Sermon at the Feast of the Lord’s Ascension [2012]

My Beloved,

Christ exalted!…

at the right hand of the Father…

And this feast does not mean something else than that Christ introduced, forever, His humanity in the Trinity. That due His humanity each of us has entrance at the Father, through the Son, into the Holy Ghost.

So the risen Christ ascends to heaven for that to send us the Holy Ghost at Pentecost. For the grace of the Holy Ghost descended on the Apostles for that Trinity to dwell in each of us.

He goes, with other words, for to come in us and deeper. In spiritually.

But Christ ascends with His transfigured body…for to show us that our way is ascensional. That salvation is the way to heaven, toward the Kingdom of Heavens.

And our ascension to heaven is of human in its entirety…and not just of the soul. Man divinizes in total mode because Christ has deified His humanity in full mode.

…And the Lord has prepared His Apostles for His departure…And He ascended from the Mount of Olives while He spoke and He blessed them [Luke 24, 51]. For He ascended into heaven after what He had sent them to preach faith in Him worldwide [Luke 24, 47].

And Tradition of Church says that the Mother of God was present at His Ascension…thing that is shown and in Icon of Ascension.

But, at Luke 24, 29, Saints Apostles are put to wait in Jerusalem…until they will be dressed with the power from on high.

Feast of the Ascension, therefore, is a passage towards Pentecost but one essential, for that receiving grace is a result of our washing through Baptism.

And therefore, after Baptism, our life is a continuous Pentecost. For through the grace of God we are continually open to Him just because Christ’s humanity is continuously open to communion.

Gladly sadness lived Saint Apostles and the Mother of Lord. For they were sad for His ascension but, in the same time, they were glad for the fulfillment of His words…and they waited on the Comforter.

The cloud of His glory…took Him from them [Acts 1, 9]…The two Angels come to confirm Ascension and His second coming [Acts 1, 10-11].

He will come just as you saw Him going into heaven…ie with His humanity full of divine glory.

Therefore, in our Church, the body is not seen as an enemy…but as a medium of transfigured. And the transfigured body is the body of Saint, that of a man who was filled with the glory of God.

The yellow of icons is the yellow of holiness. It’s the sign that Saints represented in icons are together with God, with the One who is their life.

And for this we honor the Saints as the servants of their Lord and we pray them that they to intercession for us.

…A feast of joy…Of the joy for all saved.

The motive for that, today, we make and the remembrance of the heroes of the Romanian nation. Ie of those who fought and died for this land and this nation blessed by God.

For that at the foundation of our freedom stays the sacrifice of many. And our prayer for them is a lesson of dignity and the recognition of the fact that life has a vertical sense…and it is not a waste of time.

And, for us not to waste time in things of shame, to concern ourselves continuing with beautifying our life with knowledge of theology and doing good deeds.

Because these are the ones that make us beautiful and high in the Kingdom of God. Amen!