In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!
Any separation is a sorrowful event for everyone.
And the more we love the one we separate from, the more sorrow we feel at the moment of parting. And in this sense, the feast of the Ascension of the Lord, according to human logic, should not be a festive occasion, but a day of mourning. However, we see something absolutely different. Moreover, in the liturgical hymns and texts dedicated to the feast of the Ascension, it says only once that the disciples wept when they saw Christ ascend, but it is mentioned many times that the Ascension filled them with joy, exhilaration, and exultation. How can this be?
It may seem to be completely inconsistent with human logic. But I think that many of us have to some extent experienced this in our lives. I am speaking about the cases when the Lord vouchsafed us to attend the funeral of elders, righteous people and those who pleased God with their lives. Those who have experienced this know that such a funeral is a seemingly mournful event, but in fact it feels more like a festive occasion.
After the funeral of a saint, one of the eyewitnesses who returned from there said: “I didn’t really understand where I was—at a funeral or at the uncovering of relics.” And this is really how it is. And it enables us to experience to a small extent what Christ’s disciples experienced at the moment of His Ascension. It shows us how dramatically Christianity changes the human order of life—it gives us a new life. Earthly separation means almost nothing if there is a spiritual bond between us and the one we are parting from.
So it was with the disciples of Christ. And that is why His Ascension was a cause of joy for them, because although they had not yet been filled with the Holy Spirit, Whom they would receive on the day of Pentecost, they were already convinced of Christ’s words, Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world (Mt. 28:20). His Ascension did not fill the disciples with sorrow, but with joy.
And, of course, this is a call for all of us to feel Christ next to us, regardless of whether we see Him physically or not. But it is very difficult for us, and this is sometimes the reason for our doubts and lack of faith, because we do not feel Christ’s presence so intensely in our lives.
And sometimes even deeply religious people have the following thoughts: “If Christ appeared here now and if I could physically see Him now, it would certainly be much easier for me to believe.” But the Lord does not do such things, because in this case it would not be faith, but knowledge. Then what would our merit in that case?
We need this labor of faith. And in order to acquire the same trust in the presence of Christ near us that the disciples had, the most important thing we must do is remember God continually.
One saint said that the memory of God, the constant remembrance of God is the indwelling of God in us. When we remember all the time that the Lord is close, we will be with Him, because the Lord is Omnipresent, and it depends only on us whether we are close to Him or far away. And, of course, this is what the feast of the Ascension calls us to.
The Lord ascended to Heaven, but He is with us always until the end of the world. And may God grant us to remember this as often as possible. May God grant us to train ourselves—even if not all the time (we still need to attain to that point), but as often as possible—to remember: “The Lord is here, by my side; He is next to me—He is looking at me now.” And such remembrance—provided that we call ourselves to it, sometimes literally force ourselves—will help us see God close to us; and the Lord will show us His miracles, which we simply do not see out of our lack of attention. If we keep God in our minds, we’ll see them.
May God grant it! And, through the prayers of the holy apostles, may the Ascended Lord always be with us; may we all always be with Him and see Him in every moment of our lives. It is this awareness of the omnipresence of God, in continually putting ourselves in the presence of God, that gives us the knowledge of the Heavenly Kingdom already here on earth. Amen.
