Did Jesus have joy when He returned to the Father with His glorified humanity? St.
Thomas Aquinas thinks He did: “He had a certain kind of joy from such fittingness, not
indeed that He began to derive joy from it when He ascended into heaven but that He
rejoiced in a new way, as at a thing completed” (3a. 57, 1, ad 2).
We might rejoice with Jesus in His victory but aren’t we deprived of joy in His
departure? Thomas explains that Jesus has ascended but He still remains with us:
“Although Christ’s bodily presence was withdrawn from the faithful by the Ascension,
still the presence of His Godhead is ever with the faithful, as He Himself says ‘Behold, I
am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world’ (Mt. 28:20).”
Thomas recalls the words of Pope St. Leo, ‘by ascending into heaven He did not
abandon those whom He adopted’ (De Resurrec., Serm. ii).
Actually, Thomas insists that we benefit more by Jesus’ Ascension: “Christ’s Ascension
into heaven, whereby He withdrew His bodily presence from us, was more profitable for
us than His bodily presence would have been” (3a. 57, 1, ad 3).
How could that be? Thomas responds: “First of all, in order to increase our faith, which
is of things unseen: ‘For ‘blessed are they that see not, yet believe’” (3a. 57, 1, ad 3).
Thomas believes that Jesus’ Ascension gives us hope: “Secondly, to uplift our hope:
hence He says ‘If I shall go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and will take
you to Myself; that where I am, you also may be’ (Jn. 14:3). For by placing in heaven
the human nature which He assumed, Christ gave us the hope of going there” (3a. 57,
1, ad 3).
In addition, the Ascension increases our charity: “Thirdly, in order to direct the fervor of
our charity to heavenly things. Hence the Apostle says: ‘Seek the things that are above,
where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Mind the things that are above, not the
things that are upon the earth’ (Col. 3:1,2): for as is said, ‘Where thy treasure is, there is
thy heart also’ (Mt. 6:21)” (3a. 57, 1, ad 3).
When Jesus ascended the Holy Spirit was given us to increase our love: “And since the
Holy Spirit is love drawing us up to heavenly things, therefore our Lord said to His
disciples (Jn. 16:7): ‘It is expedient to you that I go; for if I go not, the Paraclete will not
come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you’ (3a. 57, 1, ad 3).
Thomas recalls that Augustine had said (Tract on John. xciv): “You cannot receive the
Spirit, so long as you persist in knowing Christ according to the flesh. But when Christ
withdrew in body, not only the Holy Spirit, but both Father and Son were present with
them spiritually” (3a. 57, 1, ad 3).

Thomas teaches that Christ’s Ascension is the cause of our salvation: “On our part, in
so far as by the Ascension our souls are uplifted to Him; because, as stated above, His
Ascension fosters, first, faith; secondly, hope; thirdly, charity. Fourthly, our reverence for
Him is thereby increased, since we no longer deem Him an earthly man, but the God of
heaven; thus the Apostle says: ‘If we have known Christ according to the flesh but now
we know Him so no longer’ (2 Cor. 5:16)” (3a. 57, 6).
Jesus’ acted for our salvation: “On His part, in regard to those things which, in
ascending, He did for our salvation. First, He prepared the way for our ascent into
heaven, according to His own saying: ‘I go to prepare a place for you,’ (Jn. 14:2). For
since He is our Head the members must follow whither the Head has gone: hence He
said: ‘That where I am, you also may be’ (Jn. 14:3)” (3a. 57, 6).
Just as the high priest of the Old Testament stood before God for the people, “So also
Christ entered heaven ‘to make intercession for us,’ as is said in Heb. 7:25. Because
the very showing of Himself in the human nature which He took with Him to heaven is a
pleading for us. So that for the very reason that God so exalted human nature in Christ,
He may take pity on them for whom the Son of God took human nature. Thirdly, that
being established in His heavenly seat as God and Lord, He might send down gifts
upon men, according to Eph. 4:10: “He ascended above all the heavens, that He might
fill all things,” that is, “with His gifts” (3a. 57, 6).
Thomas asserts that Jesus’ Ascension is the cause of our ascending to heaven:
“Christ’s Passion is the cause of our ascending to heaven, properly speaking, by
removing the hindrance which is sin, and also by way of merit: whereas Christ’s
Ascension is the direct cause of our ascension, as by beginning it in Him who is our
Head, with whom the members must be united” (3a. 57, 6).
Christ is our Head and we are members of His body: “Since Christ is our Head, then
what was bestowed on Christ is bestowed on us through Him. And on this account,
since He is already raised up, the Apostle says that God has, so to speak, ‘raised us up
together with Him,’ still we ourselves are not raised up yet, but are to be raised up,
according to Rm. 8:11: ‘He who raised up Jesus from the dead, shall quicken also your
mortal bodies’: and after the same manner of speech the Apostle adds that “He has
made us to sit together with Him, in the heavenly places”; namely, for the very reason
that Christ our Head sits there (3a. 58, 4, ad 1).

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.
References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the
Summa, the question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an
objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,”
meaning “to,” is added with the number of the objection.

TP Q[57] A[6] R.O. 3
Reply OBJ 3: Christ by once ascending into heaven acquired for Himself and for us in
perpetuity the right and worthiness of a heavenly dwelling-place; which worthiness
suffers in no way, if, from some special dispensation, He sometimes comes down in
body to earth; either in order to show Himself to the whole world, as at the judgment; or
else to show Himself particularly to some individual, e.g. in Paul’s case, as we read in
Acts 9. And lest any man may think that Christ was not bodily present when this
occurred, the contrary is shown from what the Apostle says in 1 Cor. 14:8, to confirm
faith in the Resurrection: “Last of all He was seen also by me, as by one born out of due
time”: which vision would not confirm the truth of the Resurrection except he had beheld
Christ’s very body.
TP Q[58] A[4] R.O. 1