Ascension And Belonging

Sed si solus vadit ad Patrem, quid nobis prodest? Utquid ab Spiritu Sancto de hac iustitia mundus arguitur? Et tamen nisi solus iret ad Patrem, non alio loco diceret: Nemo ascendit in caelum, nisi qui descendit de caelo, Filius hominis qui est in caelo. Sed etiam Paulus apostolus dicit: Nostra enim conversatio in caelis est. Sed quare hoc? Quia item dicit: Si resurrexistis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens; quae sursum sunt sapite, non quae super terram. Mortui enim estis, et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo. Quomodo ergo ille solus? An ideo solus, quia Christus unus est cum omnibus membris suis, tamquam caput cum corpore suo? Quae autem corpus eius, nisi Ecclesia? Sicut dicit idem doctor: Vos autem estis corpus Christi, et membra ex parte. Cum ergo nos ceciderimus, et propter nos ipse descenderit, quid est: Nemo ascendit, nisi qui descendit; nisi quia nemo ascendit, nisi unum cum eo factus, et tamquam membrum compactus in eius corpore qui descendit? Sic et discipulis dicit: Quia sine me nihil potestis facere. Aliter est enim unum cum Patre, et aliter unum nobiscum. Unum cum Patre est, quia una substantia est Patris et Filii; unum cum Patre est, quia cum in forma Dei esset, non rapinam arbitratus est esse aequalis Deo. Unus autem nobiscum factus est, quia semetipsum exinanivit, formam servi accipiens; unus nobiscum factus est, secundum semen Abrahae, in quo benedicentur omnes gentes. Quod cum commemorasset, ait Apostolus: Non dicit: Et seminibus, tamquam in multis; sed tamquam in uno: Et semini tuo, quod est Christus. Et quia et nos ad id pertinemus quod est Christus, nobis simul incorporatis et illi capiti cohaerentibus, unus est Christus; et quia et nobis dicit: Ergo Abrahae semen estis, secundum promissionem heredes. Si enim unum est semen Abrahae, et illud unum semen Abrahae non intellegitur nisi Christus; hoc autem semen Abrahae etiam nos sumus; hoc ergo totum, id est, caput et corpus, unus est Christus. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensis,Sermo CXLIV, De Verbis Eiusdem Evangelii Ionannis, 'Ipse arguet mundum de peccato, et de iustitia, et de iudicio.' Source: Migne PL 38.789-790

If He alone goes to the Father, how does it profit us? And why is the world convicted by the Holy Spirit of this righteousness? 1 And yet if He did not alone go to the Father, He would not say in another place, 'No one has ascended to heaven, but He That come down from heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.' 2 But the Apostle Paul also says, 'For our conversation is in heaven.' 3 And why is this? Because he also says, 'If you have risen with Christ, seek the things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God. Know the things which are above, not those which are on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.' 4 How then is He alone? Is He therefore alone when Christ with all His members is one, as the head with its body? For what is His body, but the Church? As the same teacher says, 'Now you are the body of Christ, and each a member.' 5 When, then, we had fallen, and He descended for our sakes, what is, 'No man has ascended, but He That descended,' but that no man has ascended, except as made one with Him, and as a member fastened into His Body who descended? So He says to His disciples, 'Without Me you can do nothing.' 6 For in one way He is one with the Father, and in another way one with us. He is one with the Father because the substance of the Father and the Son is one. He is one with the Father, in that, 'When in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.' But He was made one with us, in that 'He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant;' 7 He was made one with us according to the seed of Abraham, 'in whom all nations shall be blessed.' Which the Apostle recalling, then said, 'He says not, 'seeds', as of many; but as of one, 'your seed', which is Christ.' 8 And because we belong to that which is Christ, by our incorporation together and cohering to that head, Christ is one. And so he says to us, 'Therefore you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.' 9 For if the seed of Abraham is one, and that one seed of Abraham can only be understood as Christ, yet we also are this seed of Abraham; and therefore this whole, that is, the head and the body, is one Christ. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from Sermon 144, On words of the Gospel of John: 'He will convict the world in respect of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgement.' 1 Jn 16.8 2. Jn 3.13 3 Phil 3.20 4 Col 3.1-3 5 1 Cor 12.27 6 Jn 15.5 7 Phil 2.6-7 8 Galat 3.16 9 Gal 3.29