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Objection 1: It would seem that Christ did not ascend by His own
power, because it is written (Mk. 16:19) that "the Lord
Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up to heaven"; and
(Acts 1:9) that, "while they looked on, He was raised up, and
a cloud received Him out of their sight." But what is taken up, and
lifted up, appears to be moved by another. Consequently, it was not
by His own power, but by another's that Christ was taken up into
heaven.
Objection 2: Further, Christ's was an earthly body, like to
ours. But it is contrary to the nature of an earthly body to be borne
upwards. Moreover, what is moved contrary to its nature is nowise
moved by its own power. Therefore Christ did not ascend to heaven by
His own power.
Objection 3: Further, Christ's own power is Divine. But this
motion does not seem to have been Divine, because, whereas the
Divine power is infinite, such motion would be instantaneous;
consequently, He would not have been uplifted to heaven "while" the
disciples "looked on," as is stated in Acts 1:9. Therefore, it
seems that Christ did not ascend to heaven by His own power.
On the contrary, It is written (Is. 63:1): "This beautiful
one in his robe, walking in the greatness of his strength." Also
Gregory says in a Homily on the Ascension (xxix): "It is to be
noted that we read of Elias having ascended in a chariot, that it
might be shown that one who was mere man needed another's help. But
we do not read of our Saviour being lifted up either in a chariot or by
angels, because He who had made all things was taken up above all
things by His own power."
I answer that, There is a twofold nature in Christ, to wit, the
Divine and the human. Hence His own power can be accepted according
to both. Likewise a twofold power can be accepted regarding His human
nature: one is natural, flowing from the principles of nature; and it
is quite evident that Christ did not ascend into heaven by such power
as this. The other is the power of glory, which is in Christ's
human nature; and it was according to this that He ascended to
heaven.
Now there are some who endeavor to assign the cause of this power to
the nature of the fifth essence. This, as they say, is light, which
they make out to be of the composition of the human body, and by which
they contend that contrary elements are reconciled; so that in the
state of this mortality, elemental nature is predominant in human
bodies: so that, according to the nature of this predominating element
the human body is borne downwards by its own power: but in the
condition of glory the heavenly nature will predominate, by whose
tendency and power Christ's body and the bodies of the saints are
lifted up to heaven. But we have already treated of this opinion in
the FP, Question 76, Article 7, and shall deal with it more
fully in treating of the general resurrection (XP, Question 84,
Article 1).
Setting this opinion aside, others assign as the cause of this power
the glorified soul itself, from whose overflow the body will be
glorified, as Augustine writes to Dioscorus (Ep. cxviii). For
the glorified body will be so submissive to the glorified soul, that,
as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxii), "wheresoever the spirit
listeth, thither the body will be on the instant; nor will the spirit
desire anything unbecoming to the soul or the body." Now it is
befitting the glorified and immortal body for it to be in a heavenly
place, as stated above (Article 1). Consequently, Christ's
body ascended into heaven by the power of His soul willing it. But as
the body is made glorious by participation with the soul, even so, as
Augustine says (Tract. xxiii in Joan.), "the soul is beatified
by participating in God." Consequently, the Divine power is the
first source of the ascent into heaven. Therefore Christ ascended
into heaven by His own power, first of all by His Divine power, and
secondly by the power of His glorified soul moving His body at will.
Reply to Objection 1: As Christ is said to have risen by His own
power, though He was raised to life by the power of the Father,
since the Father's power is the same as the Son's; so also Christ
ascended into heaven by His own power, and yet was raised up and taken
up to heaven by the Father.
Reply to Objection 2: This argument proves that Christ did not
ascend into heaven by His own power, i.e. that which is natural to
human nature: yet He did ascend by His own power, i.e. His
Divine power, as well as by His own power, i.e. the power of His
beatified soul. And although to mount upwards is contrary to the
nature of a human body in its present condition, in which the body is
not entirely dominated by the soul, still it will not be unnatural or
forced in a glorified body, whose entire nature is utterly under the
control of the spirit.
Reply to Objection 3: Although the Divine power be infinite, and
operate infinitely, so far as the worker is concerned, still the
effect thereof is received in things according to their capacity, and
as God disposes. Now a body is incapable of being moved locally in an
instant, because it must be commensurate with space, according to the
division of which time is reckoned, as is proved in Physics vi.
Consequently, it is not necessary for a body moved by God to be moved
instantaneously, but with such speed as God disposes.
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