Ascension 2023

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit, I wish each of you a joyous

and wonderful feast day. Nice to see you. When

I was young, and my father was a chaplain in

the Air Force, we had liturgy basically once

a week. have the chapel available for vespers

on Saturday and if we had a feast day we would

go if there was one in the area to a local parish

to celebrate with them. Usually it was a Greek

parish and everything was in Greek. But in our

base chapel it was very plain you know churchly

looking. Well, not churchly. The only reason

you could tell it was a church is because it

had pews, really. It was a very plain building.

I think many of you probably have been in such

places before you became Orthodox. We had our

vestments and we'd set up the icons for liturgy.

And, you know, we did a regular divine liturgy.

But it would have never occurred to me. To be

able to explain to anyone why we had vestments,

why we had icons, I had an assumption that the

resurrection was important and we had Pascha,

of course, we had Holy Week, but I would have

never thought that it was about the body, the

actual body being raised from the dead. I would

have assumed that heaven, was the spiritual reality

which we would all go to, and that the Ascension,

therefore, had no impact in my life. It made

no sense if I had thought about it, which I did

not. There was many assumptions, and I think

most, many, many of our non -Orthodox brothers

and sisters have this assumption about the spiritual

life, and then we're here on earth. But it's...

really got nothing to do with heaven. But here

in the church, we realize when we read this,

Jesus stood in the midst of them, in the midst

of the apostles. He stood not only physically

in their midst, but in their hearts and their

minds, their souls. And this is why in the church

we say, the clergy say, Christ is in our midst

because it's a real thing. It's so real that

the Lord said, look at my wounds. And he said,

do you have anything to eat? Not that he needed

food because the divinity and humanity joined

in this glorified post -resurrectional body doesn't

need food to be sustained. But he wanted to show

them, yes, it is about the sanctification of

everything. So we wear vestments because Christ

stands in our midst. And he is the one clothed

in majesty. The Lord is clothed in glory. He

sits at the right hand of the Father in the body

that he had after the resurrection. Our human

nature is at the right hand. of the Father. Let

me read to you just a few pages, a few paragraphs,

excuse me, from Father Alexander Schmemann's

sermon to Radio Free America years and years

ago. The church is not celebrating Christ's departure.

It says that the apostles returned to Jerusalem

with great joy. Christ said, I am with you always,

even unto the end of the age. The entire joy

of Christian faith is in the awareness of his

presence. That's what all this means. It's a

sign of that. Just as he promised, where two

or three are gathered in my name, there I am

in the midst of them. We celebrate not Christ's

departure, but his ascension into heaven. St.

John Chrysostom says, what need? do I have for

heaven when I myself will become heaven? Father

Alexander says, let the answer come from our

ancestors who called the church heaven on earth.

The essential point of this, heaven is the name

of our authentic vocation as human beings. That

the world and the kingdom of God are united.

Heaven is the final truth about earth. No heaven

is not somewhere in outer space behind planets

or in some unknown galaxy. Heaven is what Christ

gives back to us, what we lost through our sin

and pride, through our earthly, exclusively earthly,

and now sciences and ideologies, and now it is

opened, offered. returned to us by Christ. Heaven

is the kingdom of eternal life, the kingdom of

truth, goodness, and beauty. Heaven is the total

spiritual transformation of earthly and human

life. Heaven is the kingdom of God, victory over

death, the victory and the triumph of love and

care. Heaven is the fulfillment of that ultimate

desire about which it is said, eye has not seen

nor ear heard. nor has it entered into the heart

of man what God has prepared for those who love

him. All of this is revealed to us. All of this

is given to us by Christ. And therefore, heaven

on this day, ascension, permeates our life here

and now. The earth itself becomes a reflection,

a mirror image of heavenly beauty. Who descended

from heaven to earth to return heaven to us?

God. Who ascended from earth to heaven? The man

Jesus. St. Athanasius the Great said these famous

words. God became man so that man could become

God by grace. God came down to earth that we

might ascend to heaven. This is what the ascension

celebrates. This is the source of its brightness

and unspeakable joy. When St. John the theologian

Had the vision of heaven. The book of Revelation.

He spoke about the throne. And one like the son

of man taking the words from the prophet Daniel.

Sitting on the throne next to the father. And

praise and glory being offered to him. The lamb

slain before the foundation of the world. These

words were written. As an encouragement to those

who were suffering persecution. To those who

were suffering being outcast from their communities.

Violence and loneliness. They were an encouragement.

When we hear the gospel, the victory, we can't

think that Christ came to save my problems. He

came to save us and all of us and this world.

And St. John is telling them, there is one Lord.

It's not Caesar. It's not a politician. It's

not, oh, I don't know, some pandemic. It's not

the war. It's Christ in heaven. He says, the

Father has put all things into my power in heaven

and on earth. Go ye therefore without fear and

teach all of this to all people. baptizing them

in the name of the Father and the Son and the

Holy Spirit. And then he was lifted up into the

cloud of glory. And so we still say Christ is

in our midst because the Holy Spirit has been

given to us. And so we exalt in the glory of

this, not declaration, but a revelation of what

heaven is and why we are standing in its midst,

even now today, why we can say, for the peace

from above and for the salvation of our souls

let us pray to the lord amen