Both the manner of the style and the authority of the ancient manuscripts, of the Turin one first of all, have brought it about that, agreeing with Muratori, I have judged this sermon also to be attributed to the holy bishop of Turin. It is indeed in the same Turin codex, among the sermons of Saint Maximus On the Ascension, Sermon XIII, which Muratori himself, having copied it from the Ambrosian codex, transferred into the fourth volume of the Anecdota. How great and how unsearchable the Only-begotten, the Almighty, is in his works, the magnitude of his ineffable mysteries declares—he who, having undertaken the battle against the prince of the world, by fighting in man and conquering through man, made the dweller of heaven lord of both heaven and earth.
He also exposed that body of our humility, which He took from a frail woman, to the manifold injuries of His persecutors, and even permitted it to be nailed to the cross; yet when the eternal gates had been lifted up He carried it back with Himself and this very day bore it up to the Father. We have learned this, moreover, from the teaching of blessed David, who foretold these things to mortals as the powers of heaven conversed among themselves. For he says: 'Lift up your gates, O you princes, and be lifted up, O eternal gates, and the King of glory shall enter in' (Psalm 23). Rightly, beloved, were the eternal gates lifted up, because for the most glorious King and Lord of eternity a marvelous entrance into the heights was being prepared.
Therefore it is announced through the patriarch, who was also a prophet, that the eternal gates are lifted up, so that we may perceive that, since Christ has gone there before, heaven now lies open to mortals. Those gates, dearly beloved, shall stand open to the faithful, and shall stand open forever—gates which the Savior, going before us to the Father, opened when death was conquered and the devil triumphed over. And to those who marveled and asked who this King of glory was, the answer is at once given thus: 'The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle' (Psalm 23). He is mighty, then, because He is strong. And truly that power is to be proclaimed which is not propped up by the strength of others, but subsists through its own authority in all things;
which was not seized by our Lord and Redeemer through ambition, nor bought by any exchange of gifts, nor sought by any flattery, but possessed by perfect and simple virtue. For because He was obedient to the Father even unto the death of the cross, as the Apostle says: 'He gave Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth' (Philippians 2). For here, when it says 'the Lord strong and mighty,' it is not a twofold power of Christ from the Father that is praised, but the unconquered fortitude of the new Man. Nor indeed was it any great thing to call Him strong through whom all things were created, and who, being almighty, proceeded from the Almighty. The Lord, then, is strong and mighty in battle.
He is strong, not because He powerfully slew His enemies, but because He was patiently slain for us. He is mighty, because amid the reproaches and torments of His Passion, though conscious of such great power within Himself, He willed not to display His power, that He might fulfill the ministry of our redemption. For 'though He was in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant' (Philippians 2). And so He is strong, mighty, and glorious. Strong, in that He is not overcome by the devil in the encounter. Mighty, in that, about to subdue death, He burst the bars of hell. Glorious, in that by His own spotless blood, the handwriting of our captivity being blotted out from the law, He ascended to the seat of the Father's glory, to be adored by all the powers of heaven.
What, then, is the depth of this mystery, how unsearchable is the secret of the divine working, that He who before the ages came forth from the Father, and He who in the end of times proceeded from a woman, was made one God? And this indeed for this reason: that, though He was the Only-begotten undivided from the Father, man might have in the Only-begotten of God fellowship with the Father together with immortality. Wherefore, brethren, let us so confess that the Lord has ascended into heaven, that we may not believe ourselves left behind without Him; for He Himself, at the very moment of His ascension, said to the apostles: 'Behold, I am with you all the days, even to the consummation of the age' (Matthew 28).
For He who so descended from the Father as to remain inseparably with the Father, so indeed ascended from the earth to heaven as not to abandon the world. For this is the omnipotence of our God, this is His power, so unbounded, that on account of His immensity every creature everywhere has Him present. To Him be honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen.