A Homily on Ascension Day, by the Holy Hierarch Thaddeus Uspenskij
It isn’t that Christ didn’t wish to remain with the apostles visibly for ever. Rather, the world, which hates Christ, was not able to abide his Christ’s continual presence. The world, hating Christ, was able again and again to condemn Him to death. The world was unable to see Christ any longer because of its unrighteousness, for which it would be reproved by the Holy Spirit when He came into the world (Jn 16:8-10).
The sin that man committed introduced the corruption of death and made man’s eternal blessedness on earth impossible. The body, having received the seed of corruption, had to decay and die, for corruption doth not inherit incorruption (1 Cor 15:50). Sin itself, being the sting of death and its very source, could not be destroyed without the destruction of the perishable body, as the soul of fallen man had become fleshly and the flesh had become the bearer of sin. Even the earth had, through the sin of man, become the dwelling-place of corruption, tethering the heart of man to itself by means of the passions it incites. Therefore, “the earth also and the works that are therein” must eventually be burned up, melted away, destroyed, so that a new heaven and a new earth might appear, (2 Pet 3:10-13), the dwelling-place of the righteous.
First of all, the soul of man must be removed from earthly attachments, since the beginning of sin is in the soul. The heart, also, must be lifted up to God. Then, when sin is destroyed, then the body also can become incorruptible and spiritual, able to live in heaven.
By His Ascension, Christ prepared a place for man in heaven. He said that His Father has “many mansions,” and that it is “better” that he go and prepare a place therefore those who believe in Him and love Him, so that they may be where He is (Jn 14:2-3, 16:7). In order to estrange man from the passions of the earth and to lead him to the mansions above, the Lord endured death, Rose and Ascended into heaven. After the Ascension, His work is continued by the Holy Spirit, Whom He sent into the world, cleansing from sin and granting spiritual life to man. Abiding at first with men in the flesh in order to lead them into communion with God, visibly at first, after the Ascension Christ appears to the disciples only occasionally, also in the body, but now a spiritual body, as if arranging our ascent from visible communion to spiritual. After the Ascension, He leads people into spiritual communion with Himself in the Holy Spirit. This is the mystery of the joy of the holy apostles after the Lord’s Ascension. Their sorrow over separation from the Lord turned into the great joy of spiritual communion with Him in the Holy Spirit. Through faith this joy enters the hearts of those who love Christ, as it entered into the hears of the apostles.
Let us glorify Christ, who promised after his Ascension to be with us until the end of the world, who continues to see us, to hear us, to appear to us in various ways, leaving perceptible traces of his invisible presence in our lives, making all new (Rev 21:5).
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