Tertia Pars
Lecture 130: Christ's Ascension: Power, Place, and Salvation

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to the third one proceeds thus. It seems that Christ did not ascend by his own, what, power, right? For he said in Mark chapter 16 that the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to the disciples, was assumed to heaven, right? And act 1.9 is said that looking, I'm looking at him, I suppose, right? He was elevated and the clouds received him away from their eyes. That which is assumed and elevated is moved by another. That's a grammar, I guess, of the thing, right? Therefore, Christ, not by his own power, but by an alien power, right? Was born into heaven, huh? Moreover, the body of Christ was earthly, just as our bodies, huh? But it's against the nature of a earthly body to be born upwards, huh? That's why it's harder walking uphill than downhill, right? For some of us, it was. For Thomas, walking uphill is contrary to nature according to the elements which are composed, right? Although in animal nature, it can be, you know, according to nature, right? There's kind of a contrary to us between the two, right? He was a man of gravitas. Yes, he was. I've always got amused when Thomas talks about man's freedom, you know, to walk or to run, right? You know, Thomas would be supposed to be as big as it is. Having that choice, you know. He had a habitual choice on that one, I think. To walk. But no motion is by its own power that is against the, what? That is moved against nature. Therefore, Christ is not ascended to heaven by his own power. Moreover, the proper power of Christ is a divine power. But that motion did not seem to be from a divine power because since the divine power is infinite, that motion would have been in an instant, right? This is a long history in the history of philosophy, right? And this, it could not be that the disciples seeing him was elevated in heaven, as it said in Acts 1. Therefore, it seemed that Christ did not ascend by his own power, right? But against this is what is said in Isaiah chapter 63. He, the most beautiful in his garments, right? Going up, huh? In the multitude of his own power, huh? That's interesting. Go to. And Gregory says in his homily of ascension, it should be noted that Elias ascended, or is read to have ascended in a chariot, right? That might be clearly shown that a pure man, right, needs an alien aid, right? But our Redemptor, our Redeemer, not in a chariot, not by the angels, right? Is read to have what? Is it that? Because who had made all things was born above all by his own, what? Power. Answer. It should be said that in Christ there is a two-fold nature, the divine nature and the human. Whence, according to both nature, can be taken this phrase, right? His own power, right? But according to his human nature, there can be taken a two-fold power of Christ, huh? One which is natural, which goes forth from the principles of nature, which proceeds from the principles of nature. And by such a power is manifested that Christ did not ascend, huh? Another is the power in human nature, is the power of glory, right? This is one of the the dotes on the gifts. According to which Christ ascended in heaven, right? By the power of his, what? Glorified body. Of which power the reason some take from the nature of the fifth essence, huh? Which is light, huh? which they say or is a place as one of the composing parts, right? Of the human body. And to it, the contour elements to be reconciled in one. Thus, that in the state of this mortality, the nature, the elementary nature dominates the human flesh, right? The human bodies. And therefore, according to the nature of the predominant element, the human body by its natural power is born above. I didn't... What? It's born down. Oh, yes, yes. It's been down. But in the state of glory, the celestial nature predominates. According to whose inclination power the body of Christ and the otherwise the saints are born in heaven. But about this opinion, we've had it. Something to say in the first part. And below, we will treat it more than the treatment of the common resurrection, right, huh? So we've never discussed that opinion, so we'll have to leave it to that. But this opinion set aside, others assign the reason for the force of power on the side of the glorified soul, from whose redundancy or overflow the body is glorified, as Augustine himself says to Dioscris. For so great is the obedience the glorified body to the blessed soul, as Augustine says in the 22nd book of the City of God, that where the spirit, what, wills, there, right away, right, is the body, huh? Where the spirit lies, maybe, yeah. Yeah. All that other thing. The spirit listed hither the body will be on the inside. With the end, you get it, right. But it's appropriate for the glorified body, the mortal body, to be in celestial place. And therefore, from the power of the soul, willing, right, the body of Christ descended into, what, heaven, huh? For just as the body is made glorious, so, as Augustine says upon John, by the partaking of God, the soul becomes, what, blessed. Whence the first origin of the ascension, heaven, is a divine power, huh? Thus, therefore, Christ ascended into heaven by his own power, first by his divine power, secondly, by virtue of the soul glorified, moving the body as it wishes, huh? That's the partaking in some way of the divine power. Under the first objection here, it should be said that just as Christ is said by his own power to have, what, resurrect, right? Nevertheless, he is said to be raised up by the Father, so by the same power, in that there is the same power of the Father and the Son, right? So you can say that Christ rose by the power of the Father because it's not contrary to his own power because there's the same power. So also Christ by his own power is sent to heaven and nevertheless by the Father is elevated and assumed. Yeah, I think when Paul, or not Paul, when Peter first speaks to the crowd, doesn't he say, you know, when the Father is raised, yeah, the kind of softening the... Preparing your mind. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If he said directly, by his own power, he would be, what, taking up stones hurl at him or something. Kind of interesting moderation there, huh? It's not a lie, for example. I think Paul says something I think he said in Romans about he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead by the power of the Spirit. Maybe it's Roman or Hebrews that raised up by the whole tree. Mm-hmm. The second should be said that that reason proves that Christ did not ascend to heaven by his own power, which is natural to his human nature. But he ascended to heaven by his own power, which was a divine power, and by his own power, which is that of the blessed what? Soul. And so we ought to go around, right? It's supposed to go up in heaven, right, to meet Christ, huh? And although to ascend upwards, right, is against the nature of the human body, according to the present status, in which the body is not altogether subject to the spirit, it will not hover against nature, nor a violent thing to the glorified body, whose whole nature is entirely subject to the spirit, huh? It's good to know we're not shoving up there, you know? The body's not going to be... Well, we don't have to walk through the cell, we don't have to shovel. We just go right over. No problem. Problem solved. Now I was coming out of the chapel there, and I said, should I go through the pen like this and come around sometime, you know? I said, wait, somebody's got a little path there. I said, I better go that path, you know, because he did all the work probably just for me, you know, so I could get there. And he said, ungrateful of me not to go there, to go the way that he had. It was funny, because the snow on top of the roof of the house, right, was melting, right? And it was dripping down. It was coming down, you know, like sheets of ice like this, and really nicely formed, huh? And you knock off the bottom, and the other one drops down. I don't know how many I took out of it, but it's funny, we're trying to... It's kind of one of these metal, you know, drains things, so it's kind of like, you know, like that, you know? So it comes out, you know, it's kind of fluted like that, and it's really beautiful, you know? In fact, we got the whole thing, you know, I mean, without having to break it up, it would have been even more impressive, but... You know, in Kansas City, there, you get the fog coming in, right? And the freezing thing, you get the kind of effect that you get on the tree with the ice sometimes here, you know? And then the sun comes out and disappears. That's about as far as you got to snow. It wasn't really snowing in the house. There's people who are behind us at Church in D.D. Mass, you know, they're going down to Florida Wednesday. Smart people. I don't think they're going to get out of the problem. Oh, right. I haven't seen them since, but... My mom said, I guess, every state in the continent of the United States had snow, except Florida. Wow. Supposedly, Jacksonville had, a week or two ago, whenever it was, when it got cold, they had some kind of flurries. Well, they don't get snowy down in Atlanta, where my son is, you know, my other son. And so, there's no shovel there. And it's a driveway, he's out there with kind of the dust fans, trying to get the snow off. I was told, somebody said this years ago, once in a while, it'll snow and roam, and they'll get off. But people, they said, somebody I knew said this. They saw somebody, and there was a garden house, just holes in the snow. Yeah. Now, to the theory it should be said, that though the divine power is infinite, and infinitely acts according to, as regards to the side of the one operating, nevertheless the effect of that power is received in things according to their capacity, and according to the divine disposition, the disposition of his will, right? The body, however, is not capable that it be moved instantaneously, right, in place. Because it's necessary that it measures, right, itself with the space, according to whose division time is divided, as is proved in the sixth book of natural hearing. And therefore, it is not necessary that the body moved by God be moved in instant, but it moves by that velocity which God has disposed in his will. Because this comes up in the question, and it starts talking about the infinite power, the infinite power of moving the heavenly bodies, right? But if it's a natural power, the infinite power is going to move the thing without any time. That's impossible. Then you get the idea of this, that moving by will, you can don't use all your power, right? Okay. Whither Christ ascended above all the heavens, right now? We'll get a little more understanding of the heavens here, in case you didn't know about the heavens that much. To the fourth one proceeds thus, it seemed that Christ did not ascend above all the heavens. For it is said in Psalm 10, the Lord in his holy temple, right? The Lord in heaven his seat. But what is in heaven is not above heaven. Therefore, Christ did not ascend above all the heavens. Moreover, two bodies are not able to be in the same place. I'll take an objection to this. What? It says, objection to, and it has an asterisk, which says, this objection with its solution is omitted in the Leonide edition as not being in the original manuscript. Shocking. Shocking. This one is, there is no place above the heavens that is proved in its shadow. But every body must occupy its place. Therefore, Christ's body did not descend above all the heavens. Okay, we'll stick here with the text here. Get ready here. Only except for the approved authority. This text I think I want to need to add to this. One page is missing here. Here is a page missing too, but they supply, you know, that kind of a loose page. So I stick it there, you know, one page is missing. It's going to be apocryphal. Yeah. As long as I buy a book and the pages are not in numerical order, you know. Yeah, yeah. Or you get, I've had it with this division, assume it will have two signatures the same, you know, like 30 or 60 pages in a row, will be repeated, and they're missing the other signature. So two bodies cannot be in the same place, since therefore there is no transition from extreme to extreme except to the middle. It's seen that Christ is not able to ascend above all the heavens unless the heavens be divided, which is impossible, right? That's quite the old idea of what the heavens are like. Of course, he came through the walls there and came through the locked doors there at the resurrection. Moreover, it said in Acts 1 that the clouds received him from their eyes. But the clouds could not be up in above the heavens, therefore Christ did not ascend above all the heavens. He might have gone further though, beyond the clouds. Well, he came in between. And the air-paniced and above the heavens, the clouds myself. Yeah, not by your own power. No, no, no. Moreover, there we believe Christ to what? That remained forever where he ascended. But what is against nature cannot be, what, eternal. Because that which is according to nature is for the most part. Since therefore it'd be against nature for earthly body to be above the heavens, it seems that the body of Christ did not ascend above the heavens. But against this is what is said in Ephesians chapter 4. Therefore, he ascended above all the heavens, right? That he might, what, fulfill all. I answer it should be said, huh? That the more some bodies perfectly partake of the divine goodness, so are they, what, above the bodily order, which is the order of place, right? Whence we see that the bodies which are more formal are naturally, what, superior. As is clear through the philosopher in the fourth book of natural hearing and in the second book about the, what, universe, huh? Again, this book here about the decelo there. The decelo is translating a Greek word, right? Which can mean the heavens or the universe, either one. But in Latin, the decelo means like the heavens and not the universe. So sometimes they call it the decelo e bundo because he talks about both, right? But actually the title of the Greek word is the universe, right? It's about the universe. Which Thomas in his commentary will understand it to be, you know? The book about the universe. So by its form, each body partakes of the divine what being is clear in the one, first book of the physics. So in the ancient physics, you had what? The earth at the center, right? And on top of the earth, you have water. On top of that, you have air. On top of that, you have, what, fire, right? So as you go up, you're getting bodies that are more active, huh? And more formal, right? When you get down to the earth, you get the most earthy of it, huh? So in Shakespeare, you know, what does Cleopatra say? You go, oh, fire and air, and the beast elements that get to the earth, you know? You have enough references to that, huh? So it's a common place. But more does a body partake of the divine goodness through glory, right, than any natural body through the form of its, what, nature. And therefore, among other things, the glorious body, son, is manifest among them that the body of Christ shine with a greater glory, right? Whence it was most suitable and that it be, what, constituted above all bodies on high, right? And therefore, according to that, or on that, Ephesians chapter 4, ascending, what, to the heights that glass says in place and what? Dignity, right? We down here on the earth, we're in the lowest place in the universe. It's kind of funny now because you read all these popular scientific books, you know, and they talk about this great scandal, you know, that the earth was not the center of the universe, right? But the center of the universe didn't mean it's over, you know... The most important. Yeah. We're the least important here at this... It wasn't egocentrism. Yeah. Geocentrism. Yeah. Transposition of the letters. How does it both fall? I know. He's got the letters back. That's all. Geo... To the first it should be said that the seat of God is said to be in heaven, right? Not as in something containing God, right, huh? But more as in the, what? Contained, huh? Whence is not necessary for some part of the heaven to be, what? Superior to him, right, huh? But for him to be above all the heavens, huh? Just as in Psalm 8 it said, huh? Every given sentence is elevated above the, what? Heavens. The second should be said that although the nature of the body is not such that it can be in the same place as another body, nevertheless, God is able to do this to America, right? That in the same place they're able to be. Just as he made the, what? Body of Christ to go forth from the closed womb of the Blessed Virgin, huh? And that he entered the doors being, what? Closed. As the Blessed, what Gregory says, huh? To the body, therefore, of Christ it is possible to belong for it to be in another, with another body in the same place. Not from the propriety of its own, of the body, but through the divine power assisting it in doing this. Yeah. To the third, it should be said that those clouds do not prevent the, what? Do not give an aid to Christ ascending through the manner of a, what? Vehicle, right? Sure. But it appears in the sign of divinity according as the glory of God of the Israels appeared above the tabernacle in the tent there in a cloud. That's interesting, huh? Yeah. That's like the transfiguration to the cloud. Yeah. That represents the Holy Spirit to him, Thomas will say. Yeah. He says, this is my brother's son, right? So that's the father. You hear him, right? Now what about this being against nature and not therefore being eternal? To the fourth it should be said that the glorified body does not have from the principles of its own nature that is able to be, what, in heaven or to be above heaven. But it has this from the blessed soul from which it receives, what, glory. And thus the emotion of the glorified body above is not, what? Nor is its rest, what? Violent, huh? Once nothing prevents it from being, what, eternal, huh? Time for another article? Yes, we do. Article 5. Whether the body of Christ descended above every spiritual creature, huh? To the fifth one precedes us. It seems that the body of Christ did not ascend above every, what, spiritual creature, huh? Because of those which are not said according to one reason or one meaning, one cannot suitably, what, make a comparison. But place is not for the same reason attributed to bodies and to spiritual creatures, as is clear from those things which I said in the first part. So an angel is said to be here, right? It's not in the way that your body is here, right? Mm-hmm. But an application of his power to this place here, right, huh? My brother Mark is driving the tractor down in the factory there, you know, and almost stuck some time. The pipe is there, you know? He says, that was my guardian angel, it wasn't me. Yeah. So his guardian angel was there, you know? He could have really, really hurt you, you know? Oh, yeah. I mean, he came back one time in the winter time, and my tires are not too good, you know? Yeah. I said, whoop, down. Oh, yeah. It's beautiful what he's done, though. It wasn't even hit the car, you know. I didn't hit the car. So, that was my guardian angel, I think, yeah. Moreover, Augustine says in the book about what? Religion. That the spirit is referred to every, what? Body. But to a more noble thing, there is owed a more sublime, what? Place. Therefore, it seems that Christ did not ascend above every spiritual creature, right? Why should a body be above all spiritual creatures, huh? You've seen these paintings here, the Virgin glorified up there, right? Mm-hmm. Above all of them. Moreover, in every place there is some, what? Some body, huh? Since nothing is empty in nature, right? Nature of course is a vacuum, as he said. If, therefore, no body obtained a higher place than the spirit in the order of natural bodies, no place would be above, what? Every spiritual creature. Therefore, not, therefore, the body of Christ is not able to, what? Ascend above every, what? Spiritual creature, huh? Against this is what is said in Ephesians 1, 20, 21. That he is constituted above every, what? Prince and power, and above every name that is named, whether in this age or in the future, huh? I answer, it should be said. The more something is, what? More noble, the more there is owed to it a higher, what? Place, huh? Whether it is owed to him a place by way of, what? Bodily contact, right? As in the case of bodies, or by way of, what? Spiritual contact, right? As in spiritual substances, huh? And thus it is that the spiritual substances is owed, according to a certain agreement, a celestial place, right? Which is the highest of places, huh? Because those substances are supreme in the order of, what? Substances. Now the body of Christ, although considering the condition of, what? A bodily nature is below spiritual substances, right? But nevertheless, considering the dignity of the union, but which is joined personally to God, right? Excels the dignity of all spiritual substances. That's kind of an amazing statement, isn't it? That the body of Christ, right? That the body of Christ, right? Excels in dignity, right? All the spiritual substances, because it's joined to the second person and personally, right? Yeah, there must be a lot of jokes in heaven between us and the angels about our bodies, right? And this comes up somewhere, I'm sure. And therefore, by reason of the, what? Forced congruency, there is owed to it a place higher than any, what? Creature, even the, what? Spiritual. Whence Gregory says in the homily and ascension, that who made all things, right? Was born above all by his power, right? Well, if that isn't true, it's also true about the body of the Blessed Virgin, right? Seems to be able to say that, huh? She's called the Queen of Angels, isn't she? That's one of her, her titles, huh? My teacher at Kusurik, you know, used to playfully say that, you know, the guardian angel of the Blessed Virgin was a lower angel, but by being her guardian, he was raised about the other angels, so. Oh, man. But that's not good. He didn't necessarily. That's not good. And that's a good children's book, though, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He told me you can start studying the angels any time you want, the way he said to me. I expressed an interest in knowing about that. Now, to the first it should be said that, although for another reason is attributed, what, place to a bodily substance and to a spiritual substance, right? Nevertheless, this is common in both reasons, that to the more dignified thing, right, or the more worthy thing is attributed a higher, what, place, huh? To the second it should be said that that reason proceeds about the body of Christ according to the condition of the body nature, not, however, according to the ratio or the reason of the union to the person. There you go. That's got it. The third objection, huh? Every place there is some body, since nothing is empty in nature. If, therefore, no body obtained a higher place in the spirit than the order of natural bodies, no place would be above, what, every spiritual creature, huh? To the third it should be said that that comparison can be noted either according by reason of the places, and thus no place is, what, so high that it exceeds the, what, dignity of the spiritual substance according to which the objection proceeds, or according to the dignity of those to which places attributed. And thus to the body of Christ is owed it be above all spiritual creatures. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's kind of funny here, in the text here there's a note here. The title of this article should be understood cum grano sali sound, the grain of salt, as it appears in responding, right? That's right, huh? This is a note from Kajetan of all people, huh? Whence the sense of the title is, whether the place to which Christ was ascended is superior to the places in which there are, in what, spiritual creatures. Can I start a question? Yes. Okay. So I start to put this question. Where the ascension of Christ is the cause of of our what? Salvation. That's interesting to hear that question. 2.6.1 proceeds thus, It seems that the ascension of Christ is not the cause of our salvation. I must be going to take it aside, maybe. For Christ was the cause of our salvation insofar as he merited our salvation. But to the ascension, he merited nothing for us. Because the ascension pertains to the reward of his exhortation. But there is not the same thing, merit and what? Reward. Just as neither the road and the end. Therefore, it seems that the ascension of Christ was not a cause of our salvation. Moreover, if the ascension of Christ is the cause of our salvation, most of all this would seem to be as regards this, that his ascension was the cause of what? Our ascension. But this was granted to us through his passion. Because, as is said in Hebrews chapter 10, we have, what, confidence in entering into the, what, holy places? Through his blood, right? It would be the passion of his ascension. Therefore, it seems that the ascension of Christ was not a cause of our salvation. Moreover, the salvation gathered to us through Christ is eternal, according to that of Isaiah 51. Our salvation will be, what? Forever. But Christ did not ascend to heaven that he might be there forever, right? Because it is said in Acts 1, as you have seen him ascending to heaven, so he will come, right? But it is read that to many saints he showed himself on earth after his ascension. Just as it is read about Paul in Acts chapter 9. Therefore, it seems that his ascension was not a, what, cause of our, what, salvation. But against this is what he himself says, John 16. It is expedient for you that I go. That is, that I receive from you ascension. Like the man should have been in other ways. The answer should be said that the ascension of Christ is a cause of our salvation in two ways. How did you discover these two ways, Thomas? What a mind he had, huh? In one way, on our side, another way, what? His side. On our side, insofar as through the, what, ascension of Christ, our mind is moved, what? To him. Because through his ascension, as has been said above, first there is given place to, what, faith? Secondly, to hope. And third, to, what? Charity. That's why I suppose he's a new man upon earth, right? But fourth, because through this, our reverence for him is, what? Increased. When we do not, what? Estimate him to be just as a earthly, what? Man. But as a celestial, what? God. Just as the apostle says, 2 Corinthians 5, that although we know Christ according to the flesh, that is mortal, for which we, what? Supposed him to be only a man, it's the last six pounds. But now, we do not know him that way. What is that? The old saying, familiarity, breeds contempt? Yeah. Yeah. A little bit of the idea here, right? You know, he's just not the man, right? And if he did not ascend, we would kind of think of him as, well, that's the other man, you know? But on his side, as regards, what? That he was, what? Ascending on account of our, what? Salvation. And first, he prepared a way for us, huh? Of ascending in heaven. According to what he himself says in John chapter 14. I go to prepare for you a, what? Place. And in, what? Micahius. Mm-hmm. Chapter 2, he ascended. Open it. The way, yeah, before us, right, huh? Because he himself is our head, huh? It's necessary for there to foul the members where the head, what? Preceded, huh? Whence it is said in John 14 that where I am, you also, what? Ubi, huh? Ubi, ubi. Where, right? From place, huh? And as a sign of this, the souls of the saints, which he, what? Brought out from hell, he, what? Transferred into heaven, right? According to that of Psalm 67. Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, right, huh? Because those who were captives of the devil, he brought with himself in heaven. As in, to a place that is, what? Strange to human nature, huh? By good capture, the captives, right? That is to say, acquired by, what? Victory. Victory, huh? That's the sign, he says, huh? But the idea was basically that the, not going to have them decapitated, right? Where the head is, there are the, this will be right, where the body is, there are the eagles, shall be what they gather, huh? Secondly, because just as the high priest in the Old Testament entered the sanctuary, you might, what? Just, yeah, you might, yeah. So Christ entered into heaven to, what? Intercede. Intercede for us, as is said in Hebrews 7, huh? Not important epistles, Hebrews, right? Mm-hmm. You don't want to deny this by Paul, you know, nowadays, huh? Because it's styles different, you know. Yeah. It's very interesting, one of the early problems of the Catholicism, maybe St. Justin Martyr or something, he said he wrote it, St. Paul wrote it, but he wrote it in Hebrew, and that's translated into Greek, so that makes sense, that's why, you know, it's different styles. It's translated. I know, Thomas will say, you know, now we use two different styles here, you know, sometimes we use this style for this reason, and this style for this reason. And so, I mean, the fact that, you know, St. Paul could write in different styles, escapes them, I guess. Sort of like if the Pope was to write a letter to people you knew in Germany, even if he's talking to his Pope, it's more personal. Yeah. He'd be more familiar in some way. Well, you read Thomas, and you read the epistle dedicatory to Urban IV, you know? Yeah. And it's not like, you know, it's hard for me to read that Latin compared to this, you know? So Christ entered into heaven then, right? To intercede for us, as it said in Hebrews 7, huh? For that representation of him from human nature, which he, what? Yeah. Carried into him. As he said, interceding for us, huh? That from this, that God so exalted human nature in Christ, right? Also, he takes pity upon those for whom the Son of God assumed human nature, right? St. Thomas, because that phrase is almost exactly the same from what he was in the Romans, and I looked at that from Romans, and he uses the same expression about the representation, or I said representation, he represents his human nature and all his merits to the Father. That's how he proceeds for us. He's sort of doing this over, and that's basically what the Mass is. This is applying, he's doing this again. I'm struck by the almost same word-for-word explanation here, and what was he's consistent? Third, as in what? The seat of the heavens, right? As the word God in the Lord being constituted, right? From thence, divine gifts he sent to what? Men, huh? Cointed at Ephesians chapter 4. He ascended above all the heavens that he might, what? He might fill all things with his gifts, according to the laws. I don't think there's another sermon on that. If you want something new in your sermon on the ascension, you know. You can use this text here. To the first, therefore, it should be said that the ascension of Christ is a cause of our salvation, not by way of merit. It would be said it is death on the cross, right? But by way of what? The efficient cause, right? Just as above has been said about the resurrection. So resurrection is a cause of our salvation, but not by way of merit, right? Why is death on the cross is a cause, among other ways, by what? By merit, huh? Not only in that way, maybe, but that's the way in which it is a cause that the resurrection and the ascension are, what? Atta. So that's a distinction, huh? Rather than division. Distinction, division, definition. I've talked to you about the order of those three, right? It's like the famous distinction in order of beginning, cause, and what? Element, right? Well, one is more universal than the other, right? Yeah. So every cause is a beginning, but not every beginning is a what? A cause. And every element is a cause, but not every cause is an element, right? So every definition is, in a way, a division, right? But not every division is a definition. Every division is a distinction, but not every distinction is a division. Because division may be more properly as a distinction of the parts of some whole, right? You divide a whole into its parts, or you divide a genus into its species, right? The distinction is more universal than that. The distinction is what's supposed to order, right? It's very universal. The second should be said that the passion of Christ is a cause of our ascension to heaven, properly speaking, by its removal of the sin that prevents us from what? Ascending to heaven, right, huh? And by way of what? Merit, huh? But the ascension of Christ is directly the cause of our ascension, as it were, by beginning in it, in the head, right? To which the members must be joined, right? So you know Thomas' prayer there before communion, right? Wants to so receive the body that you got from Mary, right? That you might be incorporated, right? Into his mystical body, right? So he can, what? Ascend, right? Looking interesting, though, huh? Those two ways of speaking, huh? Where the body is there, the ego shall be. And then you say where the head is, then the rest of the body will be, right? Incorporated into that body. A number among its members, as Thomas says, huh? Now to the theory it should be said, huh? That Christ, once ascending into heaven, obtained for himself and us and perpetual the right and dignity of, what? A celestial mansion, right? To which dignity it does not derogate if from some, what, dispensation Christ sometimes bodily descends to, what? Earth. Earth, huh? Either that he showed himself to all, as he would do in the, what, time of judgment, or that he would show himself to someone specially, as to Paul, as is said in Acts 9. So it's not just imagining a vision that Paul had, right? Mm-hmm. And lest someone believe that this was done, not by Christ, what, being present there bodily, right? But in some way, what, appearing right? The contrary appears to this, that the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians, to confirming the faith of resurrection, in at last, right, of all, as it were to one, or at a time, right? Mm-hmm. He was seen also by me, right? Which vision would not, what, prove the truth of the resurrection unless he himself, right? Unless the two-bodied self was seen by him, right? Mm-hmm. It's quite a guy, that St. Paul, right? Yeah. I mean, it seems to me that St. Paul has the rank of a, what, apostle, right? Mm-hmm. But this is a part of it, right, you know, because they're the witnesses in the resurrection, you know, for example. Well, that's a good place to stop, I don't know.