On the fortieth day from Easter we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord because, as Saint Luke tells us, after his Resurrection Jesus appeared to the disciples for forty days before he was taken up into heaven (Acts 1:3). Yet we still continue to celebrate Easter until the fiftieth day, because the story does not end there: the Holy Spirit was yet to come. We rejoice with those same disciples who, “with great joy… returned to Jerusalem, and were continually in the temple blessing God” (Lk 24:52–53).
But where does the word Lapsi come from? The word comes from the Greek ἀνάληψις (análēpsis), which literally means “a taking up,” and thus expresses, in biblical language, the mystery of Jesus’ return to the Father.
But why rejoice at Jesus’ departure? We rejoice because, as Saint Leo the Great says, in the Lord’s Ascension, “we commemorate and duly venerate that day on which the Nature of our humility in Christ was raised above all the host of heaven, over all the ranks of angels, beyond the height of all powers, to sit with God the Father” (Sermon on the Ascension, 2–4).