FROM THE FATHERS “DO NOT be negligent about your salvation, making excus- es with pretexts for sins to justify yourself. For Joseph served in Egypt, assuming not only the care of one household, but for the whole of Egypt, and yet he did not flee from the true path, and the Lord glorified him.” Ven. Ephraim the Syrian, + c. 379 A.D. “THE DEMONS, as Saint Hilarion has said, are immaterial and sleepless, concerned only to fight against us and to destroy our souls through word, act and thought. We lack a similar per- sistence, and concern ourselves now with our comfort and with ephemeral opinion, now with worldly matters, now with a thou- sand and one other things. We are not in the least interested in examining our life, so that our intellect may develop the habit of so doing and may give attention to itself unremittingly.” Ven. Peter of Damascus, eleventh century. “THE WORK of our salvation depends on our volition, on God’s help, and on cooperation. But the latter will not follow if the first does not precede it.” Ven. Ambrose of Optina, + 1891 A.D. 1 Homily on the Ascension of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ Saint Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonica + 1360 A.D. THE JEWS celebrated the Passover according to the Law, their exodus from Egypt into the land of Palestine; and we cel- ebrate the Gospel Pascha, our crossing over in the being of Christ from death unto life, from corruption to incorruption. What word can describe the distinction between our festival and the ancient one or can portray the basis of our present celebration? Human words cannot worthily explain its provenance. The hypostatic Wisdom of the Most High God, the Pre-eternal Word of God above all Being, Who in love for man was united with us and lived with us, now by His deeds shows us the basis of the celebration and the measureless greatness of its origin. For we now celebrate not the crossing over of our nature from the subterranean world to earth, but rather from the earth to the heaven of heavens and even fur- ther - to the Throne of the One, Who reigns over all things. Now the Lord not only stands after the resurrection in the midst of His disciples, but He has departed from them and we see that He was taken up to heaven. He ascended and entered into the Holy of Holies, and is seated on the right hand of the Father, higher than all principalities and powers, above every name and eminence that is known and named in this present world or in that which is to come (see Eph. 1:21). Just as there were several resurrections before the resur- rection of the Lord, so there were several ascensions before His ascension: a spirit took Jeremias the Prophet and an Angel, Abba- 2 cum; and from among the others pre-eminently Elias is described as being taken into heaven in a fiery chariot. But the ascension of each one of them was, as it were, a kind of displacement, by which, although they were taken up from the earth, they did not entirely leave its regions. With Christ, however, as soon as He had risen from the dead, death had no more authority, and so when He as- cended and was seated in the heights, every exalted thing proved to be beneath Him, everything bearing witness that He as God is above all. This is, according to Esaias (2:2), the mountain of the Lord’s house, the Lord’s body, being established in the top of all the rational mountains. For neither an angel, nor a man, but the Lord Himself came in the flesh and saved us, being made for our sake like unto us, and without change remaining God. Just as He came down without being changed, while condescending to us, so He returned back, not ascending in his Divinity, but raising up our nature, which He had assumed; for, in truth, it was necessary to offer unto God the first-born from the dead of our nature, as a first-fruit of the whole race. For this reason, although several have resurrected and as- cended, we do not celebrate even one of them as we do the resur- rected and ascended Lord, because we do not participate and will not participate in those others. From those we will not receive any- thing more, as we do with the leadership in faith in the resurrec- tion and ascension of our Saviour, in Whom we participate, and in Whom all will participate inasmuch as His is the resurrection and ascension of human nature, and not simply of human nature, but of all who believe in Christ and by their deeds manifest that faith. For such as the Lord was made [i.e. man], He was made for us, being in His own Divinity uncreated. The life that He lived, He lived for us, showing us the path which leads to true life. What He suf- fered in the flesh, He suffered for us, healing our passions, and for our sins He was condemned to death; for us He rose and ascended, granting us resurrection and ascension unto the endless ages. 3 So then all those who are inheritors of that life, as far as they are able, emulate the way of His earthly stewardship. Holy Baptism serves us as the starting point of this emulation, being the image of the death and resurrection of the Lord; the middle is a virtuous life and undertakings in accord with the Gospel; and the end is victory over the passions with the aid of spiritual struggles, which yields life without pain, not subject to death, one that is heavenly, as the Apostle tells us: If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live (Rom. 8:13). Thus, those who live in Christ emulate His life in the flesh. Of course each of us dies in time, just as He also died in the flesh, but then they arise, as He did, glorified and incorrupt, if not now, then when the time comes, and at the end they are taken up, just as Paul speaks of this: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thess. 4:17). Do you see that in this way each one of us, if he so desire, could be a participant in the resurrection of the Lord and the as- cension, an heir to God and co-heir with Christ? Wherefore we rejoice, celebrating the resurrection of our flesh [in Christ], its being taken up and its being established, as the beginning of the resur- rection and ascension of each one of the faithful, and presenting ev- idence of this we now have the Gospel words read concerning how the Lord after His resurrection stood in the midst of His disciples. And why did He stand in their midst, and accompany them on the way, as it is reported: He led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them (Luke 24:50)? In order to demonstrate that He Himself was completely whole and uninjured. His feet were healthy and sound and able to set off, even though they bore the marks of the nails, so as to show, for the verification of the saving sufferings, evidence of the wounds received by His being nailed to the Cross and pierced with the lance in His side. 4 Besides this, the words, stood in the midst of the disciples, manifest their confirmation in faith through the Lord’s being in their midst and His blessing them, for He not only stood in their midst, but He was found to be also in the heart of each one and therein strengthened their faith, so that each one of them could declare like the Psalmist: God is in the midst of him, he shall not be shaken (Ps. 45:5). From that time the Lord’s Apostles were made firm and unwavering. So it was that the Lord stood in the midst of the Apostles and said to them: Peace be unto you; this was for Him a loving, customary and characteristic greeting. Peace has a double signifi- cance: that, which we have in relationship with God and which mainly engenders piety, and that which we have in relation to each other, and which derives from the Gospel calling. Both the one and the other peace the Lord grants solely by His word. And just as He had enjoined them to work, when for the first time He had sent them forth, saying: Into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house (Luke 10:5), - He does the very same, when He appears in the house where they were gath- ered together. He immediately granted them peace. When He saw that they were fearful and disturbed by His unexpected and won- drous appearance (for they supposed, it says, that they had seen a spirit [Luke 24:37], that is they thought that what they saw was just a manifestation) then He, again revealing the thoughts of their hearts, and showing them that He is the One to Whom before His passion and resurrection they had said, Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee (John 16:30), He proposed that they be convinced by touching and feeling Him.