| As the angels, O Savior, wondered at Thy strange elevation, and the Disciples were amazed at Thy dread rising, Thou didst ascend in glory, being God, and the gates were lifted up for Thee. Wherefore, the heavenly powers were surprised, shouting, Glory to Thy condescension, O Savior; glory to Thy reign; glory to Thine Ascension, O Thou Who alone art the Lover of mankind. (Orthros of the Ascension) In a reflection a few weeks ago, regarding the Resurrection of the Lord, I mentioned that there are two dynamics, both in the Gospels and in Orthodox spirituality, namely, descent and ascent. Christ rose from the dead and at once descended to the abode of the dead only to ascend with them to bring them to universal Salvation. Again, in the Incarnation, Christ “did not cling” to His equality with God, but “emptied Himself”, descended to earth as a human person and dwelt among us. Today, we celebrate the Great Feast of the Ascension – the final ascent of the Lord in the flesh to the Heavenly Kingdom from which He came. As the theologian Fr. John Anthony McGuckin makes clear: “We can sum up the significance of this major Feastday in one sentence. God descended to earth so that He could bring humanity up to the heights of heaven. The Ascension completes the salvific/saving work of our Lord Jesus Christ.” There’s more to this assertion than meets the eye. Two Great Feasts – the Nativity and the Ascension – are intimately connected. The Nativity tells us that, as the Word-Made-Flesh, Jesus experienced every aspect of what it means to be human and by His Divine Nature deified and sanctified it and made it holy once again. St. Gregory of Nyssa tells us “This is why Jesus came, to restore our holiness, to do the work of announcing that the Paradise-Kingdom was again to be opened, if we followed what he said was “the Way.” From a tiny fetus in the womb of His mother all the way to a violent death on the Cross, Jesus embraced the totality of human experience – not as a mask, not as a disguise or conjuring trick, but indeed, it was who He was and is. Into the Divinity of God, came the fragility of humanity. Protopresbyter George Dion Dragas, Professor of Theology at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Seminary, writes: “At the Ascension of Christ God the Father accepted the first-fruits of our humanity, and was well pleased not only for the worthiness of Him who offered it, but also for the purity of the offering. This, then, is the perfect victory against sin. This is the triumph of the human nature. Human nature could not have descended to a lower point than that at which it arrived after the fall of Adam, but neither could ascend to a higher point than that at which the New (or Last) Adam raised it with his Ascension!” What is apparent then, is that the Ascension is not only a sign of Christ’s victory over sin and death, it is also the feast of the glorificaton, the raising up, and the deification of our human person! Our humanity is presented before the Throne of Grace by one who bore it and shared its anxieties and pains. As the disciples stood looking up to the ascending Jesus, they could not have imagined what a great miracle was taking place. St. Symeon Metaphrastes, in the 10th century, crafted a prayer celebrating this wonder, which we recite before receiving Holy Communion: “Through Your life-giving resurrection You raised up the first father who had fallen. Raise me up, for I am sunk in sin, and give me the image of repentance. Through Your glorious ascension You made the flesh that You assumed to be divine and placed it on the throne at the Father’s right hand. Grant me to receive a place at the right hand with the saved through communion of Your Holy Mysteries.” The Ascension of the Lord Jesus gives us the certainty of the Church’s position on the human person: he or she is “Graced.” We were not made defective nor made pre-determined to fail. We carry with us no permanent stain of soul nor blemish. How different is the anthropology of the churches of the Reformation. John Calvin, a major Protestant reformer, starkly writes: “Original sin, therefore, appears to be a hereditary, depravity and corruption of our nature, diffused through all the parts of the soul, rendering us obnoxious to the divine wrath and producing in us those works which the scripture calls ‘works of the devil.” This is not the human person of the Ascension. It is not the human person presented to the Father by Christ as the “crowning glory” of his life and ministry on earth. While no human is perfect because of his freedom to sin, sin does not define who we are. Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and St. Vlassios confirms this perspective: “ Christ says to His Father that He found the lost sheep choking in the mire of life and, after grasping it with the right hand of His Divinity, He washed it in the water of the Jordan, filled it with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, and by His Resurrection has come offering this rationalsheep as a worthy gift of His Divinity.” This is who we were created as. This, because of Christ’s redemption of us, is who we are now. Unseen, but in His arms with Him, we ascend with Christ and thereby celebrate our humanity. One difficulty in living this truth, is that you and I have times when we “Protestantize” our Orthodoxy. We have times when we see ourselves as moving bundles of sin. We are certain that, if given the chance, we will foul up, stumble, hurt someone, and enter another “black mark” in God’s handy “Book of Sins.” (Note: There is no such thing!) We tear ourselves down, wondering, , if we can rise again. These are Calvinistic thoughts and our Western, largely Protestant society, has become enmeshed in them. Consequently, the Ascension fades and guilt, shame, and self-persecution take its place. The Harvard Business Review had a piece on this kind of persistent self-blame and guilt. The authors wrote: “People who pathologically feel shame and guilt, tend to internalize and overpersonalize everything that happens to them. They cannot see things in perspective. When something goes wrong, they say to themselves, “I’m to blame for what happened. It’s entirely my fault.” Not only do they demean themselves, but they also feel helpless, and don’t think that there’s anything they can do to change the situation. The internal critic in their heads continually judges and criticizes them, telling them that they are inadequate, inferior, or worthless.” This kind of psychological attitude can negatively impact our relationship with God. We begin to understand Him as a ruthless judge, exacting so much from us, punishing us for all we have done wrong, and, to be sure, readying our place with the goats rather than the sheep. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and today’s Great Feast of the Ascension is proof of that. Though we must show repentance and change of heart (metanoia) for our sins, today we celebrate a victory, for Christ and for our very nature as human. Christ’s earthly work is done in the flesh. In presenting His human nature to the Father, he transfers the work to us as it will continue through the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. In times of discouragement, when we feel like “children of a lesser god,” Fr. Dragas assures us: “What mind could grasp the real dimensions of this event? The forsaken and feeble human nature, the nature which run away from God and was exiled from paradise, the low, miserable, condemned and captured nature of human beings becomes today more glorious than that of the angels, is made to sit with Christ at the bosom of the Father and is worshiped by every visible and invisible creation! What language could praise the magnitude of this celebration, or to present worthily the enormity of the beneficence of God to human beings? Today the entry into the longed for paradise, the heavenly Jerusalem, is opened to Adam’s exiled descendants. Today, the restoration of the new Israel in the Promised Land is accomplished.” I’m fond of advising people to “change the tape” in their minds, to rid themselves of much of their “stinking thinking” and to begin to hear and feel a new message. Today’s Ascension message is a simple one: “You are made by God as good. You are sustained by His love no matter how deep or dark your sin. He yearns to be closer to you more than you yearn for Him. You are never a loser in God’s sight, and the proof of that is today you ascend with Christ into blessedness and peace.” May our Ascended Lord convince you of this truth, and may the words of the Prophet Jeremiah remain always in your heart: “Behold, I have loved you with an everlasting love, and with loving-kindness, I have drawn you unto Myself.” (Jeremiah 31:3) Glory to God for all things! Faithfully in the Ascended Lord, |
