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On the assumption of the Lord

Of our father among the saints John, archbishop of Constantinople, Chrysostom, on the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. A divine festival, it seems, is this present one, proclaiming the Master's victory over death; and we have come to it, the crown of all feasts. For now the achievement of the whole economy for us has reached its end; and the present season has come bringing the symbols of the festival of victory. For now the Master has led up to heaven "the first-fruits of our bodies." We celebrate, therefore, a master's return, in which he transferred our nature to the heavens. For God who dwelt within raised up his own temple and he who crossed the ethereal sea gathered to himself his own garment, while by his divine nature continually filling all things, and by the economy according to the flesh first having come under the earth, and later after the victory over death having filled the heavenly dwelling with his own body. "Who shall declare the mighty acts of the Lord, or show forth all his praise?" What word could be able to explain the magnitude of so great an economy? Who will proclaim through the tongue the infinite wealth of the Master's ineffable generosity?

For the one whom sin cast out of the life in paradise, divine grace led up to heaven. The gatekeepers of death cried out, seeing the strange descent of him who had come upon them unexpectedly: "Who is this King of glory?" The super-celestial powers also uttered this voice, astonished at the strange sight of him who had ascended with a body. "Lift up your gates, O princes," it says, "and be lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in." For he led up human nature, he who caused what is of the same nature as us to be transferred with himself. Paradoxical is the ascent of him who appeared as a man; for divine also is the descent of him who was born of a virgin contrary to nature. A man is what is seen, but God is what is understood. He has made our nature a veil for his invisible divinity; "For no one," it says, "has ever seen God. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known." He came to us, bearing the unchangeable image of the Father's nature; he appeared, characterizing the indescribable divinity of the paternal hypostasis. For he was the form resembling the one who begot him; "Who, being in the form of God," it says, "took the form of a servant." The form of a servant does not falsify our nature. Therefore, the divinity of the legitimate offspring also verifies the likeness to the Father. This one, therefore, having brought about salvation for our nature through his own incarnation, has now fulfilled the purpose of the economy; now he has received the achievement of his benefaction towards us and has taken up with his divinity what is akin to our nature, he who is covered by a bodily cloud and has put on human raiment as a veil for his own divinity; now he who was seen as earthly has become heavenly again, not circumscribed in a place according to the boundlessness of his divinity, but filling all things by his divine nature, while having appeared as a man economically. "Being found in fashion as a man," it says, he covered his divinity with a human cloak.

This, therefore, he who sustained the entire creation contrary to nature led up to the heavens. I am not able to narrate the manner of his generation before the ages; my tongue does not reach to interpret even his procession from the virgin the

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In assumptionem domini

Τοῦ ἐν ἁγίοις πατρὸς ἡμῶν Ἰωάννου ἀρχιεπισκόπου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως τοῦ Χρυσοστόμου εἰς τὴν ἀνάληψιν τοῦ Κυρίου

ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ. Θεία τις, ὡς ἔοικεν, ἡ παροῦσα πανήγυρις τὴν τοῦ ∆εσπότου κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου νίκην ἀνακηρύττουσα· καὶ πρὸς αὐτὴν ἥκομεν τὴν πασῶν κορωνίδα τῶν ἑορτῶν. Νῦν γὰρ τέλος εἴληφε πάσης τῆς οἰκονομίας ἡμῖν τὸ κατόρθωμα· καὶ τῆς τῶν ἐπινικίων ἑορτῆς ὁ παρὼν καιρὸς ἥκει φέρων τὰ σύμβολα. Νυνὶ γὰρ εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνήγαγεν ὁ ∆εσπότης «τῶν ἡμετέρων σωμάτων τὴν ἀπαρχήν». Ἐπάνοδον τοίνυν δεσποτικὴν ἑορτάζομεν, καθ' ἣν πρὸς τὰ οὐράνια τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν μετέστησεν. Ἀνέστησε μὲν γὰρ τὸν ἑαυτοῦ ναὸν ὁ ἐνοικήσας Θεὸς καὶ συνήγαγεν ἑαυτῷ τὸ οἰκεῖον ἔνδυμα ὁ τὸ αἰθέριον πέλαγος περαιωσάμενος, τῇ μὲν θείᾳ φύσει διηνεκῶς τὰ πάντα πληρῶν, τῇ δὲ κατὰ σάρκα οἰκονομίᾳ πρότερον μὲν ὑπὸ γῆν ἐλθὼν, ὕστερον δὲ μετὰ τὴν κατὰ τοῦ θανάτου νίκην τῷ οἰκείῳ σώματι τὸ οὐράνιον ἀποπληρώσας οἰκητήριον. «Τίς λαλήσει τὰς δυναστείας τοῦ Κυρίου, ἀκουστὰς ποιήσει πάσας τὰς αἰνέσεις αὐτοῦ;» Τίς τῆς τοσαύτης οἰκονομίας ἐξηγήσασθαι δυνηθείη λόγος τὸ μέγεθος; τίς τῆς ἀῤῥήτου φιλοτιμίας τοῦ ∆εσπότου διὰ γλώσσης ἀνακηρύξει τὸν ἄπειρον πλοῦτον;

Ὃν γὰρ ἐξέβαλε τῆς ἐν παραδείσῳ διαίτης ἡ ἁμαρτία, τοῦτον εἰς οὐρανὸν ἀνήγαγεν ἡ θεία χάρις. Ἐβόων οἱ τοῦ θανάτου πυλωροὶ τὴν ξένην κάθοδον τοῦ παραδόξως αὐτοῖς ἐπιφοιτήσαντος θεώμενοι· «Τίς οὗτος ὁ βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης»; Ταύτην ἀφῆκαν τὴν φωνὴν καὶ αἱ δυνάμεις αἱ ὑπερουράνιοι, τὸ ξένον θέαμα καταπλαγέντες τοῦ μετὰ σώματος ἀνεληλυθότος. «Ἄρατε, γάρ φησι, πύλας οἱ ἄρχοντες ὑμῶν καὶ ἐπάρθητε πύλαι αἰώνιοι καὶ εἰσελεύσεται ὁ βασιλεὺς τῆς δόξης». Ἀνήγαγε γὰρ τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν φύσιν ὁ τὸ ἡμῖν ὁμογενὲς ἑαυτῷ συμμεταστήσας. Παράδοξος ἡ ἄνοδος τοῦ ἀνθρωπίνως πεφηνότος· θεία γὰρ καὶ ἡ κάθοδος τοῦ παρὰ φύσιν ἐκ παρθένου ἀποτεχθέντος. Ἄνθρωπος τὸ ὁρώμενον, ἀλλὰ Θεὸς τὸ νοούμενον. παρακάλυμμα πεποίηται τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν τῆς ἀθεάτου θεότητος· «Θεὸν, γάρ φησιν, οὐδεὶς ἑώρακε πώποτε. Ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς, ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ Πατρὸς, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο»· Ἧκεν ἡμῖν ὁ τῆς τοῦ Πατρὸς φύσεως ἀπαράλλακτον φέρων τὴν εἰκόνα· πέφηνεν ὁ τῆς πατρικῆς ὑποστάσεως χαρακτηρίζων τὴν ἀπερίγραφον θεότητα. Μορφὴ γὰρ ἦν ἐμφερὴς τοῦ γεννήσαντος· «Ὁ ἐν μορφῇ, γάρ φησι, Θεοῦ ὑπάρχων μορφὴν δούλου ἔλαβεν.» Οὐ διαψεύδεται τὴν ἡμετέραν φύσιν ἡ τοῦ δούλου μορφή. Ἐπαληθεύει τοίνυν καὶ τὴν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα ὁμοιότητα ἡ θεότης τοῦ γνησίου γεννήματος. Οὗτος τοίνυν τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ φύσει διὰ τῆς οἰκείας ἐνανθρωπήσεως τὴν σωτηρίαν πραγματευσάμενος νῦν πεπλήρωκεν τὸν τῆς οἰκονομίας σκοπόν· νῦν τῆς εἰς ἡμᾶς εὐεργεσίας εἴληφε τὸ κατόρθωμα καὶ τῇ θεότητι συνανείληφε τὸ συγγενὲς τῇ ἡμετέρᾳ φύσει ὁ τῷ σωματικῷ νέφει καλυπτόμενος καὶ παραπετάσματι τῆς οἰκείας θεότητος τὸ ἀνθρώπινον ἔνδυμα περιθέμενος· νῦν ὁ ἐπίγειος ὀφθεὶς οὐράνιος αὖθις γεγένηται οὐκ ἐν τόπῳ περιγραφόμενος κατὰ τὸ ἀπέραντον τῆς θεότητος, ἀλλὰ τῇ μὲν θείᾳ φύσει τὰ πάντα πληρῶν, ἄνθρωπος δὲ πεφηνὼς οἰκονομικῶς. «Ἐν σχήματι, γάρ φησιν, εὑρεθεὶς ὡς ἄνθρωπος» ἐκάλυπτε τὴν θεότητα ἀνθρωπίνῃ περιβολῇ.

Ταύτην τοίνυν ἀνήγαγεν εἰς οὐρανοὺς ὁ σύμπασαν τὴν δημιουργίαν παρὰ φύσιν ὑποστησάμενος. Οὐκ ἔχω τῆς πρὸ αἰώνων γεννήσεως αὐτοῦ διηγήσασθαι τὸν τρόπον· οὐκ ἐφικνεῖταί μοι ἡ γλῶσσα οὐδὲ τῆς ἐκ παρθένου προόδου ἑρμηνεῦσαι τὸν