Today, with great joy, we celebrate the Glorious Ascension of our Savior into the heavens.
The Ascension was the last step of our salvation: in the OT, the sacrifice was not considered complete until the High Priest entered the sanctuary with the sacrificial victim. Today, our Savior, the true High Priest, enters the Sanctuary of Sanctuaries — Heaven itself — offering Himself as the sacrificial Victim, thereby completing His life giving work for us. As St. Cyril said,
When the Only Begotten Word of God ascended into the heavens in the flesh to which He was united, there was something new to be seen in the heavens. The multitude of holy angels was astounded, seeing the King of glory and the Lord of hosts being made in a form like ourselves. . . . Then the angels asked this, “What are these wounds in Your hands?” And He said to them, “These wounds I received in the house of My friends.”
This is our beautiful Savior carrying our human flesh and the wounds He suffered for our salvation into Heaven. Why? So that we, too, might enter Heaven. Let us therefore glorify Him today and forever!†