Going To The Father

Kαὶ μεθ' ἕτερα· ἠκούσατε ὅτι ἐγὼ εἶπον ὑμῖν· ὑπάγω καὶ ἔρχομαι πρὸς ὑμᾶς. εἰ ἠγαπᾶτέ με, ἐχάρητε ἂν ὅτι πορεύομαι πρὸς τὸν πατέρα· καὶ πάλιν μεθ' ἕτερα· νῦν δὲ ὑπάγω πρὸς τὸν πέμψαντά με, καὶ οὐδεὶς ἐξ ὑμῶν ἐρωτᾷ με· ποῦ ὑπάγεις; Eἰ γὰρ ταῦτα τοπικῶς ἐκδεκτέον, δῆλον ὅτι καὶ τὸ  ἀπεκρίθη ὁ Ἰησοῦς καὶ εἶπεν αὐτοῖς· ἐάν τις ἀγαπᾷ με, τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει, καὶ ὁ πατήρ μου ἀγαπήσει αὐτὸν, καὶ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἐλευσόμεθα καὶ μονὴν παρ' αὐτῷ ποιησόμεθα. Oὐχὶ δέ γε ταῦτα τοπικῆς μεταβάσεως νοουμένης περὶ τὸν Πατέρα καὶ τὸν Υἱὸν πρὸς τὸν ἀγαπῶντα τὸν λόγον τοῦ Ἰησοῦ γίνεται, οὐδ' ἄρα τοπικῶς ταῦτα ἐκδεκτέον· ἀλλ' ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ, ἡμῖν συγκαταβαίνων καὶ ὡς πρὸς τὴν ἰδίαν ἀξίαν, ὅτε παρὰ ἀνθρώποις ἐστὶ, ταπεινούμενος, μεταβαίνειν λέγεται ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου τούτου πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα, ὅπως καὶ ἡμεῖς ἐκεῖθι τέλειον αὐτὸν θεασώμεθα, ἀπὸ τῆς παρ' ἡμῖν κενότητος, ἣν ἐκένωσεν ἑαυτὸν, ἐπὶ τὸ ἴδιον πλήρωμα παλινδρομοῦντα· ἔνθα καὶ ἡμεῖς, αὐτῷ ὁδηγῷ χρώμενοι, πληρωθέντες πάσης κενότητος ἀπαλλαγησόμεθα. Ἀπιέτω τοίνυν πρὸς τὸν πέμψαντα αὐτὸν ἀφεὶς τὸν κόσμον ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ λόγος, καὶ πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα πορευέσθω. Kαὶ τὸ ἐπὶ τέλει δὲ τοῦ κατὰ Ἰωάννην εὐαγγελίου· μή μου ἅπτου· οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου, μυστικώτερον νοῆσαι ζητήσωμεν· τῆς ἀναβάσεως πρὸς τὸν Πατέρα τοῦ Υἱοῦ θεοπρεπέστερον μετὰ ἁγίας τρανότητος ἡμῖν νοουμένης, ἥντινα ἀνάβασιν νοῦς μᾶλλον ἀναβαίνει σώματος. Tαῦτα ἡγοῦμαι συνεξητακέναι τῷ Πάτερ ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς ὑπὲρ τοῦ ταπεινὴν περὶ θεοῦ ὑπόληψιν τῶν νομιζόντων αὐτὸν εἶναι τοπικῶς ἐν οὐρανοῖς περιελεῖν καὶ μὴ ἐᾶν τινα ἐν σωματικῷ τόπῳ εἶναι τὸν θεὸν, ἐπεὶ τούτῳ ἀκόλουθόν ἐστι καὶ σῶμα αὐτὸν εἶναι λέγειν, ᾧ ἕπεται δόγματα ἀσεβέστατα, τὸ διαιρετὸν καὶ ὑλικὸν καὶ φθαρτὸν αὐτὸν εἶναι ὑπολαμβάνειν· πᾶν γὰρ σῶμα διαιρετόν ἐστι καὶ ὑλικὸν καὶ φθαρτόν. Ὠριγένης, Περὶ Εὐχὴς Source: Migne PG 11.488a

And later: 'You heard that I said to you: I return and come to you. If you loved me you would have rejoiced that I go to the Father.' 1 And again later: 'Now I return to Him that sent me and none of you ask me: Where do you return?' 2 And if these things are to be understood spacially, so also plainly is: 'Jesus answered and said to them, 'If any one love me, he will keep my word and my Father will love him and we shall come to him and make abode with him.' 3 But surely these words should not be thought of as a movement in space of the Father and the Son to the lover of the word of Jesus, and so should not be taken spacially. Rather the Word of God, in condescension for us, and according to His own worth, when among men in humble state, is said to pass from this world to the Father so that we also may behold Him perfectly there in His return to His proper fullness from the emptiness among us whereby He emptied himself, where we also, by His guidance, being filled, shall be freed from all emptiness. To such an end, then, the Word of God leaves the world and departs to Him who sent Him, and goes to the Father. And concerning that passage near the end of the Gospel according to John: 'Do not touch me, for I have not yet gone to my Father,'; 4 let us seek to think of it in a more spiritual sense; let ours be a more reverent conception of the ascension of the Son to the Father with sanctified insight, more an ascension of the soul than the body. I have linked these things to the clause 'Our Father who art in heaven' for the sake of doing away with the low conception of God of those who think that He is in heaven spacially, and lest anyone say God is in material space, since from that it follows that He also is physical and leads to opinions which are most impious, to thinking that He is divisible and material and corruptible. For every body is divisible and every material thing is corruptible. Origen, On Prayer 1 Jn 14.28 2 Jn 16.5 3 Jn 14.23 4 Jn 20.17