The Feast Of The Ascension Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

As the angels, O Savior, wondered at Thy strange elevation, and the Disciples were amazed at Thy dread rising, Thou didst ascend in glory, being God, and the gates were lifted up for Thee. Wherefore, the heavenly powers were surprised, shouting, Glory to Thy condescension, O Savior; glory to Thy reign; glory to Thine Ascension, O Thou Who alone art the Lover of mankind.

The feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ takes place 40 days after the Lord’s resurrection on Great and Holy Pascha and 10 days before the feast of Pentecost.

The period between Pascha and the Ascension is a mirror image of the period of Great Lent. The six-fold seven days of both periods signify a time of preparation. Where Lent is preparing us for the mystery of Holy Week, the Paschal season is preparing us for the Ascension.

Furthermore, as Holy Week is a preparation of Great and Holy Pascha, so too is the Ascension a preparatory period before the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. The fulfillment of both of these periods gives us the fullness of completion: seven-fold seven, or 50ish.

The Angels’ princes, perceiving Thy strange ascent on high, were sore perplexed, O Savior, saying one to another: What a sight is this? For now He that is seen is a man in His outward form; and yet as God, with a body, He doth ascend far above the heavens and beyond.

The eternal Word before all the ages, Who took a human nature and deified it in a mystical way, today doth rise ascending. Wherefore, the angels came forth to show Him to the Disciples going to heaven in great glory. And they worshipped Him, saying, Glory to the ascending God.

Thou didst descend from the heavens, O Christ, towards the earthly ones; and with Thee, being God, didst raise the likeness of Adam, cast into the vaults of Hades, lifting it with Thine Ascension to the heavens and making it equal in rank to Thy Father’s throne; for Thou art merciful and the Lover of mankind.

Kathismata of the Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension is not just a stepping stone between Pascha and Pentecost though. It is the feast of the day that human flesh was seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Christ’s Incarnation joined the divine to humanity by condescending from heaven to earth. The Ascension is the fulfillment of this union, by lifting up human flesh in to heaven. And what’s more, setting it above all of the angels at the right hand of God and as God.

Because of sin, humanity was enslaved and indebted to death. That when we die, we pay the debt we owe to death. Christ’s resurrection forgave this debt, so that when we die, we do not die. And having no debt to sin, we may no longer be enslaved by it.

The Ascension is the antifall, it’s a reversal of the fall of Adam from his created nature. And just as Adam’s fall joined corruption to humanity, Christ’s antifall purges corruption from its nature.

Thou hast ascended in glory, O Christ our God, and gladdened Thy Disciples with the promise of the Holy Spirit, making them confident through the blessing that Thou art the Son of God, and Deliverer of the world.

Apolytikion of the Ascension