In ascensionem Sermo

On the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Homily 1. Three paradoxical wonders, unknown from the beginning of time, surpassing nature itself and our understanding, have been interwoven, remaining unbroken and unshaken; for a threefold rope is not quickly broken. These are: the birth-pangs of an unwed mother, the resurrection after a three-day passion, and the ascension of flesh into the heavens. Time knows of barren women giving birth, but not apart from marital union; it knows of the dead coming back to life, but not to an endless life; it knows of a prophet being taken up, but as if into heaven—the "as if" is secondary to the truth. For Elijah changed place from place, but the Savior ascended whence he had descended, while many men and women watched, until their gaze, straining toward the height, grew weary, with angels bearing witness to the sight and announcing his second coming. "And behold," it says, "two men stood beside them in white raiment, who said: 'Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into the sky?'" and so forth. Oh, how much the good one accomplished through wicked servants for salvation! He came down from the heavens, he ascended into the heavens, from the heavens he will come again. And how will he come? Not dissolved into another hypostasis, but in the form of flesh, in human shape; yet not doing humble things as before, not sleeping on a boat, not constrained by the labor of thirst at a well, not sitting on a donkey's colt, but riding on a cloud-like colt; not bringing fishermen, but escorted by angels.

not standing before a judge's tribunal, but himself judging the ends of the earth, and granting judicial authority to the fishermen themselves; as he himself teaches, saying to the disciples: "When the Son of Man sits upon his throne of glory, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel"; and to the Jews: "But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? For this reason they shall be your judges; because, though being from the Jews, they did not think as the Jews, but preferred the sufferings of Christ and the stigmata of the kinsmen who were Christ-killers." A great wonder, a strange tribunal, to see a fisherman judging, and a Pharisee being judged, a tentmaker sitting with boldness, and a high priest being called to account with groans. For why did they strike the Master on the head, buffet him on the head, and finally murder the heir outside the vineyard? Why did they imprison Peter? Why did they torture Paul with five times forty lashes at one time? But the wondrous high priest Ananias ordered his servants to strike Paul's mouth, the mouth of Paul, the mouth of grace, the mouth of truth, the plectrum of life, more noble than any trumpet, more melodious than any harmony, the instrument of Christ, the pipe of the Spirit; for what seemed good to the Holy Spirit, Paul made public through his tongue; whence I think David speaks in the person of Paul: "My tongue is the reed of a swift-writing scribe." What then does Paul say to Ananias, foreseeing the punishment coming upon him?

God is about to strike you, whitewashed wall. For a whitewashed wall is a beautified tomb, outwardly hostile, inwardly dead. Since, therefore, the accounting of one's life is at hand, and a universal tribunal, demanding the work of the talents, the rejection of the mystical marriage, the illumination of the bridal chamber, the growth of the seed, the fruit of the vineyard, and all that he revealed to us through the parables, let us weigh our life, let us settle the affairs of life, not exchanging silver, nor mining gold, nor lending at heavy interest—for these things the judge also turns away from—but feeding the poor, practicing hospitality, calling upon God, and all that knows how to soften the judge's anger. Learn the profit of hospitality by looking at Abraham, consider the benefit of supplication from the Ninevites, behold the treasure of almsgiving by observing Tabitha lying lifeless on her bed, about to be buried in a tomb; but the widows, surrounding Peter and displaying the gifts of the dead woman, pulled the deceased from Hades. If tears of widows revived a dead body, it is evident that when it dies again, what kind of rewards do you think the judge will provide in the returns of good deeds to those who have practiced feeding the poor with a lavish hand and have not broken off the testimonies of the poor? For then the gift is irrevocable, with death no longer intervening, but with continuous life extended. For, it says, the trumpet will sound, and the dead in Christ will rise incorruptible and unchanging, in imitation of the Lord.

And just as a cloud caught him up, so also we, according to Paul’s saying, shall be snatched up in clouds. And as he ascended with a shout and the sound of a trumpet, in the same manner we too, through the archangelic trumpet, having shaken off the cloud of death like sleep, shall be with the leader of life. And thus, he says, we shall always be with the Lord, thinking the Lord’s thoughts, having kept his commandments. May it be that we all are deemed worthy of that blessed utterance: “Well done, good and faithful servant; faithful in small things, I will set you over many; enter into the joy of the Lord.” His is the glory and the power, unto the ages of ages. Amen.