If indeed each one of us be zealous to subject them to himself, and accustom himself to stand above them, out of these very things he constructs for himself a step, by which he may be able to ascend to higher things. They will lift us up, if they be beneath us. We make a ladder for ourselves out of our vices, if we trample the vices themselves. For malice does not ascend with the Author of goodness, nor pride with the Master of humility, nor lust and luxury with the Son of the Virgin. Vices, I say, do not ascend after the Parent of virtues, nor sins after the Just One, nor can infirmities and diseases go after the Physician. Therefore, if we wish to enter the kingdom of that Physician Himself, let us first heal our wounds. Let us order and guard in ourselves the state of each substance;
lest the lower part cast down to Tartarus the soul, which is assuredly the nobler portion of man; but rather let the more glorious nature acquire for itself, together with the soul, the body sanctified for heaven: by the aid of Him who lives and reigns unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 177. On the Ascension of the Lord, II. 1. In what manner we ascend with Christ. Our Saviour, most beloved brethren, has ascended into heaven; let us not therefore be troubled on earth. Let the mind be there, and here shall be rest. Let us ascend with Christ meanwhile in heart: when His promised day shall have come, we shall follow also in body. Yet we ought to know, brethren, that with Christ there does not ascend pride, nor avarice, nor luxury, no vice of ours ascends with our Physician.
And therefore, if we desire to ascend after the Physician, we ought to lay aside our vices and sins. For all of them press upon us as with certain fetters, and strive to bind us with the nets of sins: and therefore, with the help of God, according to what the Psalmist says, 'Let us burst asunder their bonds' (Psalm 2:3); that we may securely say to the Lord, 'You have burst my bonds asunder; to You I will sacrifice the sacrifice of praise' (Psalm 115[116]:16-17). The resurrection of the Lord is our hope, the ascension of the Lord is our glorification. 2. To lift up the heart in a twofold manner. Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Ascension: if therefore rightly, if faithfully, if devoutly, if holily, if piously we celebrate the ascension of the Lord, let us ascend with Him, and let us have our hearts on high.
But in ascending let us not be exalted, nor presume upon our own merits as though they were properly our own. We ought, however, to have our hearts on high toward the Lord. For the heart on high, not toward the Lord, is called pride; but the heart on high toward the Lord is called a refuge. See, brethren, a great miracle. God is exalted: you exalt yourself, and He flees from you; you humble yourself, and He descends to you. Why is this? Because being exalted, He regards the lowly, and the lofty He knows from afar (Psalm 137[138]:6). The lowly He regards from near, to raise them up: the lofty, that is, the proud, He knows from afar, to cast them down. For Christ rose again, that He might give us hope, because the man that dies rises again:
lest by dying we should despair, and think our life ended in death, He made us secure. For we were anxious about the soul itself; and He, by rising again, gave us confidence concerning the resurrection of the flesh. 3. The heart cleansed by faith allures God to itself. Humility retains Him. Christ is our way and our homeland. Believe, therefore, that you may be cleansed. First it behoves you to believe: that afterward, through faith, you may deserve to behold God. Do you wish to see God? Hear Him: 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God' (Matthew 5:8). First, then, think about cleansing the heart: whatever you see there that displeases God, take away. God wishes to come to you: hear Him saying, 'I and the Father will come, and will make our abode with him' (John 14:23).
Behold what God promises. If I, some frail man of whatever sort, were to promise that I would come to your house, without doubt you would clean it, throw out the superfluous things, prepare what was necessary: God wishes to come to your heart, and are you too slothful to clean the house for Him? All vices are enemies of God; and therefore, with His own help, cast them out, if you wish to receive God. For God does not love to dwell with unclean, sordid, and insatiable avarice, whom faithless men wish to serve, while they desire to see God. You, therefore, cleanse your heart. If you can, do this, work at this, that Christ may cleanse the place where He is to abide. Ask, entreat, humble yourself: hear the Scripture saying, 'God resists the proud' (1 Peter 5:5).
Be humble, that God may rest in you. That same Christ is to you both the way and the homeland; according to His humanity the way, according to His divinity the homeland. If you run faithfully, you go through Him, and to Him you shall come. For as the eternal way He took up what He was not, He lost not what He was. Let us therefore entreat His mercy; that He may grant us right faith and an understanding pleasing to Himself for the performing of good works: which may He deign to bestow, who lives and reigns through all things. SERMON 178. In Christ the divine and human nature. On the Ascension of the Lord, III. 1. The holy and solemn day of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ has today dawned; let us exult and rejoice. Christ descended; the lower regions were opened:
Christ ascended; the higher regions grew bright. Christ in the sepulchre; let the guards lie. Christ in hell; let those who rest be visited. Christ in heaven; let all nations believe. He Himself, therefore, ought to be the author of our discourse, who is the giver of our salvation. For of whom should we speak anything to you, except of Him who just now was speaking to us all out of the Gospel? For being about to ascend to the Father, He was saying to His disciples: 'These things have I spoken to you, while I was yet with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things whatsoever I have said. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. You have heard that I said to you, I go to my Father; because the Father is greater than I.'
For He said that He would ascend to the Father, and the disciples were saddened, because He would forsake them in bodily form: and He said to them: 'Because I said to you, I go to the Father, sorrow has filled your heart. If you loved me, you would indeed rejoice, because I go to the Father; for the Father is greater than I' (John 14:25-28): that is, as if He said, Therefore I withdraw from your eyes this form of a servant, in which the Father is greater than I, so that, the form of a servant being removed from the eyes of the flesh, you may be able to see the Lord spiritually. 2. Therefore both on account of the true form of a servant which He had taken up, He spoke truly, 'The Father is greater than I'; for certainly God is greater than man: and on account of the true form of God in which He remains with the Father, He spoke truly, 'I and the Father are one.'
(John 10:30). He ascended, therefore, to the Father through that by which He was man: but He remained in the Father through that by which He was God; because in the flesh He came forth to us, and from the Father He did not depart. He ascended, I say, to the Father, the Word which was made flesh, that He might dwell in us (John 1:14); and He promised His presence anew, saying, 'Behold, I am with you all the days, even unto the consummation of the age' (Matthew 28:20). According to the form of a servant, the apostle John says of Him, 'He is the true God, and life eternal' (1 John 5:20): according to the form of God, the apostle Paul says of Him, 'Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant' (Philippians 2:6-7).
According to the form of God He speaks of Himself, 'I and the Father are one': according to the form of a servant He says, 'My soul is sorrowful even unto death' (Matthew 26:38). Whence that confidence, whence this dread? That voice indeed is from the property of His substance; this truly from the participation of the infirmity He assumed. These things, therefore, dearly beloved, understanding prudently from the holy Scriptures, let us distinguish while we read: but while we distinguish, lest perchance we err, let us ask understanding from the Lord Himself, to whom be honour and glory unto ages of ages. Amen. SERMON 179. On the Ascension of the Lord, IV. 1. The mind of the Apostles at the ascent of Christ.
Therefore the glorious and royal mystery of the Lord's Ascension, that Christ lifted earth to heaven, even the whole world sings, and with festive joys celebrates the triumphs of its Lord: because 'He raised up the needy from the earth, and lifted the poor out of the dunghill' (Psalm 112[113]:7); and He lifted him up to the Father. Who, then, can ascend thither, and pass through the airy demons, save He alone who could not have sin? That cross, therefore, was no hindrance, but a help; because both for us Christ conquered, and on it He could not be overcome. Neither the sepulchres nor the powers of hell subdued the victorious flesh: God spent for man what He had decreed, and snatched away whom He willed.
The Apostles present behold this, and, gradually lifting Himself to the heights, with fearful breast, confused mind, and trembling eyes they follow Him, until a serene day of its own accord received the loosened cloud, and, girt about with flashing splendour, hid Him from human sight. When therefore the disciples, struck by so great a light, could not see Him, and the reddening radiance with its glittering flashes eluded their curious eyes, straightway two angels sent forth from among the victors consoled the Apostles, cast down by fear and grief, with such words as these: 'Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him going into heaven' (Acts 1:11).
'So shall He come,' they say, 'made manifest, as now He is lifted up above the stars, glorious': and the secret places of the heavens receive Him whom they shall pour back again. 2. The affection of the air, of heaven, and of the heavenly beings. The immeasurable air is sanctified by the divine escort, and all that flitting throng streams through the breezes at Christ's ascending, all heaven trembles, the stars are changed, straightway that lightning-swift army of the heavenly host runs together. They see their King bringing back the spoils of living flesh, and, the enemy vanquished, a man ascending into the heights: they recognize in the scars the marks of battles, they adore in the flesh the wounds now healed, where the stain of sin had extinguished nothing, nor had that dragon, teeming with the poison of his own venom, vomited anything;
for the serpent could fix no footprint upon the rock. The hosts applaud, the trumpets sound, and gentle harmonies, mingling themselves with gladness, are poured forth in choirs. Behold, straightway that splendid celestial senate is loosed from its realms. For in the innermost regions of the sky the ample palace of God is thrown open with glad songs, and on every side the bars of the starry heaven, and the hidden things of the star-bearing orb, its whole framework loosed, lie open through and through. The air, divided into a twin citadel, withdrew, and the steep sides of the broad heaven hung down with severed margins. There is made a single day without sky, and it wavers with bright flashings, and then in turns among themselves the glad services resound with songs: 'Lift up your gates, ye princes; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting gates, and the King of glory shall enter in.'
For He was ascending, suffused with the redness of blood, laurelled by His victorious trophies. 3. The wonder of the Angels. All the heavenly ones beheld Christ, beauteous with wounds, bringing back spoils from the tyrant's camps; and, marvelling at the gleaming standards of the divine power, they resound with such hymns, and lead Him forth rejoicing: 'Who is this King of glory?' they say. And they answer, 'The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory' (Psalm 23[24]:8,10). This is that white and ruddy one, pierced by the multitude: this is He who had no form nor comeliness (Isaiah 53:2), weak in the snare, strong in the spoil; vile in the little body, armed in the battle, foul in death, fair in the resurrection; white from the Virgin, ruddy on the cross;
dark in reproach, bright in heaven. When, brethren, did anyone ever know this, that God should lie hidden in flesh, that majesty should dwell in a body; and should so wage war in the world, that He might soon lift that very body, after the sepulchre, to heaven? Majesty, therefore, together with the flesh, received itself back within the divine veils; heaven learned to bear a man, and beneath the feet of Christ the serving ethereal regions lay down. Behold, now the gate lies open, which Adam had closed; the bar which iniquity had fixed against heaven is unfastened. If anyone shall have held himself fast to Christ, and shall have confessed the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit to be of one substance, he shall securely enter through Him the doors of heaven. Amen. SERMON 180. On the Ascension of the Lord, V. 1.
The joys of the heavens at the Ascension of the Lord. With what adornments of joys has the court of the heavens shone today! For the Angels received their long-hoped-for prayers, and sang a hymn. At the lifting up of the gates, there was light in the heavens, splendour in the doorways; because Christ ascends again, coming forth from His chamber (Psalm 18[19]:6), about to ascend upon His throne. Whence holy David set his instrument in the doorways of the heavens, singing a new song: since He who descended is the same who ascends above all the heavens (Ephesians 4:10). With gladder quills, therefore, touching the instrument, he resounds and speaks, beholding the firstborn of the eternal Consul, adorned not with gold and gems, but made white with the ice of the clouds:
He who sets, it says, the cloud for His ascent, who walks upon the wings of the winds (Ps. 103:3). For already He has walked upon the asp and the basilisk, and has trampled down the lion and the dragon (Ps. 90:13): treading upon death, applauding the resurrection. Wonderful in our eyes, glorified, He flashes forth with the powers of His ascension, seated upon the light cloud, showering the Apostles with the inheritance of peace and the charity of His testament: 'My peace,' He says, 'I give unto you, My peace I leave with you' (John 14:27). The entreaty of the mourning Apostles. To this melody of resounding instruments, the Apostles, invited before the royal hall of the heavens, follow after Him, about to ask for the grace of His blessing:
the sons of the Bridegroom go forward with the Lord, about to receive the pledge of the Holy Spirit. And lifting up His hands, He blessed them (Luke 24:50); He gave them the precious betrothal earnest of His gift, not distinguished by gold and gems, but a chain woven with the little loops of charity, by which, bound together, they might follow Him to the Bride of the Lamb, Jerusalem, the everlasting fatherland. 'Lord,' they say, 'why do You forsake us as You ascend, You who chose us that You might go before us as our shore? Lord, when shall we perceive Your words from afar, sweeter than honey and the honeycomb, and taste from Your lips and mouth the balm of Your dripping and dewy grace? Either teach us where You ascend, or do not desert us when You ascend:
we have remained, as it were, stripped bare in the open, deprived of the shield of Your loving-kindness, like fledglings robbed of the covering of the wing that embraces them. When will You come to us, You who have redeemed us? Your death was our sin; let Your ascension be our pledge: lest, too much overwhelmed by grief, we sink, we whom You have lifted up from the groanings of the lower world.' Their consolation. Therefore the Lord, as He ascended, looking down from the high cloud upon the sorrow of His nurslings, sends forth comforters of their grief, messengers of Him who ascends, and heralds of Him who shall return. 'Men of Galilee,' they say, 'why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven' (Acts 1:11). 'So shall He come:
there shall be one bearing aloft, one cloud-borne litter, one gentle appearance; but glorious to the righteous, and fearful to sinners. His coming shall not terrify you whom His ascension consoles. So shall He come, displaying the unharmed wounds of the nails and the bloody necklaces of the piercings. To you, the sons of the Bridegroom, He shall show forth the crown of the heavenly empire; He shall not change the wounds of the cross, because the sign of the Son of Man shall shine forth.' Therefore, having received the command of the ascending Lord (Luke 24:49), and the precious pledge of the Holy Spirit to come from on high, the Apostles were of one accord in the temple, praising the Lord (Acts 1:14), that one fiery crown of the coming graces might find them together.
Therefore in the temple, brethren, let us always abide of one accord, and walking in the house of the Lord let us await His coming with the concord of His peace, and in His temple let us all speak of His glory (Ps. 29:9); that the fire of grace may likewise settle upon us. Amen. SERMON 181. On the Ascension of the Lord, VI. The Apostles' affection at the ascension of Christ. It delights us to behold Christ the Lord ascending on the bearing clouds, when, rising from the dead, He began to return to heaven, whence He had come to save the human race. Who are they that await Him as He ascends? They who saw Him rising fled as He hung upon the cross, and now they follow Him with their eyes as He ascends. Fear at the cross, love in the clouds, a delightful sight in the air. O sweet affection for Him who descends!
O delightful sight of Him who flies away! He bids farewell, and blesses them in peace. They commend themselves to Him; and He leaves them the grace of His blessing. He blesses them with hands outstretched, and is set upon the clouds made ready to meet Him (Luke 24:50-51). He ends His speech, and now He seeks heaven again. For suddenly there appeared a bright bearing-up of cloud, prepared in heaven. A cloud appeared, and He entered into it, He who brings up the clouds from the ends of the earth (Ps. 135:7): that the loveliness of the cloud might delight their eyes, and the sweetness of Him ascending from heaven might bedew them, lest the empty anxiety of their longing alone should remain. The angels, messengers of the mysteries. Behold, upon the shield of the Acts of the Apostles hang the living painted lights of the fishermen:
the Comforter is present, who is the ascending Saviour. He straightway sends two heavenly officers, that He might render His nurslings secure who were afraid, and turn into joy those who wept. For it was fitting that there should be heavenly comforters, lest the fishermen should remain trembling. For even when an emperor passes from city to city, and his coming is announced, none are sent but household attendants, officers and courtiers, to announce to the provincials that the king's coming or return is at hand: so also, as the Lord ascended, the throng of heavenly officers shone forth singing, that they might make the hearts of the shepherds, as it were of provincials, take breath again from their fear.
When also He suffers and rises again, household angels are appointed, that they might announce that the Lord of heaven had risen from the cloud and the guard-post of the tomb: and now, when He ascends, from the choir of the Powers going before Him and the multitude singing in the air of the encampments, two courtiers of the heavenly empire are sent; that the tearful lights of the fishermen might be set at rest, they recite a heavenly hymn. What manner of Christ is to return. 'Fishermen, men of Galilee,' they say, 'why do you gaze upon Jesus going into heaven? So shall He come in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven' (Acts 1:11). He has set out desirable, He shall not return to you terrible: a cloud at His going, a cloud at His return. He bore the wounds; those same wounds He shall bring back again.
He carried back the cross in triumph; the sign of the Son of Man shall appear to you in heaven. So shall He come, in that same body, in that same cloud, in that same truth; to you in love, to the ungodly in trembling. Blessed are they to whom it is truly said, 'So shall He come, in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven.' Shall He so come to the eyes of sinners? It shall be the same truth; but it shall not be the same security. It shall be the day of the fearful judgment, the descent of the angels, the resurrection of the dead. The angels shall ascend, and with a certain finger of the sounding trumpet they shall touch the sepulchres of the trembling earth; that they may restore the pledges to the fiery throne of Him who judges. The angels shall ascend to the tombs of the Prophets and of the Apostles themselves and of all the saints, and shall say to them: Behold, He is the One who returns again as He ascended.
We have said that 'So shall He come, in like manner as you have seen Him going into heaven': you who escorted Him going, receive Him returning. This address is not of the seventy tongues; but the clouds are openly called rainy, that they may meet in dew and cooling loveliness those who hold no question in their conscience. Let us therefore ask of the Lord our God that, just as today we celebrate the season and the day of the Ascension, so we may be worthy to receive the morning mercy of Him who returns: that we may say to Him, 'In the morning I will adore, O Lord; in the morning I will stand before You, and will contemplate You' (Ps. 5:3-4). SERMON 182. On Pentecost, I. The Holy Spirit is God. The Companion of the Majesty. The expression of the Trinity. The Vicar of the Redeemer.
After that singular and illustrious victory, by which the public Champion both fought and conquered for the world, after He had not only rescued the frailty of our condition from the lower regions, but had also raised it up to the heights of His kingdom, on this day, according to His word, He gave the Holy Spirit, of whom He had already said to His Apostles, 'And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter' (John 14:16). Another, indeed, not lesser: another Comforter, that is, of like glory or nature, and of the same substance: so that the faith of the disciples, prepared by a truthful promise for the expectation of so great a gift, might recognize that He whom it remembered had been promised by the Lord to it in the place of God, was truly God. 'And another Comforter,' He says:
understand the Companion of the Majesty, whom you perceive to be compared to the Majesty. 'And I will ask,' He says, 'the Father, and He will give you another Comforter.' How well, under the title of a promise, He applied the distinction of the Trinity! The Father is He who is indicated as the One to be asked, the Son is He who is understood to be the One who asks, the Holy Spirit is He who is promised to be sent by the Father. How great and how unspeakable is the loving-kindness of the Redeemer! He carried Man to heaven, and sent God to earth. How great is the Author's care for the restoration of His workmanship! Behold, once again a new medicine is sent from on high: behold, once again the Majesty deigns to visit His sick ones by His very self. Behold, once again divine things are mingled with human, that is, the Vicar of the Redeemer;
that the benefits which the Lord and Saviour began, He might consummate by the particular power of the Holy Spirit: and that what the One redeemed, the Other might sanctify; what the One acquired, the Other might guard: and thus the unity of the Godhead is proved through the unity of grace and of gift, so that the Holy Spirit, God one in substance, another in person, single in equal mercy, is to be worshipped with equal reverence. He is now no longer a visitor, but an eternal indweller. Through substance, not through operation alone. The Apostles are the rays of the sun and the lamps of truth. Therefore on this day the Holy Spirit, like a shower of sanctification, glided down upon the temples of His Apostles prepared for Him, no longer a sudden visitor, but a perpetual Comforter, and an eternal indweller.
For just as of Himself He had said to His Apostles, 'Behold, I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the age' (Matt. 28:20): so also of the Holy Spirit, 'The Father,' He says, 'will give you a Comforter, that He may abide with you forever.' Therefore on this day He was present to His faithful ones, no longer through the grace of visitation and operation, but through the very presence of His majesty: and into the vessels there flowed no longer the fragrance of the balsam, but the very substance of the sacred ointment, from whose fragrance the breadth of the whole world might be filled, and those drawing near to their teaching might become capable of God and partakers of Him. Therefore He sat upon each one as fire, of which our Saviour testifies, 'I am come to send fire upon the earth' (Luke
12:49), of which it is said, 'Our God is a consuming fire' (Deut. 4:24). He therefore poured over His Apostles from the fountain of living light; that they themselves might afterward illuminate the whole world like twelve rays of the sun and as many lamps of truth, and, inebriated with the new wine, might fill and water the thirsting hearts of the peoples. What the coming of the Holy Spirit added to the perfection of the Apostles. Let us inquire at this point what, after the resurrection or ascension of the Lord, could still be added to the perfection of the Apostles through the participation of the Holy Spirit. There was indeed faith in them; but the steadfastness of confidence was lacking. Already indeed they were able to preach Christ throughout all things:
but as yet they could not contend even unto death for Christ; to such a degree that none of the disciples had been crowned with the palm of martyrdom before the coming of the Holy Spirit. Moreover, the Lord Jesus had now departed from their eyes, who by His visible preaching, speaking mouth to mouth, strengthened them, and instructed them by the miracles of His mighty works: and while they were with Him, they readily believed the things they saw; faith was aided by sight, confirmed by the works present before them, nourished by signs and mighty works. But after the Lord Jesus, taken up from their eyes, had withdrawn into heaven, their astonished and trembling minds were not sufficient, as was fitting, to think upon heavenly and eternal things:
nor could their narrow breasts as yet bear the greatness of divine perceptions; that they might understand how Christ was the Word, God with God, just as the Lord Himself, while still established in the body, plainly intimates to them, saying, 'I have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now: but when the Spirit of truth shall come, He shall teach you all truth' (John 16:12-13). You see that after His departure the breasts of the disciples were enlarged unto the adoring and supreme Power, so as to sustain the greatness of the divine light and the understanding of the truth. It is God, therefore, who is able, after His munificence, to accumulate grace, to increase wisdom, to confirm steadfastness.
The state of the Apostles before and after the coming of the Holy Spirit. Before, error; after, wisdom. Thomas's unbelief. The faith of the others afterward. Peter's judgment against the persecutors. Stephen afterward corrects it. Those who before were timid become presently intrepid against all torments. Let us see, then, at the visitation of the heavenly Comforter, how much of magnanimity, how much of perfection came flowing to them. For at first, when they had seen Him walking upon the swelling backs of the sea with the waves laid low beneath Him, and when the unstable path of the waters was made solid under His divine steps by the handmaid wave, they were troubled, saying, 'It is a phantom,' and for fear they cried out. But after the infusion of the Holy Spirit, they no longer say that it is a phantom: