On the Ascension

On the Ascension of Our Lord, which is his own, when he is his own. A discourse of thirty-six. On the Ascension of Our Lord. A prayer. Blessed is Christ who on the day of his ascension raised up and seated with him in heaven his brothers. In the swiftness of the mind I marvel greatly how much it increased, that while he was alive he cried out authority and reigned over the world. In the swift course, how many thoughts were raised up, that he became a fitting water greatly for praises. In the humility of the mind, pains were subdued that they might cease, which were hindering the desire to delight the life of all. In the chosen vessel of the chariot of the body, my thoughts flew, that they might take the wings of flight to the face of the height. The swift course hinted to me in silence that I saw the wonder, how much the humility of the dust of Adam increased. The humility of the mind subdued pains, that I might look upon the glorious image that is clothed in glory. Again, the loose one of the two natures called me and awakened me, that I might rise and flee in the son of the living one who reached the height. The separation that is in me renewed me like a deaf one, that the heaven of wisdom might repay thanksgiving to the giver of your nature. The creator of my being troubled me in silence secretly, that I might give words of exaltation to the sinner of the height. My thoughts counseled me that I might cast your gaze upon the face of the height, adorned with the firmament that opened its gates for the new king. At the voice of the spiritual herald, my thoughts were disturbed, who cries out in spirit and shows us the image of victory. I heard the new book of the new covenant, which is interpreted by revelation to the perfect of my life.

To the twelve of the martyrs, I saw the chosen ones, that they were pressed, and they were asking about the solution of the kingdom of Rome. The sons of the palace pressed around the king, asking him at what time you would show the crowns of your headship. It was revealed and examined for you, that the one who brought your words near and gave a reward to the seed of Abraham, as was acknowledged. The great swift one saw the care of the sons of the heart, and all of them went from the question of the chosen one. In a Hebrew manner, the sons asked about the kingdom, and at once all of them went to completion. It is not yours to know the time of the end of times, nor to cease from bringing forth the power of the mysteries. Yours is this: to complete the power of the proclamation, and to be witnesses of the new way that was trodden in my person. I ask of you that you seal it with the raising of a hand, the covenant that was established with the blood of the sons of Adam. I send you like messengers to the four corners, that you may turn peoples to the brotherhood of the house of Abraham. I clothe you with the armor of the spirit that restrains all, to take up the standard with the righteous one who enslaved men. Through you, like a light, I pursue the darkness of their error, I kindle and illuminate the blind world. Through you, I reveal the covering of the iniquity of the evil one who spread, and I set up the hidden net that he wove for the hunt. Through you, I fix like spectacles before the seers, that men may see their persons and remove iniquity.

In you, the Spirit opens a treasury and enriches all. Give, bestow the pure reward of life to mortality. In you, the Spirit completes and fulfills mysteries and types. Unravel and show in the hands of all men the wondrous power. In you, the Spirit begins the way of the Spirit for the earthly ones. Show the path of the firmament that is not destroyed. In you, the Spirit reveals hard judgments and abundant mercies. Establish and strengthen so that they are not caught in the decree of judgment. The Great One delivered to his disciples the orders of the face. And he began the journey on the new road toward Rome. He completed the will of his sender in the salvation of men. And he finished the work of his activity for the sake of all. He took victory against the feast of spiritual and corporeal ones. And he made the eloquent and the magicians marvel through the love of the face. The earth and the heavens were troubled at his ascension. When he was going to take the kingdom of Rome. A hidden sign, while the chariot was mounted on the wings of the Spirit. And he commanded, "Let the king who conquers mount and ascend." He spread the clouds, the clouds of light, over the chariot. And the king sat and placed upon himself the sign of the crown on his head. The eloquent and the magicians cried out, the chariot was shaken. And they were moving the hidden in the revealed, the sign in the body. He prepared the equipment, the horses of fire, toward Rome. And he taught the path of the journey on the road that was not trodden. There was a command like a whistle in the hands of the magicians. That they open the gates for the king to enter in glory.

He raised the sign toward the face of the gate, the sister of the waters, and opened the gate that was fastened on the banks of the waters. The sign opened a new gate for a new king, in which the foot of men had not trodden by means of the word. He alone trod the path of the kingdom of height, and entered the sanctuary in the Holy of Holies like a high priest. In the holiness of height he reached the sanctuary spiritually, in a place that is pure and cannot be closed by earthly things. He went to the treasury that yields in name and in deeds, and ascended and reigned above the heads and rulers. He went to the life that is pure, the step of authority, and subjugated without subjection under his dominion the eloquent and the mute. He walked on the earth and took captive a captive from the righteous, and led her and ascended to the place of the rebel from the pure ones. He humbled and cast down the tumult that rebelled from his humility, and clothed his powers in spiritual armor. He taught the strength of spiritual discipline, that they might be strong against the evil that conquers in him. He showed the way of ascent, the path of height, by the sign of his body that was to be lifted above the earth. He drew the gaze to look clearly at his glory and to grasp hope toward his kingdoms. He embodied the earth like a chariot before their eyes, and mounted spirit on visible body and reached the height. He sent forth from the spirits that accompany him, and they marveled at the white garments they had put on.

In the garment of light, he showed them the way to the heavens, for the rays of his light were wrapped as if in his own. The sister of light went before their faces, that they might not be troubled, as they were desiring to see something that had no limit. Two thoughts urged them on to the earthly, and because of two things they were fixed upon the heights. They wondered whether it was possible to see the gates as they were opened, or whether perhaps the nature of his body was changed. For they were thinking: how does the body ascend to the height, and how does the spiritual being enter the gate that is shut? In this perplexity they sent their minds after the spiritual ones, that they might settle the point and the half of their thoughts. They stood in silence before their eyes and were amazed, for they did not approach the vision near them, but from afar. The Galileans, however, cried out to them by a clear name, and showed them that they were persuaded by that which had ascended. “From the resurrection you stand, and from the ascension you stand in the height above; from the ascension you are exalted in the hand of the difficulty of the life of the flesh.” They learned from them, as from true interpreters of mysteries, that this Jesus came thus, as he had ascended in that same way. By the vision of his bodily appearance, in that same way he abides without confusion in body and soul. In that vision he abides in a beauty that is unspeakable, and is destined to come at the end of times for the renewal of all. In that vision of the revealed body, the hidden soul is made manifest, that it ascended and reigned with the will of its chosen one from all.

In that very vision, how many heretics were confounded! In that I confess and do not deny, I affirm the testimony of the watchers. I do not falsify the spiritual witnesses, the chosen martyrs, and I do not alter the clear character of the sound of their words. I do not transgress the boundaries of the words of the king's servants, and I do not conceal the apostrophes of the hidden sign. True and chosen is the writing of the ladder of the beginning of the race. And the spiritual ones also set their hand, sealed, and completed. In the path of the word of him who ascended, they also followed, the deceivers and the examiners, who from the tomb stood up in a living nature. They felt and saw the place of the spear and the place of the nails, and they knew and were convinced that no spirit was in the flesh and bones. Flesh and bones they showed to the witnesses of his death, so that they would not be divided over his assumption, that he was not like them. They showed in his body nails and spear to the seekers of his mystery, after he had become immortal and impassible. He showed a new thing after his death, outside the order, that he ate and drank with his preachers and confirmed them. He resisted the natures that swallowed up the glory of his suffering, and he showed himself in pain and received food like a weakling. That he might show pain without suffering, truly to us, and how he showed himself, only he knows who is like that. That he ate and drank does not falsify the boundaries of his words, and how he ate, that is revealed by the testimony that he ate. For the confirmation of his words, he first seals with this that he did, that he said that he would come with all his people in the kingdom of height.

And if they say that the pains of the body and the afflictions of the Word are like the hearing that shows sufferings, and like eating and drinking [...] Come, translate for us the new books of the proclamation, that the body which received sufferings and its hands are bound. If it was hidden, it came to light and became flesh, why did it show us sufferings in its body after it was incarnated? Perhaps its nature was sentient before its coming, and to confirm the truth of its sentience it shows sufferings. Enough! My will did not beget this folly, the foolish error of the mixed ones who are stiff-necked and their saying. Not from my desire did I weave to ascend to the height above, for that father desired to descend to the lowly earth, as we said. Not vainglory snatched me to contend in secret, but I sought the words of their blasphemies to refute them. It was not the step of greatness that I sought to seize; my heart's children called me a turncoat and did not please me. They turned his face to the evil that he received at the head of his victory, and because of this I cast my arrows against them. The inhabited and the desolate sought your foundation in the house of truth, and see your thoughts like a fire that burned them. And if not, show by the deeds how you are in the house, and learn the sign of their pastors how you live. If from the body of the church they are like members, what helps the name Christ, the head of the body? Why do they renew the name of the man who is set in the books, and what is added to the name of the honor that the race received? Why do they mix the hidden nature that cannot be mixed, and why do they also mingle the covered things that cannot be mingled?

The nature is not changed, the hidden is revealed in the body made manifest. When it is extended, it does not stand still in its extension. There is no place for it, the one who holds all, for the journey is beyond all and within all, his nature rules. Because of this, the Word struggles with the armor of words, to destroy the ranks of the afflictions of the Word and the pains of the body. The Word is subjected to the suffering of the flesh that is spread, and the body is deprived of the honor that is with the essence. The watchers cry out that he ascended and ruled in his nature, and the mouth of the afflictions of the heart is closed from lamentation. In him again, at the end of the sacrifices, the apostles revealed, and they did not heed the proclamation of the spiritual ones. The son of the flesh is the one who ascended and ruled with the essence, and not the essence descended to earth and ascended like the flesh. It is our nature that mounted the spirit and commanded the air, and the eloquent and the deaf were amazed at his hidden mystery. He was the one who opened a new way in the thin air, and he knew the wings of flight without his nature. He was the one who opened the gates of height before the earth-dwellers, and upon the altar of the Holy of Holies instead of their lives. It was not in the order of the law upon the altar, but in the blood of the new covenant of his own. He did not serve with earthly things like priests, to heaven upon the altar that covers all with the sacrifice of himself. One entrance he made and entered the Holy of Holies, and the sacrifice did not cease again for his descent and the greatness of his rank.

He went up and showed himself before the Seer of All, who saw him, and gave him the step and set for him the crown of the name of essence. He brought him near by the power of the hidden sign to the step above, to that greatness which is not understood with the things made. He subjected all and ruled over all by the power of his thought, and received the service of the spiritual and the corporeal. By his knowledge he chose the distinction of the rational nature, and placed in due order times, words, and signs of the senses. Through the revelation of his body I saw in hidden movements that hiddenness which is concealed from all and reveals all. In him is discerned by external senses as in the open, and by the mind through the power of the hidden essence within him. By the fire of his love he kindled and united the wakeful and the men, and he moves himself as to the hidden image of the king. In his body the corporeal see their own members, and the spiritual see their own ranks in his movements. Praise is sung in the voice of the senses spiritually, and they sanctify him by the purity of their minds. They worship at every hour in the temple of his body the one who is hidden in him, and offer to him hidden sacrifices of their minds. His body receives and conceals the movements of their thoughts when it is shaken by the hidden desire of the incomprehensible. Because of this he chose him from all, and all are established, for he fills all by the revelation of his body, and all ascend. He was the summit of creation, always seeking something hidden, and he taught the power of the mysteries and their details. And since the hidden cannot be seen, it came to the open; he set a limit for their questions in the revealed image.

He runs at every hour in the stadium of the name of essence. And when he reached the gate of his body, they took the victory. He gave them the athletic prize of their intention, a crown of anointing hidden in his hand in place of their labors. With the hand of his body, the Lord of the vineyard gave a reward to the workers who were not, because of the hope of new life. And by it the shoots of the spirit are turned to good works. They took the silver and spread it out well, and they loosed and enriched. From him the evil servant heard that voice of the daughter, that because of the water the talent is hidden which you gave into your hands. With him the wise entered into the new chamber, while they are adorned in a garment of glory that is indestructible. He was turning to the foolish who are not worthy of oil: "Go, be refreshed from your labors as you have desired." By the word of his commandments, the hope of his love calls out, and they go out to his way to receive a reward for their labors. With him they fly to the heights on wings of the spirit, while they are exalted upon the chariot of the air of his loins. By the manifest signs of the ascension by which his own body ascended, by it the bodies that were the dwelling of his love are exalted. The cloud bore his body like a chariot as he ascended, and a hidden sign guided it like a temple. In that likeness, clouds of light bear bodies by that command which he commanded the air and [...] his body. By it they are pressed to the powers and to the glorious ones, and he inscribed signs on the tablets of his body. By it he showed us the descent of how much wealth, and by it he indicated to us the redemption of how much ascent.

his belly, he burned the boundary of mortality from the living one. And in his death, he showed that he is without end, the earth-born one. Through his upbringing among the earthly ones, he revealed what he is, and that he bore sufferings, he showed his nature, that he is from the living ones. In his death, he proclaimed the economy that was in his hand, and by his command, he loosed sin and abolished death. Through his departure, he showed us the way to ascend to the height, and by his victory, he exalted the body from the living one. In the place of morning, he was for us his earthly life, and the end of the day, the course of his way to the heights. He went out from the morning and burned with sufferings the fire of the body, and he lived in the evening of the height above, as at dusk. Through his ascent, he opened the doors that were closed, and he brought in with him to the holy of holies, which was not accessible. He ascended, living with his exaltation to the essence, and he sat, dust, in the order of a king, a firm ruler. He took the scepter of headship and reigned over all, and he began to command in what was not his own, as a servant. O the living one, how much he increased in what was not his own! O the mortal one, who divided life from the others! O the earthly one, who left the earth, the mother of his body, and entered the one who dwells in the depth of the mother who does not know him! O the dust, who abandoned his place, the dwelling of sacrifice, and ascended to a place that has no end, to the mother of essence! O the son of the race, the human, created from the earth, who stood on the ladder and placed the authority of divinity! He mounted the heavy wings of the spirit and flew in the air, and he hastened to show himself to the stars of the height by his swiftness.

In great wonder the watchers of the heavens stood, when they saw the body that flew without end. The watchers wove for him a crown of glory as he ascended, for they saw that he had opened a way for men to their watchers. He was a messenger to the disciples who were sad, and he gladdened them by the white garments they had put on. Love and compassion stood toward the race through his ascension, and they began to pursue the way of peace toward humanity. They were sad over their fall from the beginning, but when they saw his resurrection through the son of the race, they rejoiced, sat down, and were comforted. The command greatly shortened the way through him and them, and he settled by his blood the island of peace that greatly increased our debts. Through his mediation, peace restrained all by the divider, and he established the peace that renewed all through his ascension. He loosed the prisoners who were bound in the bonds of the people, and he clarified them in the praises he received and inherited. He, by his resurrection, was showing beautiful things, and he grew crowns fitting for the head of his victory. In his belly, glory to God restrained all from his strengths, and peace on earth and good hope to the hopeless. Through the offering of the sacrifices, the sound of the proclamation of repentance, that behold, it is set for the island of peace and the sign of peace. His baptism called like a trumpet upon his greatness, and his voice of the father proclaims his love and the greatness of his rank. His fasting proclaims his victory, that within the destruction of his flesh, by spiritual senses, he restrained all. In the time of his death, even the silent were speakers, that they perceived a hidden sign and stood in strength.

The sound of his ascension killed death and trampled sin. The dead cried out in the ears of death, "Where is your sting?" On the day of his ascension he summoned the earthly and the heavenly, and showed them a new way to ascend to the height. Spiritual and corporeal beings went out to meet him, for they saw his body flying as if it were spirit. The sight of his body was easy for the earthly, and the nature of his soul was very dear to the watchers. The eye of flesh was not sated with gazing, in the senses of his body as he was borne aloft over the chariots. The spiritual beings were not separated from him, but remained with him, and they were eager to know where he would enter with love, pursuing him. He was radiant and his face shone, the time of his ascension, and he surpassed the sphere of the sun, the course of its path. With the victory of the great sun he made his victory, and spread the light of his proclamation to the ends of the earth. In the month when light conquers darkness, he condemned sin and pursued the errors of the serpent, the ancient deceiver. Light conquered through the swine, and light became servant and master, and darkness with darkness he cast into the abyss of error. The watcher stood in the course of his path on the upper step, and placed darkness on the lower step as in a tomb. The sun of righteousness also ascended to the height above, and overwhelmed error and its deceits into the depth below. In three hours he took light from darkness, and stopped its course and confined its fullness to the lower step.

He gave three names also to his twelve apostles, and with them he cut off the path of death which the evil one had trodden. His rays fell upon the whole earth like rain, and the moisture of its depth made its fruits ripen in his warmth. The dew of mercy rained down from the Creator through the beginning, and the fruits of righteousness ripened in the earth of the soul. In the month which yields fruits and seeds for the life of the sacrifice, the fruits which give life without end ripened. He entered the month which is the first of the year, and gave birth through the womb of the month which brought light to the darkness. He fasted and was strengthened in the solid month, hidden from fruits, and ripened the fruits of violence against himself from the seals. He offered his resurrection in the sacrifice which Adam had spoiled by eating, and pleased the Lord and his servants with his offering, and made them rejoice. In the month of the condemnation of Adam after the fact, in it Adam found the cry of the two who conquer death. In the sacrifice from which a beautiful heir came forth from his inheritance, upon the worthy one, not the door of life which is indestructible. Through victory he repaid the debt of our condemnation, and enrolled with him in the gifts and inheritances of the wealth he received. He freed our captivity from the prison which suits our bodies, and raised her to a place which lacks nothing of the equipment of her whole. He placed our spiritual wealth in the height above, which is not corrupted by the stains of the passions. He directed the mind towards the treasures of the treasury of our soul, so that it might pasture on our own and not be scattered among what is not ours.

He showed us that our love is like that of merchants, and he did not treat us as fools. He served himself through the keys of the future, so that the senses of the body would not hinder us in the inner chambers. He placed for us the word of the cross on the path of the way, and taught us where and how to tread the pastures of life. On two paths he showed the course of the two sides, so that whoever wishes may tread in the hand of his unity. He called the path of life a narrow one because of its labor. And that which Abraham called the spiritual path of the inner chambers, he, in his person, completed the course of the path of life, so that no place might be left for anyone to follow after his words. Behold, the king has set out on the new path of the king of Rome; he has trodden with him without being separated from the soldiers. Behold, he has received the sign for his powers in the knowledge of Rome; he has hastened to meet him with the movements of the soul instead of the limbs. Behold, he has opened the door of the stadium to the house of the kingdom; he has taken up the contest with the companions in the hidden air. Behold, he has loosed the spiritual weapon against the soul and the body; he has taken up the sword of the word of the spirit at the head of our tongue. In his sufferings he has worked the earth of the body, full of forest; come, cast into it good seed and seek life. In his blood he has purified the blemishes of our soul and of our limbs, so that the inner chambers of our evil nature may not be stained. In his sacrifice he has equaled height and depth with his messengers, so that the garment of all may not be rent by weakness.

By his ascension he raised up the heavy burden of the senses. The knots of the wings in the tremor [...] and he remained where he was. Paul cries out in his testaments like a trumpet, that he ascended with him in the [...] that reached him from the depths. He died with him and lived with him, that which is mortal by nature. And he ascended with him like limbs from the head of the body. He stood and was changed, and like a fire he made the whole heart faithful. He ascended; you shall contemplate him above all, the true one for us. In the love of his soul he prepared his service, that which is fitting for him. And he was not divided over his possessions in the distant places. With the spirits he testified every hour concerning his ascension, which is destined to come in the vision by which he ascended.