Many Ascensions

Qui aedificat in caelo ascensionem suam, et fasciculum suum super terram fundavit: qui vocat aquas maris, et effundit faciem terrae: Dominus nomen ejus. LXX: Qui aedificat in caelo ascensionem suam, et promissionem suam super terram fundat, qui vocat aquas maris, et effundit faciem terrae: Dominus nomen ejus. Dominus Deus omnipotens, qui respicit, sive tangit terram, et commovet eam, ipse est qui quotidie aedificat in coelo ascensionem suam, et dicit in Evangelio: Pater meus usque modo operatur, et ego operor. Et non solum de costa Adam in typum Ecclesiae semel aedificavit Evam, sed quotidie credentes et membra corporis sui aedificat, et de terris ad coelum levat, ut in illis ipse conscendat. Ascendit Dominus in coelum cum Enoch, ascendit cum Elia, ascendit cum Moyse, cujus sepulturae locus, quia in coelum ascenderat, in terra non potuit inveniri. Ascendit cum Paulo qui vas electionis, in apostolum de persecutore mutatus est, er de humilibus raptus in sublimia, ita ut ascenderet in coelum tertium, et per Spiritum sanctum et Filium perveniret ad Patrem, et audiret verba ineffabilia, mysterii Trinitatis, quae hominibus audire non licitum est. Iste ergo qui quotidie ascendit in sanctis, fasciculum suum fundavit super terram, de quo in Evangelio loquitur: Ne timeas, grex parvule, quia complacuit Patri meo habitare in te. Iste fasciculus una Domini religione constrictus est. Unde et ipsa religio a religando, et in fascem Domini vinciendo nomen accepit. Porro juxta Septuaginta, repromissionem suam fundat super terram, ut omnes illius repromissiones quas sancti prophetae suo ore cecinerunt, non inanem sonum habeant, et cassa solius tropologiae nomina; sed fundentur in terra. Et cum historiae habuerint fundamenta, tunc spiritualis intelligentiae culem accipiant: ut vere Christus de Virgine natus sit, vere Lazarum mortuum suscitarit, vere ad tactum ejus a)imorrousa sanata sit, vere in adventu Domini caeci viderint, claudi cucurrerint, contractae manus extensae sint, lepra mundata sit; licet secundum tropoligiam quotidie de anima virginali nascatur sermo divinus, quotidie peccato mortui, et vitiorum funibus alligati, de sepulcro scelerum suorum jubeantur exire, quotidie sangunis opera constringantur, caeci in fidelitate Christi lumen ascpiciant, claudicantes prius fide, currant in via Domini, et aridae manus avaritia, extendantur ad eleemosynam, et lepra Mariae, quae contaminat quidquid attigerit, recipiat pristinam puritatem. Iste autem Dominus amarissimas quoque aquas maris vocat, et effudit eas super eos, qui faciem suam verterunt ad Dominum. Ideo autem vocat amaras aquas, ut dulces faciat et educat ventos de thesauris suis, et graves salsugine aquas sua in altum jussione suspendat, eliquansque eas, et aethero calore decoquens, dispenset in pluvias, et emittat super faciem terrae, ut arentia quaeque rigentur imbribus, et ubi abundavit peccatum, superabundet gratia. Sanctus Hieronymous, Commentariorum In Amos Prophetam, Lib III, Cap IX Source: Migne PL 25.1089c-1890c

He who builds His ascension in heaven and has founded His bundle on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, the Lord is his name. The Septuagint has: He who builds His ascension in heaven and has founded His promise on the earth, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them on the face of the land.' 1 The Lord God Almighty is He who looks on, or touches, the earth, and moves it. He is the one who every day builds His ascension in heaven, and He says in the Gospel, 'My father even now works, and I work.' 2 And not only did He once make Eve from the rib of Adam as a type of the Church, 3 but every day He makes the faithful into members of His own body, and He lifts them up from earth to heaven, that He rise up in them. The Lord ascends into heaven with Enoch 4 He ascends with Elijah 5 He ascends with Moses, he who because he ascended into heaven has no place on earth where his tomb can be found. 6 He ascends with Paul, that vessel of election, who was changed from a persecutor to an Apostle and from low things was translated to high things, so that he ascended to the third heaven, and through the Holy Spirit and Son came to the Father and heard ineffable words, the mystery of the Trinity, which men are not permitted to hear. 7 He, then, is the one who ascends every day in His holy ones, 'He has established His bundle on the earth,' concerning which it is said in the Gospel, 'Do not fear, little flock, because it has pleased the Father to dwell among you.' 8 And this bundle of the Lord is bound up with religion, whence the name religion is from 'religio', 'to tie up', and with the fasces of the Lord He receives the name of conquerer. However, according to the Septuagint we have: 'He establishes His promise', all His promises which the mouths of the prophets sang, which were not an empty cry, nor the inane name of a mere trope, but established on the earth, and when they had the foundations of the history, then they received the point of spiritual understanding, that truly Christ was born from a Virgin, that truly He rose up Lazarus from the dead, that truly He healed the bleeding woman with His touch, that truly with the advent of the Lord the blind saw, the lame walked, the withdrawn hand was extended, leprosy was cleansed, and, according to the tropological sense, that every day from the virginial soul the Divine word shall be born, that every day where there is death from sin and binding with the bonds of the vices, even from the tomb of crimes they shall be ordered to come out, that every day the works of blood shall be fettered, and the blind in the faith of Christ shall see the light, and those who were cripples by faith shall run in the way of the Lord, and the hand that was withered with avarice shall be held out with alms, and the leprous Miriam who contaminated everything she touched, shall receive her former purity. 9 This Lord also calls the waters of the sea most bitter, and He has poured them out over those who have turned their faces toward the Lord. Therefore He calls the waters bitter which He will make sweet, and He will release His winds from his treasury, and the heavy salty waters shall hang in the heights by His command, and He shall cleanse them and with heavenly heat boil them, and He shall distribute them as rain, and send them forth upon the face of the earth, that aridity be moistened with rain, and where sin abounds, grace be superabundant. Saint Jerome, Commentary on Amos, Book 3, Chap 9 1 Amos 9.6 2 Jn 5.17 3 Gen 2.21-23 4 Gen 5.24 5 4 Kings 12.11-12 6 Deut 34.6 7 2 Cor 12.1-4 8 Lk 12.32 9 Num 12