And he led them out as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
All Commentaries on Luke 24:50 Go To Luke 24
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
You heard what came to our ears just now from the Gospel: “Lifting up his hands, he blessed them. And it happened, while he was blessing them he withdrew from them, and was carried up to heaven.” Who was carried up to heaven? The Lord Christ was. Who is the Lord Christ? He is the Lord Jesus. What is this? Are you going to separate the human from the divine and make one person of God, another of the man, so that there is no longer a trinity of three but a quaternary of four? Just as you, a human being, are soul and body, so the Lord Christ is Word, soul and body. The Word did not depart from the Father. He both came to us and did not forsake the Father. He both took flesh in the womb and continued to govern the universe. What was lifted up into heaven, if not what had been taken from earth? That is to say, the very flesh, the very body, about which he was speaking when he said to the disciples, “Feel, and see that a spirit does not have bones and flesh, as you can see that I have.” Let us believe this, brothers and sisters, and if we have difficulty in meeting the arguments of the philosophers, let us hold on to what was demonstrated in the Lord’s case without any difficulty of faith. Let them chatter, but let us believe.
