The Ascension as an Icon of the Church
One of my favorite aspects of icons is how they meet and include the viewer. When I look at an icon, I’m always reminded that these saints and stories are real, and that they happened, and of my part and place in the story of the Church.
One of the ways icons meet the viewer is through symbols and structure. (For those wondering what an icon is, check out my past article on the subject.) Let’s unpack an example of how icons meet us by using the image of the Ascension.
15th Century, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
In iconography, there are a few layers of interpretation. Scratching the surface layer, we want to determine who or what is depicted. At first glance, we find familiar elements that we may picture in our head when reading the Ascension narrative. Christ is in the sky being carried up toward heaven, ascending to His throne. The disciples below are staring up in shock as Our Lord goes away. Two men in white have appeared among the disciples and are telling them to take courage and go out again into the world.
But, two elements in this icon stand out that aren’t in the narrative: Mary, who is standing in the middle, and St. Paul, who is to her right dressed in red. Mary may have been present at the Ascension, but the text doesn’t mention her. St. Paul certainly wasn’t there. At this point in time, he was still a pharisee called Saul. So, why are they present?
This draws us into a deeper layer of interpretation regarding the icon’s structure. How is the composition ordered? (We’ll come back to Mary and St. Paul.)
There is a clear line between the sky and the ground. At the highest point, we have Christ ascending. He is seated on a rainbow and encased in concentric blue circles. These blue circles are called a mandorla and they appear in iconography whenever Heaven interacts with Earth. A mandorla communicates the presence of God’s glory that is outside time, space, and sight. This exact portrayal of Christ is one that we find elsewhere in iconography: Christ in Majesty, which shows him seated in Heaven and ruling.
12th Century, British Museum, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Around him is a mandorla, communicating glory. This is Christ as he is now, seated at the right of the Father. As He says just before His ascension in Matthew 28:18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” In the Ascension icon, Christ is both going up to Heaven and is also ruling.
Another icon where we see our Lord presented like this is Christ at the Last Judgment, which shows the second coming.
A lot is going on in this image (and this is only a snippet of the whole composition), but Christ here is also depicted in a mandorla gesturing from the right to the left in judgment. The compositional parallel to the Ascension and Christ in Majesty echoes the words of the angels in Acts 1:11: “Men of Galilee,” they say, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” In the Ascension icon, we not only have Christ depicted as going to Heaven and reigning, but we could also see this as prefiguring Our Lord’s return. All three are happening at once in the Ascension icon. Pictured here in the sky above the mountain, we have time from the moment of Christ’s ascension to His second coming.
On the ground level of the Ascension icon below Christ, we have the apostles looking up shocked in the moment, and Mary looking directly at us with her hands outstretched in prayer. Together, Mary and the apostles symbolize the Church from the moment of Christ’s ascension to His return. It’s us. This is why St. Paul and Mary are present. Yes, this is an image of the Ascension story. But the icon is also an image of the time that we have and what the Church does within that time.
We can build this out more by looking at Pentecost. The icons of Ascension and Pentecost are linked, as they both depict the Church’s present reality until Christ returns. Many of the patterns in the Ascension icon are echoed and expanded upon in Pentecost.
15th/16th centuries, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Here, we have the apostles in a semi-circle (St. Paul is present again) with a vacant seat at the top center. This seat is Christ’s because He is the head of the Church and has ascended. At the top of the icon, there is a mandorla with twelve tongues of fire descending. Each apostle is holding a scroll or a book, which symbolizes how each of them spread the Gospel message.
At the bottom, we have a strange figure named “Cosmos” emerging out of a dark place. He holds a cloth with many scrolls and looks at us. In the Pentecost story, there is the crowd from many nations to whom St. Peter preaches. Cosmos is the personification of that crowd in that moment but also of all peoples and nations who will receive the Gospel. Emerging from the darkness of sin, Cosmos holds many scrolls, which represents the Gospel going to all the nations. This points to the Church throughout history fulfilling the Great Commission, bringing light to the whole world. It’s us again.
Both Ascension and Pentecost are images of the Church and what it is called to do: We gather together in a place where Heaven and Earth meet, and then we go down the mountain again to meet the world. This is the pattern we play out every time we meet Christ in the Eucharist.
“Let us imagine we are standing on the Mount of Olives and that we bend our gaze on the Redeemer, as he rides up on a cloud. For, from where the Lord has hastened back to heaven, there too the One who loves to give has distributed his gifts to his Apostles, cherishing them as a father and confirming them, guiding them as sons and saying to them, ‘I am not parting from you. I am with you, and there is no one against you.’”
— Orthodox prayers for the feast of the Ascension (The Ikos)
Sources Consulted:
“Feminine Symbolism in Art | Seattle Talk.” YouTube, uploaded by Jonathan Pageau
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo8hXDiz0_8
Léonide Ouspensky, Vladimir Lossky. The Meaning of Icons, St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1982.
Pentecostarion. Thursday of the Assumption, Matins, The Ikos
https://www.liturgies.net/Easter/Ascension/assumption.htm