Sententia Ad Thessalonicenses Primae

To the Thessalonians, First. I. Because the Lord Himself in the command and in the voice of the archangel, and in the trumpet of God, etc. II. We shall be snatched up in the clouds to meet Christ in the air. III. Again, on the same subject. (From a sermon on the Ascension of the Lord.) The chosen vessel, the teacher of the Gentiles, in whom, while still a mortal man, an angelic discourse lived, when he described the resurrection of the dead with a discourse not dead, and our Lord present in command, that is, with authority, as in the voice of the archangel, as if he were showing terror with the heralds, then, he says, we also shall be snatched up into the clouds to meet Christ in the air (1 Thess. 4:15). Then what is now difficult will be possible. What now in Christ is the truth of divinity, then in us will be able to be a likeness. Then also, with the air subdued beneath our feet, we shall place the members of our bodies, freed from heavier elements, upon the light elements: provided, however, that when that king of ours comes, we are not drawn back by a timid consciousness of putting things off into the past, but a faithful eagerness hastens to receive more quickly the dignity of heavenly glory.

II. (From a sermon on the first day of the Rogations.) “Prepare to meet your God, O Israel” (Amos 4:12). The Apostle Paul indeed says, where he describes the coming of the Redeemer (1 Thess. 4:17), how we shall be snatched up to the clouds to meet Christ in the air. But I think this “meeting” pertains to something else. For even here, while living, we almost meet God, if we embrace the precept that is offered; and because He is ready to forgive, let correction meet Him with repentance. But also, whoever, for the love of eternal life, not only abstains from unlawful things, but even restrains himself from lawful ones, is to be judged as having voluntarily met Him. For, to give one example of any kind, adultery being generally forbidden, simple marriage is permitted by law; yet the splendor of virginity is incomparably preferred to it: hence, he who gives his virgin in marriage does well, and he who does not give her does better (1 Cor. 7:38). Therefore, we ought to understand this concerning every observance. He who does evil flees; he who does good waits; he who does better meets.

III. (From the books against the Anomoeans.) It must be understood that when the Son says, “No one ascends into heaven except he who descended from heaven” (John 3:13), only the power of the divinity is said to ascend whence it had come, not in the same way as the same Lord either granted or promised ascent to the saints. Among these, Enoch (Heb. 11:5) was translated from the earth on account of his merit, and Elijah (4 Kings 2:11) was borne up to the heavens in a chariot. I pass over that man (2 Cor. 12:2, etc.) who, whether in the body or out of the body God knows, heard in the threefold secrets of the higher realms words which it was not lawful for men to utter, because he saw mysteries which it was not permitted for mortals to behold. But perhaps it seems insufficient to recount personal examples concerning the ascent of the faithful. The Apostle, indeed, knew the rewards of future things when he promised to those to whom he wrote (Phil. 3:20) that the conversation of those living rightly was already in the heavens, where, after the resurrection of the body, their dwelling would certainly be preserved: just as our Lord intimates to his disciples in the Gospel of John, saying: “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and summon you to me, so that where I am, you also may be” (John 14:2). According to this promise, the saints are to be in heaven. Will they enter the height of the heavenly kingdom without an ascent? And how then, “No one ascends into heaven except he who descended from heaven” (John 3:13)?

But because immutable truth can no more be deceived about itself when it protests than it can deceive us when it promises, however many are to be with him there who will be glorified, he alone ascends who, being another’s, has no need of help to be lifted. For him, when he wished, a step of air was solidly laid beneath. For him, returning whence he had come, a vestige, shaken from supernal vigor and made corpulent from earthly substance, the barely serving breeze of the suspended air could scarcely sustain. Therefore, apart from this one alone, to whom, as I have often said, this power was available through a twofold generation, many will be in heaven, but none will ascend. Because, in order that the divine promise be fulfilled for the faithful, the height will be given not to those who ascend, but to those who are taken up. The Apostle foresaw this (1 Thess. 4:15) when he warned that we, to be joined to the Lord and always to be with him himself, would be snatched up through the cloud into the air. Moreover, it is readily understood that one who is snatched does not walk by his own free will, carried by another’s decision. Nor should you think that those snatched are always unwilling: grace often shows its own snatched ones. Indeed, as the Gospel testifies (John 6:46), the Father also draws those who come to the Son, and the kingdom of heaven is snatched by violence (Matt. 11:12). This plunder so makes the saint a sharer in his own desire that it rather provokes the generosity of God, from whom it is violently seized.