A place implies the notion of containing; hence the first container
has the formality of first place, and such is the first heaven.
Therefore bodies need in themselves to be in a place, in so far as
they are contained by a heavenly body. But glorified bodies, Christ's
especially, do not stand in need of being so contained, because they
draw nothing from the heavenly bodies, but from God through the soul.
So there is nothing to prevent Christ's body from being beyond the
containing radius of the heavenly bodies, and not in a containing
place. Nor is there need for a vacuum to exist outside heaven, since
there is no place there, nor is there any potentiality susceptive of
a body, but the potentiality of reaching thither lies in Christ. So
when Aristotle proves (De Coelo ii) that there is no body beyond
heaven, this must be understood of bodies which are in a state of
pure nature, as is seen from the proofs.
Reply Obj. 3: Although it is not of the nature of a body for it to be
in the same place with another body, yet God can bring it about
miraculously that a body be with another in the same place, as Christ
did when He went forth from the Virgin's sealed womb, also when He
entered among the disciples through closed doors, as Gregory says
(Hom. xxvi). Therefore Christ's body can be in the same place with
another body, not through some inherent property in the body, but
through the assistance and operation of the Divine power.
Reply Obj. 4: That cloud afforded no support as a vehicle to the
ascending Christ: but it appeared as a sign of the Godhead, just as
God's glory appeared to Israel in a cloud over the Tabernacle (Ex.
40:32; Num. 9:15).
Reply Obj. 5: A glorified body has the power to be in heaven or above
heaven, not from its natural principles, but from the beatified soul,
from which it derives its glory: and just as the upward motion of a
glorified body is not violent, so neither is its rest violent:
consequently, there is nothing to prevent it from being everlasting.
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