ASCENSION THURSDAY SERMON

The Ascension of Jesus Christ from St. Aethelwald's Benedictional, The British Library, AD 936

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West)

On this holy Feast of the Ascension, we stand with the Apostles upon the Mount of Olives. Forty days have passed since the glory of the Resurrection burst forth from the tomb. Forty days of appearances, teachings, meals shared in wonder, wounds touched with trembling hands, and the slow transformation of frightened men into witnesses of eternity. And now, at last, our Lord Jesus Christ lifts up His hands in blessing over His disciples, and while He blesses them, He is carried up into heaven.

Yet the Ascension is not the abandonment of the world. Neither is it the liberation of Christ from matter. It is not the escape of spirit from flesh. It is not the ascent of consciousness into metaphysical union. The Ascension is the enthronement of human nature in heaven.

This distinction matters more than many modern Christians realize.

For from the ancient world onward, there have always been rival visions of salvation. The pagan world was filled with myths of ascent. The Tower of Babel was one such attempt. Pagan emperors claimed “apotheosis,” becoming divine through power and glory. Philosophers sought “henosis,” mystical union with the One through contemplative ascent, ritual purification, and theurgia, ritual divine-working through sacred rites and symbols intended to elevate the soul into communion with higher divine realities. Matter was often treated as lower, inferior, or imprisoning. Salvation became escape. The goal became ascent from the material world into higher realities through mystical participation.

And gradually, over centuries, many of these categories entered Christian discourse itself, and the great Antiochene Fathers, St. John Chrysostom, Theodore, Diodore, Theodoret, the founders of the Typological School that taught the ancient exegetical method of Hebrew Scripture, resisted this, rebuked it, and pushed back on this paganizing influence.

The simple biblical story of Creation, Covenant, Incarnation, Resurrection, and Kingdom became overlaid with cosmological systems of ascent and the subtle Greek mind tried to bring the truths of God’s divine revelation into congruence with Plato, Plotinus, Proclus and Iamblichus. The Church was increasingly described less as the covenant people of God gathered around Word and Sacrament, and more as a mystical hierarchy mediating ascent through sacred contemplation and worthiness. Grace became less the free action of God descending into history, and more a mystical co-working of ontological participation through contemplation. Salvation became less about the redemption of humanity and more about metaphysical ascent into divine realities, available only to monks and mystical adepts. It disincarnated the Church, made it elite, relegated communion to the peasants just a few times and year, and made family into a lesser calling.

But today’s Feast stands as a rebuke against every form of spiritualized escape from creation or metaphysical elitism. For Christ does not discard humanity. He glorifies it. He does not flee the body. He enthrones it. He does not abandon matter. He fills it with divine life. He does not ban the family, procreation, and marriage, like Sakyamuni or the Stoics, but, instead fills it with his transformative grace!

The Gospel says: “And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”

Notice carefully: the disciples do not mourn as though Christ has vanished into abstraction. They rejoice because they understand something utterly revolutionary: the flesh born of the Blessed Virgin Mary now sits enthroned at the right hand of the Father.

Not an idea. Not an archetype. Not an abstracted heavenly form. Not merely a divine principle. It is Humanity itself.

This is why the Ascension destroys every lingering form of Gnosticism that we would cradle or hide within the folds of our dark habits.

Christianity is not the escape of the soul from embodiment. Christianity is not contempt for creation. Christianity is not absorption into the divine essence. Christianity is not the annihilation of human particularity into mystical abstraction.

The Word became flesh, the flesh was crucified, the flesh was raised, and now the flesh ascends.

The biblical drama is not the ascent of man to God through metaphysical contemplation. It is the descent of God to man through covenantal grace, binding us to Himself, and ascending back into the heavenlies, where He has prepared for us a home, only to return at the end of days to rule and reign forever!

This is why St. Athanasius the Great declared: “God became man that man might become god.” And St. Irenaeus likewise proclaimed that God became what we are so that we might partake of what He is by grace. Not by nature. Not by mystical self-elevation. Not by philosophical contemplation. But by participation in the Incarnate Christ.

The distinction is essential, for there is a profound difference between biblical glorification and pagan divinization.

Pagan ascent seeks escape upward and arrogantly proclaims itself “worthy” afterwards.

Christian salvation restores communion downward and upward together, seeking the salvation of all, and always proclaiming our reliance on the grace of God in humility.

The modern world, however, remains deeply pagan beneath its secular mask. Men still seek salvation through altered consciousness, self-transformation, technological transcendence, ritual self-creation, sexual reinvention, bodily modification, and psychological self-deification. Ancient Gnosticism has returned in therapeutic and technological form. The body is treated as plastic matter to be manipulated according to the will. Human nature itself is denied. The soul is fragmented. The family collapses. The distinction between male and female is erased. Reality itself becomes subject to desire.

This is not progress. It is rebellion against Creation.

And sadly, even Christianity sometimes absorbs these same instincts under religious language. The Faith becomes reduced to inward contemplation detached from history. The liturgy becomes treated as symbolic mystical ascent rather than covenantal worship rooted in the Incarnation. Grace becomes abstract participation instead of the living action of God entering history through Christ and His Church.

But Ascension Day calls us back to biblical reality. Christ ascends bodily; Christ ascends historically; Christ ascends covenantally; and in Him humanity is restored.

St. Leo the Great preached: “The Ascension of Christ is our exaltation; and whither the glory of the Head hath preceded, thither the hope of the body is called.”

The Head hath ascended. Therefore the Body shall follow.

St. Gregory Nazianzen says: “That which is not assumed is not healed.”

Christ assumed our humanity completely: our flesh, our weakness, our suffering, our mortality, our sorrow, our temptation, our death. And because He assumed it, He healed it. Not by abolishing humanity. Not by dissolving creation. But by restoring humanity to communion with God.

And herein lies one of the greatest mysteries of the Christian Faith: salvation is not merely forgiveness. It is transfiguration. It is restoration. It is the healing and glorification of human nature through union with the Incarnate Christ.

This is why the Collect today prays: “Grant, we beseech thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe thy only-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with him continually dwell.”

Notice carefully: the Church doth not ask for escape from humanity. She asketh that humanity itself be lifted into heavenly communion.

Prayer is ascent. Worship is ascent. The Eucharist is ascent. But these are not acts of metaphysical escape. They are covenantal participation in the life of the risen Christ.

Christianity is not anti-material. Christianity is the sanctification of matter through the Incarnation.

Water becomes baptism. Bread becomes communion. Oil becomes anointing. Human bodies become temples. Marriage becomes sacrament. Death becomes resurrection. This is not symbolic philosophy. This is divine action in history.

And yet the path upward always passes downward first.

Christ ascended because He first descended. He descended into the womb of the Virgin. He descended into poverty. He descended into suffering. He descended into death. He descended into Hades itself. Only afterward came the Ascension.

Thus, every true Christian ascent is marked by humility rather than metaphysical self-exaltation.

Pride seeks transcendence through power, knowledge, ritual mastery, or self-creation. Christ reveals another way: obedience, sacrifice, purity, love, and covenant faithfulness.

The Apostles themselves misunderstood this at first. Even moments before the Ascension they ask: “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”

They still imagine political triumph and earthly domination. But Christ redirects them away from speculation and toward witness: “Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me…”

Christianity is not conquest through force. Neither is it escape through mysticism. It is faithful witness within history.

And witness always carries a cross.

The Gospel from St. John warns us plainly: “They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.”

The Church ascends through suffering because Christ Himself ascended through suffering.

This hath always been the pattern. The martyrs ascend through blood. The monks ascend through repentance. Mothers ascend through sacrificial love. Fathers ascend through faithful labor. Priests ascend through self-offering. The poor ascend through patience. The grieving ascend through hope.

Even now, amidst civilizational collapse, ideological confusion, technological domination, and spiritual exhaustion, Christ still lifts His hands over the world in blessing. And this blessing is no small detail. St. Luke says: “While he blessed them, he was parted from them.” The final visible act of Christ before the Ascension is blessing. The universe ascends beneath uplifted hands. This means that the Ascension is not abandonment but benediction. Christ reigneth still. Christ intercedes still. Christ governs history still.

And because He reigns we need not fear. Empires shall pass away. Ideologies shall crumble. Technological gods shall fail. False spiritualities shall perish. But Christ reigns eternally. For our humanity already sits enthroned in heaven in Jesus Christ. Therefore, beloved brethren, let us ascend in heart and mind.

Lift your eyes upward. Lift your prayers upward. Lift your homes upward. Lift your marriages upward. Lift your children upward. Lift your thoughts upward. Lift your bodies upward in purity. Lift your souls upward in worship.

For where the Head hath gone before, there the Body is called to follow.

Let us pray…

COLLECT

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast exalted our human nature in thy dear Son unto the throne of heavenly glory: Grant unto us grace so to follow him in humility, purity, obedience, and love, that when the course of this mortal life is ended, we may with all thy saints ascend unto the everlasting kingdom where he liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.