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Objection 1: It would seem that Christ's Ascension is not the
cause of our salvation. For, Christ was the cause of our salvation
in so far as He merited it. But He merited nothing for us by His
Ascension, because His Ascension belongs to the reward of His
exaltation: and the same thing is not both merit and reward, just as
neither are a road and its terminus the same. Therefore it seems that
Christ's Ascension is not the cause of our salvation.
Objection 2: Further, if Christ's Ascension be the cause of our
salvation, it seems that this is principally due to the fact that His
Ascension is the cause of ours. But this was bestowed upon us by His
Passion, for it is written (Heb. 10:19): "We have
confidence in the entering into the holies by" His "blood."
Therefore it seems that Christ's Ascension was not the cause of our
salvation.
Objection 3: Further, the salvation which Christ bestows is an
everlasting one, according to Is. 51:6: "My salvation shall be
for ever." But Christ did not ascend into heaven to remain there
eternally; for it is written (Acts 1:11): "He shall so come
as you have seen Him going, into heaven." Besides, we read of Him
showing Himself to many holy people on earth after He went up to
heaven. to Paul, for instance (Acts 9). Consequently, it seems
that Christ's Ascension is not the cause of our salvation.
On the contrary, He Himself said (Jn. 16:7): "It is
expedient to you that I go"; i.e. that I should leave you and
ascend into heaven.
I answer that, Christ's Ascension is the cause of our salvation in
two ways: first of all, on our part; secondly, on His.
On our part, in so far as by the Ascension our souls are uplifted to
Him; because, as stated above (Article 1, ad 3), His
Ascension fosters, first, faith; secondly, hope; thirdly,
charity. Fourthly, our reverence for Him is thereby increased,
since we no longer deem Him an earthly man, but the God of heaven;
thus the Apostle says (2 Cor. 5:16): "If we have known
Christ according to the flesh---'that is, as mortal, whereby we
reputed Him as a mere man,'" as the gloss interprets the
words---"but now we know Him so no longer."
On His part, in regard to those things which, in ascending, He did
for our salvation. First, He prepared the way for our ascent into
heaven, according to His own saying (Jn. 14:2): "I go to
prepare a place for you," and the words of Micheas (2:13),
"He shall go up that shall open the way before them." For since He
is our Head the members must follow whither the Head has gone: hence
He said (Jn. 14:3): "That where I am, you also may be."
In sign whereof He took to heaven the souls of the saints delivered
from hell, according to Ps. 67:19 (Cf. Eph. 4:8):
"Ascending on high, He led captivity captive," because He took
with Him to heaven those who had been held captives by the
devil---to heaven, as to a place strange to human nature. captives
in deed of a happy taking, since they were acquired by His victory.
Secondly, because as the high-priest under the Old Testament
entered the holy place to stand before God for the people, so also
Christ entered heaven "to make intercession for us," as is said in
Heb. 7:25. Because the very showing of Himself in the human
nature which He took with Him to heaven is a pleading for us. so that
for the very reason that God so exalted human nature in Christ, He
may take pity on them for whom the Son of God took human nature.
Thirdly, that being established in His heavenly seat as God and
Lord, He might send down gifts upon men, according to Eph.
4:10: "He ascended above all the heavens, that He might fill
all things," that is, "with His gifts," according to the gloss.
Reply to Objection 1: Christ's Ascension is the cause of our
salvation by way not of merit, but of efficiency, as was stated above
regarding His Resurrection (Question 56, Article 1, ad
3,4).
Reply to Objection 2: Christ's Passion is the cause of our
ascending to heaven, properly speaking, by removing the hindrance
which is sin, and also by way of merit: whereas Christ's Ascension
is the direct cause of our ascension, as by beginning it in Him who is
our Head, with whom the members must be united.
Reply to Objection 3: Christ by once ascending into heaven acquired
for Himself and for us in perpetuity the right and worthiness of a
heavenly dwelling-place; which worthiness suffers in no way, if,
from some special dispensation, He sometimes comes down in body to
earth; either in order to show Himself to the whole world, as at the
judgment; or else to show Himself particularly to some individual,
e.g. in Paul's case, as we read in Acts 9. And lest any man may
think that Christ was not bodily present when this occurred, the
contrary is shown from what the Apostle says in 1 Cor. 14:8, to
confirm faith in the Resurrection: "Last of all He was seen also by
me, as by one born out of due time": which vision would not confirm
the truth of the Resurrection except he had beheld Christ's very
body.
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