Augustin Sokolovski
On the fortieth day after Easter, the Church celebrates the Ascension of Christ. In the liturgical texts of Vespers and Matins, the authors have given this event different meanings. There is a moral meaning, a dogmatic meaning, and finally, an almost poetic attempt to understand how the Apostles themselves perceived this event.
The most important thing is that the Ascension is one of the foundations of Christian faith. Christianity is neither a law nor a set of rules. Therefore, the dogmatic meaning of the Ascension is extremely important.
Jesus Christ ascends into Heaven. Human flesh rises above the sky. The angels marvel. The Heavenly Father blesses the "return" of His Son to where He was before. About thirty-three years ago, the Son of God descended from Heaven. But then he had neither flesh nor blood. He descended at the moment of his conception, from the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, as our Creed says.
Now the Son of God returns to Heaven. God the Father has always been with His Son. At the same time, He remained in Heaven. The Son of God became man. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived on earth. God the Father was truly waiting for His Son. The Son of God missed the Father. Now He returns.
But the Son of God does not return alone. He returns with a human name. He returns with human flesh, with a human soul, with a human nature. The Son of God returns with a human heart, with human joy and human pain and sorrow, caused by those who crucified Him. "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication; and they will look on me, whom they have pierced, "And they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep for him as one mourns for a firstborn," wrote the prophet Zechariah long before all these events (Zechariah 12:10).
In this extraordinary humanity of God, revealed in Christ Jesus as the blood and water that flowed from his pierced side on the Cross (John 19:34), we find the most characteristic, incomprehensible, and mysterious aspect of Christianity.
This is the doctrinal point that was already rejected by the ancient heretical teachers, called Gnostics and Manicheans. They denied the incarnation of God and could in no way accept what Christians taught. This is precisely the "heart of the orthodox Christian faith," which can be called the fundamental humanization of God by Christians.
The Ascension reveals this "predisposition" of God toward humanity. It affirms the unity of God and man in Jesus Christ, initially rejected by Islam. This constitutes the main difference between Islam and Christianity.
One may or may not appreciate this characteristic of Christianity, criticize it, or contest it. But it is so, and it is important to understand it. It is the very essence of the Christian faith.
In Jesus Christ, God became man; God has a beating human heart. And it will be so forever. This is what becomes visible in the Ascension. The Ascension is a great feast and a grandiose celebration. It is a special day to give thanks to God.
The Church is a society of believers who, like Jesus Christ during his earthly life, make a pilgrimage through history towards the heavenly Jerusalem. The Church thanks God and the Father for the Resurrection of her Son. She thanks God and the Father for the Ascension.
The Church glorifies God because Jesus ascended into heaven not alone, but with his flesh and blood, with which he nourishes Christians here below, here and now, and always, until his return from heaven. He nourishes Orthodox Christians in the Holy Mysteries, in the sacraments, and especially in the Eucharist. Glory to God for the immense gift of his Son Jesus Christ.