart to cling to earthly and material things, but should train himself to rise spiritually in his thoughts, desires, and life.

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