Ascension of the Lord (June 1, 2025)

The Lord in His Gospel, as the evangelist John narrates, says: When the Son of Man is lifted up from the earth, He will draw all to Himself… And these words pertain to two events in the life of the Savior, the Son of God, who became the son of man, our brother in the flesh, as the evangelist himself states and as the Church Fathers reiterate.

Christ was lifted up from the earth on the humble cross of suffering. He loved the world so much, every individual, every lost soul, that He desired to endure suffering and death for our sake. And the hearts of many turned to Him when people saw that God is capable of such love for humanity that He is not ashamed to become one of us. He clothes Himself in our flesh. His glory dims, He assumes the form of an oppressed servant and dies because He loves humanity so deeply and believes in it so profoundly. Many hearts turned to Him then, many were drawn to Him at that time. For the apostles, this was a pivotal moment in their lives, for the centurion who stood by the cross, it was a revelation about God, – and through their witness, the entire Christian world came into being. Indeed, through His death, He drew many to Himself.

But He included in His salvific passion not only those who were able to respond to divine love and God’s faith in humanity at that time. While being crucified, He prayed: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do… And in this prayer, He gathered into His heart those who nailed Him to the cross, those who betrayed Him, those who judged Him unjustly, those who scourged Him at Pilate’s judgment seat, those who slandered Him, – He included all in His love. And when the Lord offered this prayer – did the Father not hear? Christ, by His blood, His suffering, His death, earned the right to forgive, and He forgave. And there is no one who is not under the protection of this prayer of the Lord: Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do… We, as Christians, do not know what we do when we live unworthily of the Gospel; those who persecute the Church do not know what they do when they rise against the Living God and His Christ. But all are encompassed by Christ’s prayer: Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do… In this respect, He not only drew some to Himself, – He, as it were, tied all with a bond of love and lifted all through prayer to the throne of the Lord. The mystery of salvation is deep; we do not know what the Lord will decide about each of us and about those whose salvation we so readily doubt in the final hour.

But the Lord also draws us with Him in another manner, heavenward. On this day of Ascension, He, with His human, albeit glorified, resurrected body, ascended into Heaven; and with Him, our humanity entered into the mystical depths of the Most Holy Divine Trinity. Saint John Chrysostom, in one of his homilies, says: if you wish to measure human greatness, do not gaze upon the thrones of kings, do not look to where the mighty and powerful of this world dwell; raise your eyes to the Throne of God, and there you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Father’s glory… He has shown us our true nature, our genuine vocation, the place to which we are called, – at the right hand of God the Father.

But this path is not easy, though the strength comes not from us, but from God Himself. We will not ascend to heaven by our own power, nor will we attain salvation by our own might. When the Apostle Peter asked Christ: Who then can be saved? – His response was: With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible… Our weakness will not hinder us from rising to the Lord’s throne, prostrating ourselves at the Savior’s feet, and seeking mercy for ourselves. The Apostle Paul cites Christ’s words to him: My power is made perfect in weakness… Not in that weakness so familiar to us, when we are indolent, impotent, when we fail to utilize the strength that belongs to the Lord and which He so bountifully bestows upon us. But in another kind: the weakness of a pliant, obedient soul, the weakness that pervades a person when God’s power operates through and within him. Just as a delicate, feeble sail is filled with wind and propels the ship forward, so too can human weakness be imbued with the breath, the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and lead us to triumph, to that shore where eternal life awaits.

In weakness – indeed, God’s power is fulfilled; but for this, one must yield oneself into God’s hands; for this, one must first respond to that elevation of the Lord on the cross, which unveils the Lord’s love for us and bears witness to how the Lord believes in humanity: He is willing to become one of us and die with assurance, with triumphant hope, that His death will echo in every heart, transmute every life from earthly to heavenly, and make each of us a member – alive, quivering, delicate, yet unconquerable – of the Body of Christ.

One thing can halt us. Recall the account from the Gospel of John about how Christ, on the way to Jerusalem, told His disciples that He must die on the cross and rise again. Then two of them, forgetting, overlooking, bypassing the dreadful tidings of Christ’s forthcoming sufferings, approached Him, mindful only of His victory, and began to request that when He enters His kingdom, they might sit at His right and left. Then the Lord sternly cautioned them, saying: Can you be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with? (which, translated from Greek, means: are you prepared to be submerged in what I will be submerged in, in the terror I must fully enter?), are you prepared to drink the cup I will drink? In other words: “Before you sit in My glory, are you ready, out of friendship with Me, out of love for Me, to share in My earthly lot?” And they replied: “Yes.” They regained their senses then, realizing they were asking for their own peace – at the cost of Christ’s blood. Christ reminded them that if they are united with Him, they must shed blood with Him, undergo torment, take up the cross, follow Him wherever He goes: not only into glory, but also to the executioner’s block, into the fearful night of Gethsemane, to the scourging at the high priest’s and at Governor Pilate’s.

And thus it is spoken to us, in the words of the fathers: Shed blood and receive the spirit… These words may sometimes seem terrifying; but if we recall the Lord’s triumph over the cross, triumph over death, triumph over evil, triumph over hatred, His ascension in glory, if we remember the innumerable men, women, and children who so believed in God that they followed Christ’s path – we too can embark on this journey, with faith not in our own strength, but precisely in our weakness, knowing that thereby we are unconquerable, that thereby the Church is UNCONQUERABLE, that we are weak, but that God is with us and that God’s power is perfected in weakness. May it be so for all eternity! Amen.