Ascension of the Lord

A feast that looks like a farewell, and which the Gospel calls a joy. The disciples returned to Jerusalem with great gladness — after their Teacher had left them for good.

For forty days after the Resurrection Christ appeared to the apostles: speaking with them, eating in their presence, opening the Scriptures. On the fortieth day he led them out of the city to the Mount of Olives, lifted his hands and blessed them — and while blessing them he was parted from them until a cloud hid him. They stood looking up until two men in white stood beside them: Why do you stand gazing into heaven? This Jesus, taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go.

What the feast is about

The Ascension is not about God flying away and leaving an empty space. Christ departed not from people but from one place and one time: before, he could be met on a road in Galilee; now, anywhere. And it was not only the divine nature that ascended — human flesh, ours, was taken into heaven. This is the ground of Christian hope: what is human has a place in God.

Note what the disciples saw last: hands raised in blessing. He left without finishing the gesture.

How it is kept

Always a Thursday, the fortieth day after Pascha. On the Wednesday before, the leave-taking of Pascha is served: the paschal hymns are sung for the last time in the year. Ten days of waiting for the promised Spirit lie between the Ascension and Pentecost.

You ascended in glory, O Christ our God, and gladdened Your disciples by the promise of the Holy Spirit; and they were assured by the blessing that You are the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world.