Very Rev. Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org 

The Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881-1944 – the 59^th anniversary of his repose was last Sunday, October 26) attained to faith in the doctrines proclaimed by the Fathers of the Ecumenical Councils as a result of a process of discovery which took some time. The Bishop of Oxford refused to ordain him in 1906 when he told him that he was not firm in faith that Jesus was truly born of a Virgin and that he rose from the dead. Some time later, Archbishop Davidson of Canterbury, after carefully examining him, decided that his thinking was going in a good direction and took the risk of ordaining him to the deaconate in 1909 and to the priesthood in 1910. He was not disappointed. In 1913 Temple declared “"I believe in the Virgin Birth...it wonderfully holds before the imagination the truth of Our Lord's Deity and so I am glad that it is in the Creed. Similarly I believe in our Lord's Bodily Resurrection."”.

Later on he unfolded the significance of the Lord’s Ascension as follows in his meditation upon the Gospel according to St. John:

“In the days of His earthly ministry, only those could speak to him who came where He was: if He was in Galilee, men could not find Him in Jerusalem; if He was in Jerusalem, men could not find Him in Galilee. His Ascension means that He is perfectly united with God; we are with Him wherever we are present to God; and that is everywhere and always. Because He is ‘in Heaven’ He is everywhere on earth: because He is ascended, He is here now. Our devotion is not to hold us by the empty tomb; it must lift up our hearts to heaven so that we too ‘in heart and mind thither ascend and with Him continually dwell’: it must also send us forth into the world to do His will; and these are not two things, but one.”

The same is true of those who pass from this visible world into the invisible. Until they did so they were in this world: we could see, hear and touch them but that could only be when we actually went to visit them. Once they left this world, although we may no longer commune with them through the senses, they are everywhere and always with us – all we need do is think of them. When we feel that we miss them, such thoughts may be painful. The apostles of Christ also felt sorrow after His death upon the Cross. But their sorrow changed to joy and hope when they became convinced that He had truly risen and ascended into Heaven – even though after the Ascension they could no longer touch Him or hear His voice audibly. Their faith and hope united them to Him!

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, through His Ascension, we too can unite by faith everywhere and always with those who have gone into the invisible world. We remember them in our prayers and we sense that they also remember us in the same way. We believe that they continue to love us and that they help us in every way they can. We commemorate them with gratitude for their lives, we visit the places where their earthly remains were buried or interred, and we do acts of kindness and mercy in their honour. And we shall never, never assent to the thought that they and we are forever apart.

Thanks be to the Lord for this good and noble truth, one of an infinite number that flow from meditation upon the meaning of His blessed Coming and eternal Abiding with us!

See Ukrainian version.