THE FEAST OF THE ASCENSION AND OUR NEW LIFE

The message of our Lord’s ascension into heaven

By: Fr. Tadros Y. Malaty, Bishoy Boshra Behnam

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Who can imagine that someone comes back home rejoicing, after bidding farewell to a son or a dear friend at the airport, because his son or friend has left town? But what amazes us is that the disciples and whoever with them, who went back from the Mount of Olives after the ascension of whom they got attached to, and very much loved and left everything for, they came back to Jerusalem with great joy (Lk.24:52). They have watched the most marvelous and splendid scene that humanity has ever seen since its creation. The new Adam spreads out his hands to bless them, rising in defiance to earth’s gravity and ascending, not in a fiery chariot like Elijah, but in wondrous glory. As he was rising to disappear from their sight, two angels appeared proclaiming the good news that he will come launched from heaven to carry them to the bosom of his Father (Acts 1:11). What a significant difference between the end of the first Adam and the new Adam! The first one descended to the grave to go back to dust, giving his sons the inheritance of the divine judgment. “You are dust, and to dust, you shall return,(Gen 3:19). But before the new Adam, the eternal doors open and the heavenly receive him as the first-born of all humanity, the king of kings, who will bring them in, as kings to eternal glory, for each one of them will hear; “You are heaven, and to heaven, you shall return “.