"I Go To Prepare a Place For You": The Ascension of Christ as Cause of Salvation

Author(s): Joshua Madden

Source: New Blackfriars, Vol. 97, No. 1070 (JULY 2016), pp. 420-431
Published by: Cambridge University Press
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 DOI: 10.111 l/nbfr.12158

"I Go To Prepare a Place For You":

The Ascension of Christ as Cause of
Salvation

Joshua Madden

The teaching of St. Thomas on salvation is centered on Christ's

Passion and the cross. That Christ's Passion is the cause of salvation
is a teaching without dispute and expressed clearly in the Summa
Theologiae where St. Thomas deals with the topic at length. Ques
tions 48 and 49 address both the efficiency and the effects of Christ's
Passion, with a dozen articles between them. In question 48 he states
that "Christ by His Passion merited salvation, not only for himself,
but likewise for all His members,"1 one of numerous places where
man's salvation is explicitly connected to Christ's Passion. However,
St. Thomas does not allow the cross to dominate the soteriological
discussion to the exclusion of the rest of the events of the Paschal
Mystery: he is adamant that the death,2 burial,3 descent into hell,4
resurrection,5 and ascension of the Lord6 also contribute in their own
way to the plan of redemption.

1 ST III, q. 48, a. 1, resp. All citations from the Summa Theologiae, unless otherwise
noted, are from the translations done by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province.
See Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, translated by Fathers of the English Dominican
Province (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2009).
2 cf. ST III, q. 50, a. 6. The death of Christ is a cause of salvation not by way of merit,
as was his passion, but "by way of causality," since even in death the body of Christ was
still united to the Godhead, thereby destroying death's sway over soul and body.
3 cf. ST III, q. 51, a. 1. In his response to the second objection, Thomas states: "As
Christ's death wrought our salvation, so likewise did His burial." Thomas sees the burial
of Christ as completing the mystery of his death, into which the faithful are baptized as he
relates in the body of the article: "Wherefore the baptized likewise who through Christ's
death die to sins, are as it were buried with Christ by immersion, according to Rom. 6:4:
We are buried together with Christ by baptism into death."
4 cf. ST III, q. 52, a. 1. Christ's descent into hell is the specific manner in which his
Passion is applied to those who had died, as the Sacraments are the manner in which the
merits of his Passion are applied to the living.
5 cf. ST III, q. 53, a. 1, ad. 3: "Christ's Passion wrought our salvation, properly
speaking, by removing evils; but the Resurrection did so as the beginning and exemplar
of all good things." See also ST III, q. 56, a. 1, ad. 3 where Thomas also teaches that
Christ's resurrection is the efficient and exemplar cause of the resurrection of every other
body.
6 cf. ST III. q. 5, a. 6.

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 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You" 421

It is the purpose of this essay to examine in depth St. Thomas'

teaching on the place which the Ascension occupies in the Paschal
Mystery, and its soteriological contribution. In his book Ascension
and, Ecclesia, Douglas Farrow points out that the doctrine of the
ascension is largely passed over in contemporary discussion: "Once
it was seen as the climax of the mystery of Christ... Once too
it was celebrated as the crown of Christian feasts and the ground
of the sacraments. Today it is something of an embarrassment."7
Though this may be the case with modern scholarship,8 tainted by
the Enlightenment presupposition to ignore anything that smacks of
superstition and myth (as the mystery of the ascension does to some),
this has not been the situation through much of the Christian tradition.
I contend that for St. Thomas, the Common Doctor of the faith, the
ascension occupies a pivotal space in his theology and understanding
of the mission of Christ.
Though an investigation of this sort could be undertaken in var
ious ways, I would like to make the case that St. Thomas under
stands the ascension according to the following threefold schema:
(1) that Christ's humanity is glorified as a reward for his obedience
unto death, and that his glorification makes space for mankind in
heaven; (2) that Christ, as the eternal high priest, brings his blood
into heaven before the Father to atone for sin and make intercession
for the Church; and finally (3) that Christ's ascension inaugurates
the kingdom, and from his place in heaven bestows gifts on the
Church in the person of the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, I hope to show
that even though the Summa Theologiae takes up specific questions
on the mystery of the ascension, it is in St. Thomas' commentaries
on Scripture9 that his understanding of the event stands forth most
clearly. It is my hope that this essay will contribute in a small way
towards recovering an understanding of the ascension as the crowning
mystery of the Christ event, for as the Catechism of Trent teaches,
"to the ascension, as to their end, are referred all other mysteries,
and that in it is contained their whole perfection and completion."10

7 Douglas Farrow, Ascension and Ecclesia: On the Significance of the Doctrine of

the Ascension for Ecclesiology and Christian Cosmology (Grand Rapids, MI: William B
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999), 9.
8 Farrow notes this demythologizing tendency: "Our perfection or deification was grad
ually detached from its dependence on the heavenly humanity of Jesus, belief in which
seemed to become more and more difficult... In more radical circles, those of Flegel and
Strauss, for example, the ascent of the Son became a symbol of the ascent of Man." See
Douglas Farrow, "Karl Barth on the Ascension: An Appreciation and Critique," Interna
tional Journal of Systematic Theology, 2.2 (July 2000), 129.
9 Specifically his treatments of the Gospel of John, the Epistle to the Ephesians, and
the Epistle to the Hebrews.
10 Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part I, Chapter 7.4. See Theodore Alois Buckley,
The Catechism of the Council of Trent (London: George Routledge and Co., 1852).

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422 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You"

I: The Glorification of Christ's Humanity

The glorification of Christ is a common theme in the New Testament,

so common in fact that we must make do with but a few examples
since a complete treatment of the matter is impossible in the limited
space present here. Though the entire Gospel of John deals with the
concept of glory, chapter 17 is perhaps the most conspicuous of the
passages that deal directly with Christ's glorification, as he himself
prays for this very thing to be accomplished: "Father, the hour has
come, glorify your son."'1 The beautiful hymn in Philippians declares
that it is on account of the Son's obedience that he is exalted and
glorified: "Therefore, God has highly exalted him, and given to him
the name above every name, that in the name of Jesus every kne
might bend, in the heavens and in the earth and under the earth, and
every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord unto the glory
of God the Father."12 The Epistle to the Hebrews begins in praise o
the Son: "Having made purification of sins, he took his seat at th
right hand of majesty in the heights, having become so much greater
than the angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than
theirs."13
It is clear from the examples given that Christ's glorification and
cession to the right hand of the Father is intimately connected to his
obedience in the event of the Passion. Though John speaks of the
Passion as the hour of glory, it is certainly not to the exclusion of
the ascension; the Philippians hymn and the Epistle to the Hebrews,
however, are very explicit in their identification of Christ's ascension
as the definitive moment of exaltation and glorification. As a direct
result of Christ's obedience unto death,14 he is glorified, and exalted
above every creature. With St. John, St. Thomas can affirm that
Christ possesses glory even before his ascension,15 but it is clear
that he understands this glorification to be made complete in the
ascension. "By ascending into heaven Christ acquired no addition
to His essential glory either in body or in soul: nevertheless He did
acquire something as to the fittingness of place, which pertains to the
well-being of glory."16 As the hypostatically united God-man Christ
possessed glory of the soul from the first moment of his conception,17

11 Jn 17:1. All translations of Scripture are my own and are taken from Michael W.
Holmes, The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition, (Lexham Press, 2010).
12 Phil 2:9-11.
13 Heb l:3b-4.
14 cf. Phil 2:8.
15 One need only read the account of the Transfiguration in the Synoptic Gospels to
realize that even the Apostles understood that Christ possessed a certain kind of heavenly
glory before his resurrection and ascension.
16 ST III, q. 57, a. 1, ad. 2.
17 cf. ST III, q. 34, a. 4, ad. 1; q. 45, a. 1, resp.

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 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You" 423

but his body did not possess the same glory as he had not yet suffered
the Passion. "That the glory of his soul did not overflow into his body
from the first moment of Christ's conception was due to a certain
Divine dispensation... [that] he might fulfill the mysteries of our
redemption in a passible body."18
Here, then, is the distinction: though Christ possessed glory from
the first moment of the Incarnation, it was of his soul alone. The glo
rification of Christ's body was a direct result of the resurrection,19
and his ultimate glorification and exaltation came to pass in his as
cension into heaven. The Epistle to the Hebrews states that Christ
"took his seat at the right hand of the throne of God,"20 and St.
Thomas, commenting on this text, states the following: "the exal
tation of Christ's humanity was the reward for his passion."21 This
exaltation and glorification, moreover, is the efficient and exemplar
cause of our hoped-for future glorification and ascension into heaven.
"Christ's ascension is the direct cause of our ascension, as by be
ginning it in him who is our head, with whom the members must
be united."22 St. Thomas goes on: "Christ by once ascending into
heaven acquired for himself and for us in perpetuity the right and
worthiness of a heavenly dwelling-place."23
What Thomas states here by way of passing is dealt with more
in depth in his commentary on the Gospel of John, specifically his
lecture on John 14:1-3. In discussing the purpose of chapters 13
through 15 of John's Gospel, St. Thomas states that it is in chapter
14 that "[Christ] comforts them in regard to his going away." In
the beginning verses of John 14 Jesus comforts his disciples, telling
them: "In the house of my father there are many rooms. If there were
not, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? If I go
and prepare a place for you, I am coming again and will gather you
to myself, in order that where I am you also shall be."25 Though St.
Thomas gives a lengthy exposition on the meaning of this passage,
one point stands out: "When [Jesus] says, in the house of my Father
are many mansions, he adds the promise that it is through Christ that

18 ST III, q. 45, a. 2, resp.

19 cf. ST III, q. 54, a. 2.
20 Heb 12:2.
21 Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 12.1: Exaltatio enim humanitas Christi fuit
praemium passionis eius. The Latin text of St. Thomas' commentaries on Scripture are
taken from the compilation housed at www.dhspriory.com. All translation of the commen
taries are my own.
22 ST HI, q. 57, a. 6, ad. 2.
23 ST III, q. 57, a. 6, ad. 3.
24 Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura, cap. 14.1: confortât eos contra primum, scilicet
contra eius recessum.
25 Jn 14:2-3.

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 424 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You"

they shall draw near and be introduced to the Father."26 It is clear that
Thomas understands this "place" of which Jesus speaks to be both
the body of Christ27 and God himself.28 However, Thomas' preferred
interpretation for the "place" is the latter, that it refers primarily to
God himself, and that even though this preparation was accomplished
by Christ in the eternal predestination, "[Christ] even prepared [this
place] in his going away."29 In sum, it is the ascension of Christ that
completes the glorification of Christ's soul and body, and manifests
to all creation his pre-eminent place and glory with the Father: "For
the complement to Christ's glorification was in his ascension."30

II: Jesus Christ our High Priest

Although implicit elsewhere in the New Testament, Christ's priest

hood is most explicitly considered in the Epistle to the Hebrews:
"He had to be likened to his brethren in all things, that he might be
come a merciful and faithful high priest in those things which pertain
to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people."31
Christ's ascension does not, therefore, simply reward his humanity
with glorification and become the locus of our future dwelling place
with God. The ascension directly completes Christ's saving work on
the cross by way of merit, atonement (or satisfaction), redemption,
and sacrifice. As St. Thomas states:

Christ's Passion... in so far as it is compared with the will of Christ's

soul it acts in a meritorious manner: considered as being within Christ's
very flesh, it acts by way of satisfaction, inasmuch as we are liberated
by it from the debt of punishment; while inasmuch as we are freed

26 Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura, cap. 14.1: cum dicit in domo patris mei man
siones multae sunt, subiungit promissionem quae est ut per Christum accédant, et introdu
cantur ad patrem.
27 "Since the house of any person is that in which they dwell, that in which God dwells
is called the house of God... On this account, the house of God is twofold. One is the
Church militant... the other is [the Church] triumphant" [cum uniuscuiusque domus sit
in qua habitat, ilia dicitur domus Dei in qua habitat Deus... Duplex est ergo domus Dei.
Una est militans Ecclesia... Alia est triumphans]. (Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura,
cap. 14.1).
28 "But the house of the Father is not only where he himself dwells, but [the house]
is his own self, for he exists in himself. It is into this [latter] house that we are gathered"
[Sed domus patris dicitur non solum ilia quam ipse inhabitat, sed etiam ipsemet, quia ipse
in seipso est. Et in hac domo nos colligit]. (Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura, cap.
14.1).
29 Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura, cap. 14.1: Praeparavit autem per recessum
suum.

30 Super Evangelium S. Ioannis lectura, cap. 14.1: Complementum autem glorif

Christi fuit in eius ascensione.
31 Heb 2:17.

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 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You" 425

from the servitude of guilt, it acts by way of redemption: but in so far

as we are reconciled with God it acts by way of sacrifice.32

The ascension, as the Epistle to the Hebrews makes clear, takes what
was accomplished on the cross into heaven. "When Christ arrived
as high priest of the good things to come through the greater and
more perfect tent not made by hands - that is, not of this creation
- nor through the blood of goats and calves but through his own
blood, he entered once for all into the holies, obtaining an eternal
redemption."33 The author of Hebrews clearly sees the ascension
through the lens of sacrifice, perfecting and bringing to fulfillment
what was begun on the cross. It is this same sentiment that Marshall
sees present in the Lukan account of the ascension, noting that Luke's
use of àvacpépœ> is meant to call to mind the way that sacrifices are
borne up to God.34
It is precisely as our eternal high priest that Christ enters heaven,
for as Hebrews notes: "So if he were upon earth, he would not
be a priest."35 In keeping with his understanding of Christ's work
as a trajectory,36 encompassing his entire life from conception to
glorification, St. Thomas concludes that "if Christ was as yet upon
earth, thus, namely, that he had not yet ascended, he would not be
a priest, for his priesthood would not have been completed."37 As
the high priest, he fulfills the role which the high priest of the old
covenant occupied, especially in regard to his work in the ritual of
Yom Kippur. Having made atonement for the sins of the people,
he has "passed through the heavens"39 and "entered into the inner
sanctuary of the veil"40 where he fulfills the ritual of Yom Kippur.
Christ brings about the reality to which the Yom Kippur rite tended,
"for [the old high priest] enters with blood into the figurative holy
place; but Christ enters into the holy place through his own blood,

32 ST III, q. 48, a. 6, ad. 3.

33 Heb 9:11-12.
34
I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text (Grand
Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1978), 909.
35 Heb 8:4.
36 Farrow comes to much the same conclusion: "Jesus' ascension, considered as a
priestly act, begins already on the cross; or rather his whole life is seen as an act of
self-offering that culminates on the cross. In the ascension this offering is received on
high. It is Jesus in the totality of what he was and did who 'passed through the heavens'
to the divine sanctuary" Ascension and Ecclesia, 34.
37 Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 8.1: si Christus adhuc esset super terram, ita
scilicet quod nondum ascendisset, non esset sacerdos, quia non complevisset sacerdotium
suum.
38
cf. Heb 9:7-12; 9:25.
39 Heb 4:14.
40 Heb 6:19.

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426 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You"

that is, the heavenly holy place." In his teaching on the Old Law, St.
Thomas is very explicit about the purpose of the ceremonial precepts:
"The end of the ceremonial precepts was twofold: for they were
ordained to the Divine worship, for that particular time, and to the
foreshadowing of Christ."42 The figurative reason for the tabernacle
and the holy of holies, moreover, was to point to the time when Christ
would come as the high priest of the New Covenant who would bring
God's people into grace and glory. "The inner tabernacle, which was
called the Holy of Holies, signified either the glory of heaven or the
spiritual state of the New Law to come. To the latter state Christ
brought us; and this was signified by the high-priest entering alone,
once a year, into the Holy of Holies."43
When Christ ascends and enters into the presence of the Father, he
takes his own blood shed upon the cross to make atonement for the
sins of the world. "For Christ has not entered into a sanctuary made
by hands, the antitype of the true one, but into heaven itself, now
to be manifest before the face of God on our behalf. Nor [has he
entered] in order to offer himself many times, as the high priest used
to enter into the sanctuary once a year with blood not his own."44
Commenting on this text, St. Thomas remarks that it "alludes to the
rite of the old law, whereby the high priest who enters the holy of
holies stands in the presence of the propitiatory that he might pray
for the people; thus also Christ enters heaven... that he might stand
before God for our salvation,"45 and having come into the presence
of the Father, "he ascended that he might prepare the way for us."46
In his passion and death, Jesus offered himself as both priest and
victim in the perfect sacrifice once for all to atone for sin; in his
ascension, he is glorified and lives forever to intercede for mankind
before the Father47 and, in virtue of the presence of his glorified
humanity, he has prepared the way for the mystical body of Christ as
well 48 Not only has Christ taken up his own humanity into heaven,
but as our head he has prepared the way for us and led us there,

41 Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 4.3: Ille enim intrat cum sanguine in sancta
figuralia; sed Christus per proprium sanguinem intravit in sancta, id est, sacra caelestia.
42 ST I II, q. 102, a. 2, resp.
43 ST I II, q. 102, a. 4, ad. 3.
44 Heb 9:24-25.
45 Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 9.5: alludendo ritui veteris legis, secundum quam
pontifex qui intrabat sancta sanctorum, stabat coram propitiatorio ut oraret pro populo: ita
et Christus intravit caelum... ut astaret Deo pro salute nostra. The rite that St. Thomas is
referring to here is clearly Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, narrated in Leviticus 16.
46 Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 9.5: enim ascendit ut pararet nobis viam.
47 cf. Heb 7:25.
48 "The presentation of Jesus' perfected humanity before God (flesh and blood no longer
subject to death and corruption) has finally resolved the problem of sin and opened the way
for God's people to gain access to his heavenly throne and the enduring world to come."
See David M. Moffitt, "Unveiling Jesus' Flesh: A Fresh Assessment of the Relationship

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 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You" 427

granting us "confidence for entrance into the holies in the blood of

Jesus, a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the
veil, that is his flesh. 9 Thus St. Thomas: "Therefore this is the way
to go into heaven. It is new because before Christ no one had found
it... And so the one who desires to ascend ought to adhere in him
as a member to the head."50 Since Christ our head has passed into
glory, we must cleave to him in order that we might do the same as
members of his body.
In the ascension, "he prepared the way for our ascent into
heaven... for since he is our head the members must follow whither
the head has gone."51 This is the ground upon which St. Thomas
understands Christ's promise to prepare a place for his disciples in
the house of the Father: as members of the body of Christ, Christians
already possess a certain access to the Father through Jesus (who
is now seated at the right hand of the Father) and have hope that
they too may one day come to share in the glory which the Son
now possesses. As Brian Donne has shown, this access is intimately
linked with the constant intercession of Christ before the Father in
heaven:

It is by his Ascension that Christ has borne our humanity, which

he assumed at the Incarnation, to the throne of the Godhead... He
continues as Heavenly Intercessor in the widest possible sense, since
his intercession is more than prayer; it is his entire heavenly life by
which he enters fully into every human situation in a way which
was not possible during the days of his flesh. Moreover, his perpetual
intercession is no less needful for our acceptance than was his death
on Calvary, because his presence before the Father is the standing
guarantee of our being presented and accepted in heaven.52

Not only does this prepare the way, but in taking his glorified hu
manity into heaven "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."53 As
Thomas understands it, this is the result of Christ's intercession for
us before the face of God: in presenting his humanity to the Father,

Between the Veil and Jesus' Flesh in Hebrews 10:20," Perspectives in Religious Studies
(2010), 72.
49 Heb 10:19-20.
50 Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 10.2: Haec est ergo via eundi in caelum. Et
est nova quia ante Christum nullus invenit earn... Et ideo qui vult ascendere, debet ipsi
tamquam membrum capiti suo adhaerere.
51 ST III, q. 57, a. 6, resp.
52 Brian K. Donne, "The Significance of the Ascension of Jesus Christ in the New
Testament," Scottish Journal of Theology, Vol. 30 (1977), 564-565.
53 ST III, q. 57, a. 6, resp.

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428 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You"

the same humanity that suffered and died for our salvation, Christ's
very body is a living intercessory prayer.

Ill: The Inauguration of the Kingdom

In commenting on the mystery of the ascension, St. Thomas has

made clear that in this mystery Christ has first, as head, prepared the
way for our ascent and, second, entered into heaven as high priest to
intercede for us before the Father. Rounding out his threefold schema
of the saving purpose of the ascension, he concludes thirdly "that be
ing 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."54 In his commentary
on this passage in Ephesians, St. Thomas gives what one might call
a pithy summary of the ascension, and even the Christ event as a
whole: "he descended that he might ascend."55 Consonant with his
teleological view of history as a whole, and based on a careful read
ing of Scripture, St. Thomas is able to see that everything which
Christ accomplished in the flesh served the purpose of salvation, and
that every mystery of his life was recapitulated and taken up into
the event of the ascension. Though his teaching on the ascension in
the Summa places it under the ratio of efficient cause alone, here St.
Thomas seems to intimate that we might also view the ascension as
the final cause of the Incarnation: the Word was made flesh in order
that he might accomplish the mystery of our redemption on the cross
and be glorified.
Ephesians 4 gives a wonderful summary of the ad extra mission of
the Son into the economy of redemption: "Therefore it says, 'When
he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men.'
But what is 'he ascended' if not that he also descended into the
lower parts of the earth? The one who has descended is himself al
the one who ascended above all the heavens, so that he might fill
things."56 Christ's act of descending into hell and then being taken up
and glorified is an act of liberation: he frees all of those held capti
by sin and the devil. "He ascends, but not alone, for he led captivi
captive, those, namely, whom the devil had captured. For the hum
race was held captive, and the saints who had died in charity, an
who had merited glory, they had been detained as captives by th
devil in limbo... Christ therefore liberated those who had been held
captive and led them with himself into heaven."57 Not only those in

54 ST III, q, 57, a. 6, resp.

55 Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, cap. 4.3: descenderat, ut ascenderet.
56
Eph 4:8-10.
57 Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, cap. 4.3: Ascendens, inquam, sed non solus, quia
captivam duxit captivitatem, eos scilicet quos Diabolus captivaverat. Humanum enim genus
captivatum erat, et sancti in charitate decedentes, qui meruerant gloriam, in captivitate

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 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You" 429

hell, however, but those who are alive as well: "[Christ] made them
the slaves of justice... and thus led them in a certain way into a
captivity, though not into destruction but unto salvation."58
As Thomas notes, however, "for not only had he torn men away
from the captivity of the Devil, and subjected them to his own servi
tude, but he even gave them spiritual goods. Hence it is said that
he gave gifts to men, namely of grace and glory."59 What are these
gifts, then? Primarily it is the gift of the Holy Spirit: "It is to your
advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the paraclete
shall not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you."60 In his
treatment of the Divine missions, Thomas says that "the Holy Spirit
is possessed by man, and dwells within him, in the very gift itself of
sanctifying grace."61 St. Thomas teaches that "Gift" is itself a proper
name of the third person of the Trinity,62 a concept at the heart of
the New Testament witness to the person and mission of the Holy
Spirit.63
Not only is the Holy Spirit the gift which Christ sends from heaven,
but there are two other well-attested senses of "gift" present in the
New Testament associated with Christ and the Spirit. The first is
the gift of salvation/justification. St. Paul's letter to the Romans is
practically a primer on the salvation accomplished through the gift of
grace. Early on he states that justification is accomplished "as a gift
by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus,"64 and
examples could be multiplied both within the letter to the Romans
and in the other Pauline literature.65 The other major use of the term
concerns the gifts of the Spirit, gifts which are given through grace:
"Now to each one of us is given grace according to the measure of
the gift of Christ."66 So then it is the righteous gift of Christ which
imparts gifts to the faithful, gifts which are primarily sanctifying
grace in the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit and, secondarily,
actual graces in such forms as prophecy and healing.67 Far from

Diaboli detinebantur quasi captivi in Limbo... Hanc ergo captivitatem Christus liberavit,
et secum duxit in caelum.

58 Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, cap. 4.3: servos fecit iustitiae... et sic quodammodo
eos in captivitatem duxit, non ad perniciem sed ad salutem.
59 Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, cap. 4.3: Non solum autem homines a Diaboli cap
tivitate eripuit, et suae servituti subiecit, sed etiam eos spiritualibus bonis dotavit. Unde
subditur dedit dona hominibus, scilicet gratiae et gloriae.
60 Jn 16:7.
61 ST I, q. 43, a. 3, resp.
62 cf. ST I, q. 38.
63 cf. Jn 20:22; Acts 2:38; 10:45.
64 Rom 3:24.
65 cf. Rom 5:15-17; 11:5-6; 1 Cor 4:7; Eph 2:8.
66 Eph 4:7.
67 Cf. Rom 12:6-8; 1 Cor 2:12-14; 12:4-31.

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430 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You"

being a kind of theological appendix, the ascension "is based on a

complete plan for the salvation of the world and on the Presence of
Christ Glorified in the Church, that Presence being realised through
the Holy Spirit in his different gifts of grace, a mysterious but real
presence."6 The absence of Christ is actually a transformed type of
presence, a presence only possible through his departure and sending
of the Spirit. Once again St. Thomas, as magister sacra pagina,
understands the relevant passage in Ephesians to be saying exactly
this: "The fruit of the ascension is that he might fill all things, that
is that he might fill every race of men with spiritual gifts."69

IV: Conclusion

In his first letter to Timothy, St. Paul includes a dense creedal state
ment that sums up the Paschal Mystery and concludes with Christ's
glorification: "The mystery of our religion is most certainly great: He
was made manifest in the flesh, and justified in the spirit; seen by
angels, and proclaimed among the nations; believed on in the cosmos,
and taken up in glory."70 It is the same Christ who was incarnate
of the virgin Mary. The same Christ who lived, suffered, and died
upon the cross. The same Christ who was raised from the dead and
taken up in glory, all as the most profound gesture of God's great
love for mankind. In the words of St. Thomas: "For he descends as
the Son of God, assuming human nature, but he ascended the son of
man (according to human nature) to the sublimity of immortal life.
And thus he is the same: the son of God who descended and the son
of man who ascended."71 It is this reality - that the préexistent Son
of God took on flesh, suffered the Passion, was raised from the dead
and then ascended into glory - of which St. Thomas stands in awe
in his wide ranging teaching on the ascension of Christ.
In preparing a place for us, sending the Spirit upon the Church,
and making perpetual intercession for us at the right hand of the
Father, Jesus Christ has not abandoned his Church. Far from it, he
has been made present in a wholly new way, "'Ascension' does not
mean departure into a remote region of the cosmos but, rather, the
continuing closeness that the disciples experience so strongly that it

68 Boris Bobrinskoy, "Ascension and Liturgy: The Ascension and High Priesthood of
Christ in Relation to Worship," St. Vladimir's Seminary Quarterly 3.4 (1959), 23.
69 Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, cap. 4.3: ascensionis fructum, cum dicit ut adimpleret
omnia, id est omne genus hominum spiritualibus donis repleret.
70 1 Tim 3:16.
71 Super Epistolam ad Ephesios, cap. 4.3: Descendit enim, sicut dictum est, filius Dei
assumendo humanam naturam. ascendit autem filius hominis secundum humanam naturam
ad vitae immortalis sublimitatem. Et sic est idem filius Dei qui descendit et filius hominis
qui ascendit.

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 "I Go To Prepare a Place For You" 431

becomes a source of lasting joy."72 Not only this however, for though
we possess not only the reality of grace but hope of glory and of one
day passing through the portals of death to enter into the presence
of God and into our home, the heavenly Jerusalem. The Epistle to
the Hebrews ends with an exhortation to faithfulness in the following
of Christ in light of one simple fact: "For here we have no lasting
city, but we seek the one that is coming."73 The ascension of Christ
point ahead to our eschatological destination, "for our end is neither
in the things of the law, nor in temporal things... but where Christ
is... For it is to he himself that we desire to be transferred, as to
our place and altar."74

Joshua Madden
joshua. madden @ my. avemaria.edu

72 Joseph Ratzinger, Jesus of Nazareth, Part Two: Holy Week (San Francisco: Ignatius
Press, 2011), 281.
73 Heb 13:14.
74
Super Epistolam ad Hebraeos, cap. 13.2: Finis enim noster non sunt legalia, nec
temporalia... sed ubi est Christus... Ad ipsum enim intendimus transferri, sicut ad
locum et altare nostrum.

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