The Ascension

"And ascended into heaven with the same body and sat at the right hand of the Father."

Hopefully, you recognize these words which we recite every Sunday during the Divine Liturgy when we proclaim our faith in the Nicene Creed.  The following is adapted from Dr. Hagop Nersoyan's book "The Faith of the Armenian Church."

Our Lord came from heaven, united himself with the physical, material world in a tangible body, revealed himself to us by reducing himself to our human condition and dimensions, changed the destiny of the world, left his commandment of love, and then went back to heaven.  Before the Incarnation he was the second person of the Holy Trinity.  Now he is the same person made man.  Before, his nature was divine.  Now it is divine-human.

Heaven, where Jesus Christ ascended, is the place of bliss and glory.  It is a condition of spirit.  There he "sat at the right hand of the Father."  Sitting is a position of repose and authority and one's right hand side is, at least in our culture, given to one equal in honor.  Christ ascended and occupied that place of supernatural glory but no chasm is introduced between him and us because of it.  Our Lord is God and Man forever.  He is not, as we say, "gone for good."  His interest in us is alive.  Not only is there an essential relationship of love between us and God, but this relationship is also judicial.  Our Lord is the judge of our actions on earth.  A human action is valuable to the extent to which it is pleasing to him.  We look up to him who went into heaven.

"And ascended into heaven," we say, "with the same body."  The question has been asked: with the "same" as what body?

It is clear that the Nicene Creed generally follows the history of the life of our Lord as told in the Bible.  Our Lord appeared to the disciples after the Resurrection and before the Ascension.  He appeared in this interval in a body which, though recognizable, was no longer subject to the laws of nature. 

Thus our Lord's walking on water and his Transfiguration foreshadowed a mode or manner of being in which he would exist after the Resurrection.  Before his Resurrection he was at one place at a time.  After that event this condition no longer applied.  While he appears to people who are at a particular place and time, he is not at any particular place at any given time.  Distance and physical objects are not in the way of his presence.  And as evidence of his real and physical presence, he makes himself attainable to those who believe in his Resurrection.  He even eats and drinks, lets himself be touched, and acts as he had always acted before his Resurrection so that his disciples can see who he is.  Inasmuch as he appeared and was seen as the same, Christ had the same body.  But this new body is different; it is spiritual, celestial, glorious.  It is with this spiritual, celestial, glorious body that he ascended into heaven.

The story of the Ascension is told with eloquent simplicity by St. Luke, in the first chapter of the Book of Acts: "And he said to them … you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses.  And when he had said this, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight."  This, then, was the last appearance of our Lord and the beginning of his invisible presence.

Up to the Ascension Jesus Christ was among his disciples as someone distinct form them.  He was, to them, another, although divine, person.  After the Ascension, because he was present yet invisible, he could be distributed among his disciples just as the bread that he broke in the upper room was distributed to them physically. 

His presence would become a call for action, a moving force with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon them; just as food, through the energy that it sends to the blood, is a condition of life.  Jesus Christ remains a distinct person, and outside source of power who, through the Holy Spirit, moves us from within.  Christ's becoming invisible after the Ascension corresponds roughly to the fact that food, before it becomes energy, must be taken out of sight into the organism.  Even so is Christ in the Church, yet in heaven, namely beyond and above the Church.  Furthermore, the invisible presence of Christ does not take away out freedom; rather his work within us implies our full and free assent.

Another problem raised by the appearance of our Lord after the Resurrection is this: What is the relationship between spirit and matter?  The definition of the words "spirit" and "matter" has always been difficult.  Yet it is true to say that spirit, whatever else it is, is not matter and matter, whatever else it is, is not spirit.  Nor does the distinction make these words, or the things for which they stand, incompatible.

We know that in certain culture matter has been regarded as evil.  This is understandable.  If we did not have physical bodies many of the evils that we experience such as illness, economic distress, family problems, etc. would not exist.  But all this does not make matter itself evil.  The challenge is to make matter an instrument for good.  And this can be done if matter is used lovingly, with care, according to the will of God.  Christ himself, took his physical body, made of matter, and offered it to God.  It is in this way that the Church solves whatever conflict there may be between spirit and matter.  To sum up, our Lord went to heaven making it clear that he had come form heaven.  He made it possible for the world to be reconciled with God.  This possibility exists to the extent that there are men and women who follow the Lord in his true Church.  It is the duty of all true Christians to see that Christ's work of salvation is completed, for it will be completed in due time.