 In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body.The treasures that any individual Christian can lay up in heaven are nothing in comparison to those that Jesus himself has laid up, and it is for a portion of his merits that 4th-century Ephrem the Syrian appealed so as to wipe out his own indebtedness.There are various interpretations of what Paul meant by "...in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church..." They seem to agree that he does not suggest that the redemptive action of Christ was in any way insufficient.