Flying

Sed quid putamus, fratres, quomodo tunc repente de terris ad coelos evolare poterit, qui nunc exercitio et usu quotidiano volitare non didicerit? Si quaeris quo doctore, quo duce, numquid non Christus sicut aquila provocabat hodei ad volandum pullos suos, quando super eos volitabat, cum scilicet, videntibus illis elevaretur, diuque sequerentur oculis euntem in coelum? Poterat utique repente in ictu oculi, ex oculis eorum rapi, et ubi vellet, consitiui. Sed plane, sicut aquila provocans ad volandum pullos suos, et super eos volitans, et corda sursum levare post se nitebatur pollicebatur exemplo corporis sui: sicut Apostolus ait, aeterni, conscius mysterii, quia et nos bajluis nibibus rapiemur obviam Christo redeunti. Ipse quidem ascenit super Cherubim, et volvavit super pennas ventorum, id est, supergressus est virtutes Angelorum: tuae tamen condescendens infirmitati, expandet alas suas, et assumet te, atque portabit in humeris suis, si modo pullus degener non existas, ut a terra levari, et aura puriore perfruit non extimescas. Guerricus Ignaciensis, In Die Ascensionis Domini Sermo Source: Migne PL 185.156b-c

But what are we to think, brothers, how then shall a man be able to fly off suddenly from earth to heaven to whom now by daily custom and use flight is not given? If you seek some teacher, or some leader, shall it not be Christ who today like the eagle exhorts his little ones to fly when He hovers over them, when, that is, He is lifted up over those watching, and for a time their eyes follow him going into heaven? 1 And then He was able suddenly, and in the blink of an eye, to be taken from their eyes, and to be established where He wished. But certainly, as the eagle exhorts its young to fly by hovering over them, so He was able to teach with the example of His body that we should strive to lift up our hearts on high after Him, as the Apostle, conscious of eternal mysteries, says that even we shall be seized up in the cloud with Christ when He returns. 2 He who ascended over the Cherubim and flew on the wings of the wind, 3 that is, He who ascended over the powers of the angels, yet coming down to your infirmity, shall stretch out His wings, and He shall take you up and carry you on His shoulders, if you are not a degenerate offspring, so that you may be lifted off the earth, and you shall not fear to enjoy the purer air. Guerric of Igny, From a Sermon on the Ascension of the Lord 1 Deut 32.11, Acts 1.9-10 2 1 Thes 4.16 3 Ps 17.11