By St. John of Kronstadt
"After the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven,
"After the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven,
and sat down at the right hand of God" (Mark 16:19).
The Holy Church now excites all earthly beings to joy and says: "O you nations of the earth, clap your hands, for Christ ascends to the place where He had been from all eternity," i.e. heaven.
And so on the Feast of the Ascension of the Lord all Christians should rejoice. What is there to be happy about? It would seem that it was rather necessary to grieve and mourn, because our sweetest Savior Jesus Christ left us with His visible presence and ascended to heaven, from where He will come again, but He will come as a formidable Judge of all earthly beings. No, on the day of remembrance of the Ascension of the Lord there are more reasons for joy than for sadness. Let us only consider why the Lord ascended into heaven from us.
The Lord ascended from us into heaven not in order to sadden us with His departure, but in order to arrange what was most beneficial for us. His whole life, all his deeds were for our benefit, for our salvation; in the same way, His ascension was for our good. Just as He loved us, He came down to us from heaven and, having lived with people, laid down His life for them on the cross; so, loving us, He ascended into heaven, for our good. Thus He Himself spoke to His disciples: "It is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; and if I go, I will send Him to you" (John 16:7). And so, the Lord ascended to heaven in order to send in His stead someone equal to Himself - the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, Who would comfort the Holy Apostles and all true Christians in their sorrows, troubles and persecutions. This is the first reason for joy. Come, come, Lord Jesus, and send us the Comforter!
Further, the Lord ascended from us into heaven so that He could look down on us from on high, like a Father on his children, like a Shepherd on his sheep, like an Eagle on his chicks, like a Leader on his army, in order to see everyone and consider the needs and requirements of each of us, and give everyone help. Like some king, having gathered his numerous troops for war and wanting to see all his regiments, for this purpose he ascends to a high place - a mountain or some building, and looks from above and arranges them, and when he sees that they overcome, rejoices over them; and if he notices that they are overcome, he sends them assistance: so our Lord, the King of kings, having His Church militant on earth, that is, His faithful Christians, ascended to heaven, as if to a mountain, so that from above He could see the feat of each and to weave crowns to those who struggle, and to give a helping hand to those who are exhausted, in order to restore the fallen and make them stronger against their enemies, and to provide an obstacle to those who persecute us. The Holy First Martyr Stephen labored in a suffering feat: the Jews stoned him, and our Lord, having opened the heavens, looked at him from the height of His glory, so that the sufferer, seeing this, exclaims: "I see the heavens opened and the Son of man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56).
The Lord ascended from us into heaven in order to, like the sun, shine upon us all with His grace from the heights of heaven. As the sun, having hidden in the west, produces darkness of night throughout the heavens; and when it rises and rises to the heights: then from all over the heavenly darkness goes away, and the rays of the sun illuminate the universe with wondrous light; so our noetic Sun is Christ, until, living on earth, as if in the west, He revealed His luminous Divinity to people, since until then, throughout the entire earth there was the darkness of the ignorance of God; and when, shining from His tomb, He ascended into heaven, then lightning illuminated His universe and His name became famous from the east of the sun to the west, throughout the whole earth - the whole universe was enlightened by the knowledge of God.
The Lord ascended from us to heaven in order to arrange for us the path to heaven and to be our leader in the heavenly abode. There was no path to heaven for man until the Lord’s ascension to heaven; no one has gone up to heaven except He who came down from heaven, says the Lord. "He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things" (Eph. 4:10). Thus before this no one could ascend to heaven, although he was righteous and holy; and when our Lord, clothed in human nature, ascended to heaven, then the path to heaven was made for the entire human race, and along this path the souls of the Holy Forefathers and Prophets, brought out of hades, followed Christ; Apostles, Saints, Martyrs, Confessors ascended; worthy ones still ascend, righteous people who follow in Christ’s footsteps. Now everyone knows the path to heaven. Just don’t be lazy to ascend to it, Christians!
Therefore the Lord ascended from us into heaven, in order to open the doors of heaven for us, to have unrestricted entry there. Our forefather Adam closed the door of paradise to the entire human race, and at the door of paradise stood a Cherub with a flaming sword; Adam, I say, closed paradise and the entrance to life, but opened only the entrances to death and hades. The Lord did the opposite: He closed the entrances to death and hades, and opened paradise, first of all to the thief, to whom he said: "Today you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:43); then to everyone; and, finally, He opened heaven itself with His ascension.
What all-joyful reasons for the Ascension of the Lord from us into heaven!
Next, the Lord ascended from us into heaven to mediate for us before God the Father. This is what the Holy Apostle John the Theologian says: "If anyone sins, we have a Mediator with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world" (1 John 2:1–2). And so, we, sinful people, will not despair of our salvation, but we will be faithful: we have a good Mediator for us to God the Father - Christ our Savior Himself, Who mediates for us, only let us not be lazy ourselves, and with the mediation of Christ, send up our fervent prayers to the Heavenly Father; yes, the Lord Jesus Christ mediates for us with God the Father and propitiates Him. But who is He mediating for? For sinners. What sinners? For the penitents; and for them He propitiates His Father; but about unrepentant sinners He does not propitiate, because they crucify the Son of God within themselves for the second time with their grave sins, by their obstinacy in unrepentance, and they trample on the blood of the Son of God with their unrepentance. And so be afraid, sinner who remains unrepentant, lest God’s punishment suddenly befall you and you be consumed from the land of the living, and be condemned along with the murderers who crucified the Son of God.
Finally, the Lord ascended from us into heaven, so that in heaven he could prepare for us a place where we would live forever and co-reign with Him, our Lord. So He Himself says: "I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to Myself; yea, where I am, you also will be" (John 14:3). What a joyful reason for the ascension! The Lord ascended from us into heaven to prepare for each of the righteous and pious people a place in heaven, as well as for us sinners, if we turn and repent with all our hearts. Where is the place for the Apostle Peter, who rejected the Lord, and wept bitterly about it afterwards, where is the harlot woman who wept at His feet, where is the prodigal son, where is the publican, where is the thief: there will be a place for us. Let us only weep bitterly for our sins, like Peter, let us fall at His feet with repentance, like the harlot, let us turn to Him, like the prodigal son, let us humble ourselves, like the publican, let us be crucified with Him, like the prudent thief. Let us repent and we will be saved.
Let us all rejoice in the Ascension of our Lord and Savior. Amen.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.