Acts 1:1-12 (Epistle)
1 The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,
2 until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen,
3 to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me;
5 for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
9 Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight.
10 And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel,
11 who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey.
Mark 16:9-20 (Matins Gospel)
9 Now when He rose early on the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven demons.
10 She went and told those who had been with Him, as they mourned and wept.
11 And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they did not believe.
12 After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked and went into the country.
13 And they went and told it to the rest, but they did not believe them either.
14 Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen.
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19 So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God.
20 And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.
The Ascension of our Lord
“AND ASCENDED INTO HEAVEN....”
V. Rev. George Florovsky, D.D.
“I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and to My God, and Your God” (John 20:17).
In these words the Risen Christ described to Mary Magdalene the mystery of His Resurrection. She had to carry this mysterious message to His disciples, “as they mourned and wept” (Mark 16:10). The disciples listened to these glad tidings with fear and amazement, with doubt and mistrust. It was not Thomas alone who doubted among the Eleven. On the contrary, it appears that only one of the Eleven did not doubt—Saint John, the disciple “whom Jesus loved.” He alone grasped the mystery of the empty tomb at once: “and he saw, and believed” (John 20:8). Even Peter left the sepulcher in amazement, “wondering at that which was come to pass” (Luke 24:12).
The disciples did not expect the Resurrection. The women did not, either. They were quite certain that Jesus was dead and rested in the grave, and they went to the place “where He was laid,” with the spices they had prepared, “that they might come and anoint Him.” They had but one thought: “Who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher for us?” (Mark 16:1-3; Luke 24:1). And therefore, on not finding the body, Mary Magdalene was sorrowful and complained: “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him” (John 20:13). On hearing the good news from the angel, the women fled from the sepulchre in fear and trembling: “Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid” (Mark 16:8). And when they spoke no one believed them, in the same way as no one had believed Mary, who saw the Lord, or the disciples as they walked on their way into the country, (Mark 16:13), and who recognized Him in the breaking of bread. “And afterward He appeared unto the Eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them who had seen Him after He was risen” (Mark 16:10-14).
From whence comes this “hardness of heart” and hesitation? Why were their eyes so “holden,” why were the disciples so much afraid of the news, and why did the Easter joy so slowly, and with such difficulty, enter the Apostles’ hearts? Did not they, who were with Him from the beginning, “from the baptism of John,” see all the signs of power which He performed before the face of the whole people? The lame walked, the blind saw, the dead were raised, and all infirmities were healed. Did they not behold, only a week earlier, how He raised by His word Lazarus from the dead, who had already been in the grave for four days? Why then was it so strange to them that the Master had arisen Himself? How was it that they came to forget that which the Lord used to tell them on many occasions, that after suffering and death He would arise on the third day?
The mystery of the Apostles’ “unbelief” is partly disclosed in the narrative of the Gospel: “But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel,” with disillusionment and complaint said the two disciples to their mysterious Companion on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:21). They meant: He was betrayed, condemned to death and crucified. The news of the Resurrection brought by the women only “astonished” them. They still wait for an earthly triumph, for an exernal victory. The same temptation possesses their hearts, which first prevented them from accepting “the preaching of the Cross” and made them argue every time the Saviour tried to reveal His mystery to them. “Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:26). It was still difficult to understand this.
The Lord’s Ascension: the Visible Sign of God’s Reconciliation with Us
Fr. Gennadios Manolis, Theologian
The Lord’s Ascension is the visible sign of God’s reconciliation with us, but also the glorification of our human nature. This reconciliation and our glorification were achieved through the incarnation of the Son and Word of God, His teachings, His voluntary Passion, His glorious Resurrection, culminating in His Ascension into heaven.
The Ascension is described by the Evangelists Mark (16, 19) and Luke (24, 50-51), as well as in the Acts of the Apostles (1, 9-11). As regards the time of the event, the book of Acts tells us that it occurred forty days after the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The Lord remained on earth for the duration of this time so that His disciples could realize fully that the resurrection had actually taken place. At this point, it’s worth pointing out that during this period of forty days, the Lord was not with His disciples continuously, thus allowing them to become accustomed to the idea of the end of His presence on earth. As regards the manner in which this happened, according to the description in the Biblical texts, it was an act of accommodation on the part of Christ to our human nature. According to the Fathers of the Church, this was comparable to the consumption of food by the risen Lord, which was to convince the disciples that it was no spirit standing before them.
After the Fall and our exit from the delight of Paradise, we weren’t brought to glorification, but rather descended into thrall to decay and death. From having been on the path towards the likeness of God, we found ourselves in the tarnished image of Him under dominion of the sin of the devil. But as an affectionate Father, God Himself undertook our salvation through the incarnation of His Son and Word, so that through His sacrifice on the Cross and His Resurrection from the dead He could release us from the bonds of sin and death.
Our progress towards perfection and our failure to achieve it aren’t events which unfolded far way, in the absence of God. Through His great love for us, which is the same as His love and the uncreated energy of divine grace, God wanted to retrieve us from delusion and bring us back to knowledge of the truth. It was precisely in order to restore our fallen nature and save it from sin and death that God planned our salvation and put this design into practice.
This plan on the part of divine providence included the incarnation, the passion, the resurrection and culminated in the ascension, which marked the completion of Christ’s mission to the world. We should make clear at this point that the Lord’s ascension doesn’t mean that He was ever absent from heaven during His time on earth, just as His incarnation doesn’t mean the suspension of His divinity.
The plan of divine providence didn’t envisage merely the return of human nature to its prelapsarian state. It doesn’t simply redeem us from the consequences of the Fall, but it actually achieves the final goal of bringing us back to the path of becoming in the likeness of God. The Ascension is therefore the crown of the work of divine providence, since it completes God’s plan for our salvation, leaving to each of us separately the choice of accepting this path.
The completion of the work of Jesus Christ with the Ascension marks the coming of a new era, which is inaugurated with Pentecost and extends as far as the Second Coming. The period from Pentecost onwards is the final stage of Divine Providence, though without it constituting the end, since it is also moving towards the end, the Last Things. The Church of Christ preserves and transmits the revelation in Christ and, at the same time affirms its historical truth, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This revelation, which is presented with tangible means and historical facts isn’t restricted to them, nor is it restrained by the immediacy of the world, but it extends beyond it and makes possible the transcendence of the world.
Christ is not absent in bodily terms, but remains present in the Church in the Holy Spirit.. He remains united with the world through the sacrament of the Divine Eucharist which becomes a mystical encounter between us and God, while at the same time heralding the advent of the Second Coming.
In one of his discourses on the Lord’s Ascension, Saint John Chrysostom notes: ‘Essentially, the Ascension marks the reconciliation between God and humankind. This had not happened previously, not because God hated us, but because we were indifferent and ungrateful towards Him. And the change has occurred not because of our achievements, nor because we’ve altered our attitude and behavior, but because of the immeasurable love and interest of God… Now, with the Ascension, we who were not worthy to dwell in paradise, we who declined to the point of not being worthy to live here on earth and so were swallowed up in the flood, with the exception of the family of Noah, we, unworthy though we are, now ascend into heaven (Saint John Chrysostom On the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Discourse 2, PG 52).
This week’s calendar reminders:
Monday 5/26: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Tuesday 5/27: no services or events
Wednesday 5/28: no services or events
Thursday 5/29: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Friday 5/30: Matins 8:30 a.m.
Saturday 5/31: Catechumen Class 4:30 p.m.; Great Vespers 6 p.m.
Sunday 6/1: Divine Liturgy 9:15 a.m.
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Christ the Savior Orthodox Church is located in Southbury, Connecticut, and is part of the New England Diocese of the Orthodox Church of America.
Mailing address: Christ the Savior Church, 1070 Roxbury Road, Southbury, CT 06488
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Fr. Moses Locke can be reached at frmoseslocke@gmail.com