On the Lord’s Ascension, Second Sermon

The mystery of our salvation, dearly beloved, which the Creator of the universe valued at the price of his blood, has now been carried out under conditions of lowliness from the day of his bodily birth to the end of his passion. And although even in “the form of a slave” many signs of divinity shone out, the events of all that time served especially to show the reality of the manhood he had taken on. But after the passion, when the chains of death were broken (death had exposed its own strength by attacking him who knew no sin), weakness was turned into power, mortality into eternity, disgrace into glory. The Lord Jesus Christ showed this by many clear proofs in the sight of many, until he carried even into heaven the triumph of the victory he had won over the dead. So, as at the Easter commemoration the Lord’s resurrection was the cause of our rejoicing, so the subject of our present gladness is his ascension, as we commemorate and duly venerate the day on which the nature of our lowliness was raised in Christ above all the host of heaven, over all the ranks of angels, beyond the height of all powers, to sit with God the Father. On this providential order of events we are founded and built up, so that God’s grace might become more wonderful when, though what was rightly felt to command men’s awe was removed from their sight, faith did not fail, hope did not waver, love did not grow cold. For it is the strength of great minds and the light of firmly faithful souls to believe without hesitation what is not seen with bodily sight, and to fix one’s affections where one cannot direct one’s gaze. And where would this godliness spring from in our hearts, or how would a man be justified by faith, if our salvation rested only on what lies beneath our eyes? That is why our Lord said to the one who seemed to doubt Christ’s resurrection until he had tested by sight and touch the traces of his passion in his very flesh, “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” [a]

So, dearly beloved, in order that we might be capable of this blessedness, when everything had been fulfilled that concerned the preaching of the gospel and the mysteries of the New Testament, our Lord Jesus Christ, on the fortieth day after the resurrection, in the presence of the disciples, was raised into heaven and ended his presence with us in the body. He is to remain at the Father’s right hand until the times divinely foreordained for multiplying the sons of the church are completed, and he comes to judge the living and the dead in the same flesh in which he ascended. And so what had until then been visible of our Redeemer was changed into a sacramental presence; and so that faith might be more excellent and stronger, sight gave way to teaching, whose authority was to be accepted by believing hearts enlightened with rays from above. [b]

This faith, increased by the Lord’s ascension and established by the gift of the Holy Spirit, was not terrified by chains, imprisonments, banishments, hunger, fire, attacks by wild beasts, or the refined tortures of cruel persecutors. For this faith, throughout the world, not only men but even women, not only beardless boys but even tender girls, fought to the shedding of their blood. This faith cast out spirits, drove off sicknesses, and raised the dead. Through it the blessed apostles themselves made progress too. They had been confirmed by so many miracles and instructed by so many discourses, and yet they had been panic-stricken by the horrors of the Lord’s passion and had not accepted the truth of his resurrection without hesitation. But after the Lord’s ascension they made such progress that everything that had filled them with fear was turned into joy. For they had lifted the whole contemplation of their minds to the Godhead of him who sat at the Father’s right hand, and they were no longer hindered by the barrier of bodily sight from directing their minds’ gaze to that which had never left the Father’s side in coming down to earth, and had not forsaken the disciples in ascending to heaven.

So the Son of Man and Son of God, dearly beloved, attained a more excellent and holier fame when he went back to the glory of the Father’s majesty, and in a way beyond words began to be nearer to the Father in respect of his Godhead after he had become farther away in respect of his manhood. A better-instructed faith then began to draw closer to grasping the Son’s equality with the Father, without needing to handle the bodily substance in Christ by which he is less than the Father. For while the nature of the glorified body still remained, the faith of believers was called to touch the only Son, who was equal with the Father, not with the hand of flesh but with spiritual understanding. That is the meaning of what the Lord said after his resurrection, when Mary Magdalene, representing the church, hurried to approach and touch him: “Do not touch me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father.” That is: I do not want you to come to me as to a human body, nor to recognize me by fleshly perceptions. I put you off for higher things; I am preparing greater things for you. When I have ascended to my Father, then you will handle me more perfectly and truly, for you will grasp what you cannot touch and believe what you cannot see. But when the disciples’ eyes followed the ascending Lord to heaven with an upward gaze of earnest wonder, two angels stood beside them in clothing shining with wonderful brightness, and they also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him going into heaven.” By these words all the sons of the church were taught to believe that Jesus Christ will come visibly in the same flesh in which he ascended, and not to doubt that all things are subject to him on whom the ministry of angels had waited from the very beginning of his birth. For as an angel announced to the blessed Virgin that Christ would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, so the voice of heavenly beings sang to the shepherds too of his being born of the Virgin. As messengers from above were the first to testify that he had risen from the dead, so the service of angels was used to foretell his coming in very flesh to judge the world. So we may understand what great powers will come with him as Judge, when such great ones served him even when he was being judged. [c]

And so, dearly beloved, let us rejoice with spiritual joy, and let us gladly give God fitting thanks and raise the eyes of our hearts, unhindered, to those heights where Christ is. Minds that have heard the call to be lifted up must not be pressed down by earthly affections. Those who are foreordained to eternal things must not be taken up with the things that perish. Those who have entered on the way of truth must not be entangled in treacherous snares. And the faithful must so make their way through these temporal things as to remember that they are sojourners in the valley of this world, in which, even if they meet some attractions, they must not sinfully embrace them, but bravely pass through them. For the blessed apostle Peter rouses us to this devotion. With the loving eagerness for feeding Christ’s sheep that he conceived through his threefold profession of love for the Lord, he entreats us, saying, “Dearly beloved, I beg you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly cravings, which wage war against the soul.” But for whom do fleshly pleasures wage war, if not for the devil? His delight is to fetter souls that strive after things above with the enticements of corruptible goods, and to draw them away from those dwellings from which he himself has been banished. Against his plots every believer must keep careful watch, so that he may crush his enemy on the side from which the attack comes. And there is no more powerful weapon, dearly beloved, against the devil’s wiles than kindly mercy and generous love, by which every sin is either escaped or overcome. But this lofty power is not attained until what opposes it is overthrown. And what is so hostile to mercy and works of love as greed, from the root of which all evils spring? Unless it is destroyed by being starved of nourishment, the ground of the heart in which this evil weed has taken root must grow the thorns and briars of vices rather than any seed of true goodness. So let us, dearly beloved, resist this deadly evil and “pursue love,” without which no virtue can flourish, so that by this path of love, by which Christ came down to us, we too may climb up to him, to whom, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, is honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. [d]