Ascension of the Lord is celebrated forty days after Easter, more precisely on Thursday of the sixth week after the feast of the Resurrection of Christ. At the evening service, which is served on the Wednesday before the Ascension, in accordance with the church's typical, the so-called Odanija Pasha, a kind of farewell with Easter is performed. The beginning and end of the service on that day is the same as on Easter itself. Joyful verses are sung again: "May God rise again and let His enemies be scattered..." and "Here is the day that the Lord has created, let us rejoice and be glad in it...".

When the swallows run out of food and when the brood approaches, they then move to warm areas, to areas with plenty of sun and food. One swallow flies forward, cutting through the air and opening a path, followed by the rest of the flock.

When there is no food for our soul in this material world, and when the shame of death approaches - oh, is there a swallow that will take us to a warmer region, where there is an abundance of warmth and spiritual food? Is there such a landscape? Are there any such swallows?

Outside the circle of the Christian church, no one can give you any reliable answer to this question. Only the church knows, and it knows for sure. She saw that heavenly landscape, for which our soul longs in the frosty twilight of this existence on earth. She also saw that blessed Swallow, which was the first to fly into that desired region, cutting with its powerful wings the dark and heavy atmosphere between the earth and the sky, and opening the way for the flock to follow Him. Apart from that, the church on earth can also tell you about countless flocks of swallows, which followed that first Swallow and flew after her to the land of grace, abundant in every good thing, to the land of eternal spring.

You remember that by that savior Swallow I mean the ascended Lord Jesus Christ. Didn't He Himself say that He is the beginning, the beginning and the way? And didn't He Himself say to His apostles: I am going to prepare a place for you, and I will take you to Myself (Jn. 14, 2-3)? And didn't he tell them even before that: and when I am raised from the earth I will draw everything to myself (12, 32)? What He said began to be fulfilled immediately after a few weeks, and has continued to be fulfilled to this day, and will be fulfilled until the end of time. That is, being the beginning of the first creation of the world, He also became the beginning of the second creation or the gracious renewal of the old substance. Sin broke the wings of Adam and all of Adam's descendants, and they all fell away from God, distanced themselves and became blind with the dust from which their bodies were made. Christ is like the New Adam, the first man, the Firstborn among men, who ascended to heaven with spiritual wings, to the Throne of eternal glory and power, thus making his way to heaven and opening all the gates of heaven to His spiritually winged followers. Like an eagle that clears the way for its eaglets. Like a swallow going forward, showing the flock the way and breaking the heavy resistance of the air.

Who would give me wings like a dove? I would fly away and rest! The prophet before Christ cried out plaintively (Ps. 55, 6). Why? He himself explains: my heart trembled within me, and the fear of death seized me. Fear and trembling came upon me, and horror seized me. Such a terrible feeling of mortal fear and the horror of being in the regions of this life must have pressed like a heavy sea on the whole reasonable and honest world before Christ. Who would give me wings to fly away from this life? Many a generous and sensitive soul had to wonder. But where should you fly, sinful human soul? Do you still remember that warm and bright place, from which you were expelled, as if in a dream? Behold, the gates are shut behind you, and a cherub with a flaming sword is set up to forbid you from entering. Behold, sin broke your wings, not birdlike but divine, and pressed you hard to the ground! You need someone who will first free you from the burden of sin, who will wash you and straighten you up. Well, then you need someone who will plant and nurture your new wings, so that you can fly. Well, you need someone, very powerful, to whom even a cherub with a flaming sword gets out of the way, to guide you to your bright homeland. Well, finally, you need someone who will propitiate the offended Creator, to welcome you back to the regions of His immortal state. This someone was not known to the pre-Christian world. He appeared as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. Out of love for you, He bowed heaven to earth and descended to earth, clothed himself in flesh, became a slave for your sake, suffered sweat and frost, endured hunger and thirst, revealed His face to be spit on and gave His body to be nailed to the Cross, laid down in the grave as if dead, descended into hell to destroy a dungeon worse than this life, which was intended for you after parting with the body, - and all this, in order to wash you from the mud of sin and make you upright; then he rose from the grave, to give you wings to fly to heaven, and finally ascended to heaven, to open the way for you and attract you to the angelic abode. Now, therefore, you do not have to sigh in fear, tremble and threaten like King David, nor to wish for wings like a dove, because the Eagle appeared, who showed and cut the way. You only need to nurture the spiritual wings, which were given to you by baptism in His name, and to wish with all your might to rise where He rose. He did for your salvation ninety-nine percent of what needed to be done; won't you make an effort to do the one remaining percentage on your own salvation, and that after you are so abundantly allowed to enter the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (II Pet. 1:11)?

The ascension of the Lord from earth to heaven is as great a surprise to men as His descent from heaven to earth and birth in the flesh was a surprise to angels. After all, what event in His life does not represent a unique novelty and a unique surprise for the world? As the angels had to observe with admiration, how God at the first creation separates light from darkness, and water from dry land, and how he arranges the stars in the firmament, and how he raises plants and animals from the dust, and how he finally shapes man and gives him life soul, likewise each of us must, willy-nilly, observe with admiration the events in the Savior's life, beginning with the unusual annunciation of the Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin in Nazareth and all the way to His mighty ascension on the Mount of Olives. Everything is surprising at first, but upon learning the plan of the administration of our salvation, everything prompts the reasonable man to shout joyfully and celebrate the power, wisdom and humanity of God. You cannot erase any great event from the life of Christ without mutilating everything, just as you cannot cut off a living person's hand or leg without mutilating him, or just as you cannot fit the moon from the firmament or extinguish one part of the starry sky, without insulting the harmony and beauty of the sky. Therefore, don't even think of saying: the ascension of the Lord was not necessary! When even some Jews, in addition to all their malice, had to confess and exclaim all good deeds (Mk. 7, 37)! how should you, who were baptized in His name, believe that everything He did, He did well, deliberately, carefully, wisely? And His ascension is, therefore, just as good, deliberate, systematic and wise as His incarnation, as well as baptism, as well as transfiguration, or as resurrection. It is better for you that I go, said the Lord to His disciples (Jn. 16, 7). You see how He organizes everything and does what is better for people? His every word and every action of His is aimed at our good. His ascension is of immeasurable good for us all. If it weren't so, He wouldn't even matter. But let's first focus on the event of the ascension as described by the evangelist Luke in two of his works, in the Gospel and in the Acts of the Apostles.

The Lord said to His disciples: this is how it was written and this is how Christ should have suffered and risen from the dead on the third day. Who wrote? The Holy Spirit wrote, from the counsel of the Holy Trinity, and through the prophets and secret seers, in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and in the psalms. The Lord gives so much importance to these books, if they are a prediction of what happened to Him. There is a prediction, here is a fulfillment. There is a dream and a picture, here is life and reality. Then open their minds to understand Scripture. An open mind equals the miracle of resurrection from the grave. Because under the heavy veil of sin, the human mind is as in the darkness of the grave: it reads and does not understand, looks and does not see, listens and does not sing. Who looked at the letters of Scripture and read more than the Jerusalem scribes, and yet - who saw less in the read letters than they? Why didn't the Lord remove the dark veil from their minds, so that they too could understand like the apostles? Because they were willing to have it done to them, but they were not. Because while the scribes and elders spoke for Him: this man is sinful and were looking for an opportunity to kill Him, until then the apostles spoke: Lord! Who will we go to? You have the words of eternal life (Job. 6, 68). God opens the mind only to the willing; only to the thirsty He gives the water of life; and is revealed only to those who longingly seek Him.

That's how it was written and that's how it should be. If it had been written by ordinary people according to their human reason, the Son of God would not have referred to their writing nor would he have been in a hurry to fulfill it. But prophetic writing is the writing of the Spirit of God, and God, consistent with Himself and His promises, sent His only begotten son to fulfill those written promises. It should have been so, says the One who sees the entire created world from end to end, as a man looks at a sheet of written paper in front of him. So when the sighted say that it should have been like that, aren't the blind people funny when they say that it shouldn't have been like that? It was necessary for Jesus to suffer in time, in order for us to rejoice in eternity. And he had to be resurrected, so that through him we too would be resurrected to eternal life.

And to preach repentance in his name and forgiveness of sins throughout all nations 1 starting from Jerusalem. If the Lord Jesus had not suffered and died for our sins, who among us would have known that sin is such a terrible poison? And if he had not risen, who among us, having learned about the horror of sin, would have had hope? Then neither repentance would be useful nor forgiveness possible. Because repentance corresponds to suffering for sin, and forgiveness to resurrection by divine power. Through repentance, the old man, infected with sin, lies in the grave, and through forgiveness, a new man is born into a new life. Here is a wonderful gospel to all the nations of the earth, starting from Jerusalem! What the servant of the Most High, the archangel Gabriel, spoke to the Blessed Virgin in prophetic words: he will save his people from their sins, is now confirmed by the Lord himself, with the experience of the sufferer and the right of the victor. But why is it said: starting from Jerusalem? Because a great sacrifice was made in Jerusalem for the whole human race, and the light of resurrection shone there from the grave. In a mysterious sense, however, - if Jerusalem represents the mind in man - it is clear that repentance, humility and contrition should start from the mind, and from there they should spread to the whole inner man. Pride of mind cast Satan down to Hades: pride of mind separated Adam and Eve from God; pride of mind moved the Pharisees and scribes to kill the Lord. Pride of mind is the main root of sin to this day. Whose mind does not kneel before Christ, his knees will not. He who has begun to calm his mind by repentance has begun to heal his main wound.

And you are witnessing this. What are you witnessing? Witnesses of the suffering of the Lord, witnesses of His glorious resurrection, witnesses of the need for repentance, witnesses of the truth of the forgiveness of sins. And to the apostle Paul, when he converted him from a persecutor to his apostle, the Lord said: for that is why I appeared to you, to make you a servant and a witness to what you saw (Acts Ap. 26, 16). And the apostle Peter, in his first sermon to the people after the descent of the Holy Spirit, says: God resurrected this Jesus, to which we are all witnesses (2, 32). The apostle John also says: what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have considered and our hands have touched - that we declare to you (I Jov. 1, 1-3). Therefore, the apostles were personal witnesses of the life-giving preaching of Christ, His miracles and all the events of His life on earth, on which our salvation is based. They were listeners, viewers and accomplices of the Truth. They were the first to be boarded in the ship of salvation from the deluge of sin, in order to continue to board and save others. Their minds were tamed from pride and their hearts cleansed from passion.

The Lord himself testified to them: you have already been cleansed by the word that I spoke to you (Jn. 15, 3). Not only, therefore, were they witnesses of everything external, which could be seen, heard, considered and felt in regard to the Word of God, but they were also witnesses of the inner rebirth and renewal of man through repentance and through the cleansing of sin. The gospel was not only in their eyes and ears, but also inside their hearts and minds. A whole revolution of heart and mind took place in them during the three years of their discipleship in Christ. That revolution consisted in the painful dying of the old man in them and the even more painful birth of the new. How many death agonies did their soul endure until finally, illuminated by light and reborn, they could not exclaim; do we know that we have passed from death to life (Jn. 3, 14)? How much time, how much effort, doubt, fear, agony, wandering, consideration and questioning - until they became true and faithful witnesses of both the physical suffering, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus and their own spiritual suffering, death and resurrection!

However, at that time the apostles were not yet fully spiritually hardened and matured. That is why the Lord continues and guides them like children, encouraging them at parting: I will not leave you poor (Job. 14, 18). That's why he deals with them for another forty days after his resurrection, showing himself alive with many true miracles and talking about the kingdom of God, and that's why, finally, he promises to send them the Holy Spirit, power from on high.

And he led them out into the field to Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. And when he blessed them, he departed from them, and ascended to heaven. What a magnificent and touching parting with the earth! There, on the edge of Mount Jeleonska, within sight of the mound, under which the dead Lazar rose again to this temporal life, the resurrected Lord ascended to the unfathomable heights of eternal life. He rose not to the stars but above the stars; he rose not to the angels but above the angels, and not to the highest powers of heaven but above these, above all the immortal armies of heaven, above all the heavenly abodes of angels and the righteous, far, far and for the eyes of the cherubim, to the very throne of the heavenly Father, to the very the mysterious altar of the Holy and life-giving Trinity. The measure of that height does not exist in the created world; perhaps, in the opposite direction, it is equaled only by the depth, into which pride drove Lucifer, the apostate from God; the depth into which Lucifer wanted to plunge the human race. The Lord Jesus saved us from this infinite destruction, and raised us instead of the depths of the abyss to the divine heights of heaven. He raised us up, we say, for two reasons: firstly, because He rose up as a fleshly man, as we are, and secondly, because He rose up, not for Himself, but for us, in order to open the way to reconciliation with God.

Ascending His resurrected body, which people had put to death and buried in the ground, He blessed with His hands, which people had dug up with children. Oh, blessed God, how great is Your mercy! The history of Your coming into the world began with a blessing, and it ended with a blessing. Announcing Your arrival in the world, the Archangel Gabriel greeted the Most Holy Mother of God with the words: rejoice, gracious, you are blessed among women! And now, when You greet those who receive You, You spread Your most pure hands and shower them with blessings. O most blessed of men! Oh, gracious source of blessings! Bless us too, as you blessed your apostles!

And when they were looking after him where he was going to heaven, behold, two men stood before them in white robes, who said: Galilean men! why are you standing and looking at the sky? This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come just as you saw him go into heaven. The two men in white robes are the two angels of God. Invisible armies of angels accompanied their Lord from earth to heaven, just as they accompanied Him somewhere from heaven to earth at His conception in Nazareth and birth in Bethlehem. Two of them at the ascension of the Lord made themselves visible to human eyes, according to God's plan, for the sake of one delivery to the disciples. That delivery was necessary for those who could feel abandoned and lonely after the departure of the Savior. This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come like that. It is the delivery of Christ through these two angels. Do you see how much the Lord's love for humanity is? Even at the time of His ascension to heaven, to the throne of the glory of the Triune God, He does not think about Himself, nor about His glory after humiliation, nor about His rest after a difficult work on earth, but He thinks about His own, who remain behind Him on earth. And if He personally was enough to advise and strengthen them, He still sends His angels to strengthen them and make them happy even more. And if he promised to send them the Spirit of Comforter; and if He personally told them: I will not leave you destitute, I will come to you - nevertheless He does something more, which He did not promise them: He shows them the angels of heaven, as His messengers and servants, only to convince them of His power , and secondly to repeat the promise to them through angelic mouths, that He will come to them again. He does everything, everything, just to repel fear and sadness from them, and to enrich them with courage and joy.

And they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Bow down to the almighty Lord with both soul and body, as a sign of respect and obedience. That gift of theirs means: let Your will be done, almighty Lord! And they returned from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, as they had been ordered. They did not return with sadness but with great joy. They would be sad if G-d parted with them in any other way. But His parting with them was a new and glorious revelation to them. He did not disappear from them no matter how and to an unknown place, but he ascended to heaven in glory and power. This obviously fulfilled His prophetic words about this event, just as those about His suffering and resurrection also came true before that. And the minds of the disciples were thereby opened, so that they could understand what He said: no one ascends to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man (Jn. 3, 13); and also what he said to the disciples in the form of a question (when they were deceived by His words about the bread that came down from heaven); and if you see the Son of Man going up to where he was before (6, 62)? and that: I came forth from the Father and came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father (16, 28). The darkness of ignorance instills fear and doubt in the human soul, and the light of knowing the truth instills joy and creates strength and confidence. The disciples were in fear and doubt when the Lord spoke to them about His death and resurrection. But when they saw him resurrected and alive, they rejoiced. The disciples had to be in fear and doubt again, when G-d spoke to them about His ascension to heaven and parting with them. But when that also happened before their eyes, as was prophesied, they were filled with great joy. Fear has been shattered, doubt has disappeared, doubt has flown away, and in its place is certainty, a beautiful sunny certainty, and from certainty comes strength and joy. Now they knew for sure that their Lord and Teacher had come down from heaven, because he had ascended to heaven; and that he was sent by the Father, because he returned to the Father; and that He is omnipotent in heaven as He was on earth, because the angels follow Him and fulfill His will. With that reliable knowledge was now also a reliable faith, that He would come again, and that in no other way than in power and glory, as He told them many times, and as the angels repeated His promise. Therefore, there was nothing left for them now but to zealously fulfill His commandments in everything. He commanded them to sit in Jerusalem and wait for power from on high. With great and fully justified joy, and with equally great faith, that this power from on high would come upon them, they returned to Jerusalem.

And they were equally in the church praising and blessing God. That is, they constantly went to the Jerusalem temple, and there they praised and blessed God. In another place, it is said again: all were equally at prayer with one accord (Acts Acts 1, 14). After everything they saw and learned, they could no longer separate their minds and hearts from the Lord, who had moved away from before their eyes, but who therefore remained even more deeply implanted in their souls. With power and glory He dwelt in their souls, and they joyfully praised and blessed God. And so, He returned to them sooner than they expected. He did not come back, so that the eyes could see him, but he came back and took up residence in their souls. But He was not alone in their souls, but together with the Father. Because the Lord said about the one who has love for Him: I and the Father will come to him, and we will dwell in him (Jn. 14, 23). All that was needed was for the Holy Spirit to come down and dwell in them, so that they would be perfect people, in whom the face was renewed and the likeness of the begotten God. That's what they had to wait for in Jerusalem. And they waited, and they waited. And ten days later, the Holy Spirit, a power from on high, descended on that first church of Christ, so that it would never be separated from the Church of Christ in general until today and until the end of time.

Let us also praise and bless the Lord, who opened our minds with His ascension, so that we can see the path and goal of our lives. Let us praise and bless the Father, who responds to our love for the Son with His love, and dwells together with the Son in everyone who keeps and confesses the Lord's commandments. And let's keep the Father and the Son in our mind constantly, praising and blessing them - like the apostles somewhere in the city of Jerusalem - waiting for the power from on high to descend on us, the Comforter Spirit, who still descends on each of us at baptism, but who because of removes our sins from us. So that the whole original heavenly man would be renewed in us as well. So that we too, as apostles, would be worthy to be blessed by our glorified and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and praise, with the Father and the Holy Spirit - the one and indivisible Trinity, now and forever, through all time and all eternity. Amen.

Saint Bishop Nicholas

1) The evangelist Mark says the same thing in other words: preach the gospel of all things. It signifies again to every substance – to all people. "Man has something of every substance. He has a common being with stones, life with trees, feeling with animals, reason with angels... Hence, man is understood by every substance. Grieg. Two words: Anger. XXIX.

Holy Martyr Ermia, Holy Apostle Jerma. Holy Martyr Philosopher.