Ascension--The Forgotten Feast

It is regrettable that Ascension will always fall on a Thursday.  Many Christians simply cannot get off of work to attend the Divine Liturgy and the offices.  But, at the same time, I think most Orthodox Christians are ignorant about what this feast is really about.  We have come out of the 40 days of feasting at Pascha and Pentecost awaits. Ascension is the prophecy that Christ will send the Comforter, but it's so much more than that.

Christians lament that Christmas and Pascha have been hijacked by the secular world.  Christmas has Santa Clause and the materialism that goes with him and Pascha has the Easter Bunny and the gluttony that goes with him.  Ascension has NO secular counterpart.  And it shouldn't because Ascension is a feast day only for Christians.  There is little or nothing in it for the non-Christian.

Pascha is Christ's triumph over death.  As a result, every person, after their death, will be raised from the dead, regardless of what faith they professed or how long they have been dead.  The dead will arise, but they will also be presented before the Dread Judgment Seat of Christ.  From there, the wicked will go to their abode and the righteous will ascend to theirs to take their place at Christ's right hand, just as Christ ascended to take His place at the right hand of His Father.  Ascension is only for the Christian.

What's more is that Ascension ties directly to one of Orthodoxy's great theological truths that is proclaimed at every Orthodox liturgy and office--theosis, becoming like God.  Christ ascended into Heaven still clothed in the flesh that He assumed from the Blessed Virgin at His birth, the flesh that was beaten, bruised and tormented during His Passion.  Remember that His wounds were still present even after His Resurrection as He invited St. Thomas to put his hands into His side.  Christ ascended into Heaven with this very same flesh and deified it, made it god-like.  Before Christ's incarnation, our flesh was a detriment to salvation. Now, because of Christ's work on earth, it is our gateway to salvation.  Yes, we still war with it but as Christ assumed it, it is now healed.  "Anything unassumed is unhealed" said St. Gregory the Theologian.  Because human flesh sits at the right hand of God the Father, our flesh can be tempered and used for the glory of the heavens.  We can ascend to the heavenly place right now in our current existence.

We still await the Comforter, but let us glory in Christ's departure from this earth. It had to be done, just as the Incarnation, the Passion and Pascha as well as the events that happened to to His mother, the Theotokos.  Without Ascension, we cannot be more than what we are. Let us not forget it just because it always will happen on a Thursday.  Happy feast!

The Glorious Ascension of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ

Forty days after His Resurrection from the Dead, the Orthodox Church today (as well as the Western confessions) celebrate our Lord's Ascension into Heaven and His sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father. I was privileged for the first time to be able to celebrate the entire cycle of the feast (Vespers last night, Orthros and Liturgy this morning) and some insights came to me as to why this feast is so important and significant. Thanks to Fr. Peter Pappas at St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church for giving me some food for thought. And especially a great many thanks for allowing me to chant Orthros with you in both Greek and English.

Though this is one of the 12 great feasts, Ascension is often forgotten because it always falls on a Thursday and not everyone can get off work to go to Liturgy. At the same time, I think a lot of Christians, particularly Orthodox Christians, get discouraged when we come to Ascension because no longer do we chant "Christ is Risen" which we have done several million times since April 4 and the services return, more or less, to their "normal" mode. At the same time, though this feast is often forgotten, by both Eastern and Western Christians, I think that is a blessing in disguise. If it were more mainstream, how long would it be before the secularists who have so convoluted Pascha and Nativity with the Eastern Bunny and Santa Claus come up with some sort of secular alternative to this or even to our next feast, Pentecost? So, maybe we should rejoice in this little secret.

It's always disheartening to see Orthodox Christians not take the feasts of the Church seriously. I'm not speaking of those Orthodox Christians, of course who cannot make it because of their work and/or family schedules, but those who don't go simply because they have no desire to. Yet, at the same time, we should rejoice that even though the seats are left empty by our fellow man, the saints in Heaven and the Angels and Archangels together celebrate with us.

But, at the same time, I believe that most people don't really understand what Ascension is all about. They, as a whole, know the Gospels which record this event where Christ ascended into heaven giving his final commandment to the Apostles to love and forgive one another and that will be bound and loosed on earth will also be bound and loosed in heaven. OK, so what's the point then of his Ascending to heaven?

Our Lord spent 40 days here on earth following His Resurrection from the dead. He appeared to many, not as a spirit but as the God-Man, the Theanthropos. Every time he appears, He still appears with the wounds suffered from His Crucifixion. He doesn't appear as if He had his wounds treated. Why is this important?

Our Lord ascended into heaven while he still wore human flesh, wounds, sores and all. The Ascension is the deification of the flesh. We must remember that the bedrock of our theology is that God became man so that everything we have become through sin would be healed. Christ took our flesh up to heaven and that flesh sits at the right hand of the Father. Christ came not to destroy but to save!

We are often taught to fight against the body. This is erroneous. We are taught to war against the flesh. It is the flesh that is our enemy, but it is at the same time it is the source of our salvation. Bishop BASIL once said that the fallen Angels would never be saved because they have no flesh. Without flesh, they have not the means of repentance. Now that Christ has come, has been crucified, has been raised from the dead and has now ascended into the heavens, our repentance becomes strengthened not in spite of the flesh, but because of it! Our Lord did not come and do all these things simply to say "You are forgiven. Go and live life as you want because I will always forgive you." As he ascended and deified the flesh, Christ did command us to love and forgive one another. But he commanded us to do that because we now can do that since our flesh is no longer the burden it used to be. We have been changed! Ascension has done that.

There will be a general Resurrection at the Last Judgment. All men, Christian and not, will be resurrected as Christ promised. But the Ascension is only for the saved. St. Gregory Palamas says that "the Resurrection is connected with all men, but the Ascension only with the saints." Going further, Metropolitan HIEROTHEOS says this:

This is said from the from the point of view that by His Resurrection Christ conquered death and gave the gift of Resurrection to all. All will be resurrected on the day of Christ’s Second Coming, both righteous and sinners, but not all will be taken up. Only the righteous, the deified will be found worthy of this great experience. The Apostle Paul confesses: “And those who have died in Christ will rise first. 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” (I Thess. 4:16-17).

My thanks to Chris Orr at Orrologion for providing these quotes.

Christ's Pascha is for all men since all will be resurrected to be judged. Christ's Ascension is only for the saved who will become partakers of the essence of God through His energies (2 Peter 1:4). This is the bonafide Christian holiday! Though non-Christians and nominal Christians celebrate Nativity and Pascha, Ascension is not for them! It is for us!

So, let us go forth this day, rejoicing that the flesh is deified and that this holiday confirms our salvation through Christ our Lord and God and Saviour. Amen.