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This Ascension Thursday is an opportunity to read Nathalie Requin’s article, which helps us reflect on this ultimate mystery of Christ’s life: “The Ascension of Christ: The Word Made Flesh for Eternity” (NRT, 2017). An illuminating text on the destiny of humanity assumed by Christ, blending patristic thought, Trinitarian theology, and contemporary spirituality.
The Ascension of Christ remains, without a doubt, one of the most difficult mysteries to comprehend in contemporary Christian faith. Between the Resurrection and Pentecost, it is often seen as a scene of departure: Jesus leaves the visible world to return to heaven, leaving believers to await his return. The Eucharistic liturgy expresses a profound understanding of this mystery: in the Anamnesis, the Church proclaims not only the death and resurrection of Christ, but also adds: “We await your return in glory.” It then remains to understand the new way in which the glorified Christ remains present to his Church as it awaits its definitive fulfillment.
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In her article “The Ascension of Christ: The Word Made Flesh for Eternity,” published in the Nouvelle revue théologique in 2017, Nathalie Requin offers a profound and theologically decisive interpretation of this event. Her study highlights an essential point of the Christian faith that Tradition has always been committed to embracing: with the Ascension, it is not only Christ who enters into the glory of the Father, but humanity itself that is introduced into divine life.
The author, a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure and a Marianist nun, contributes to the edition of the works of Saint Augustine in the Biblioteca Agostiniana. Her article lies at the intersection of patristic theology, Christology, and contemporary spiritual reflection. Through a careful reading of the great authors of the tradition—John Chrysostom, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Hans Urs von Balthasar, and Karl Rahner—she seeks to understand what the exaltation of the Incarnate Word truly means.
The starting point of her reflection is simple yet as dizzying as the apostles’ gaze turned toward the heavens: the Ascension does not mark Christ’s abandonment of humanity. On the contrary, it signifies that the Incarnate Word remains human for all eternity. Christianity therefore does not merely proclaim that God became man in time; it also affirms that humanity is now definitively introduced into God. For Nathalie Requin, this fact is perhaps even more profound than the Incarnation itself.
The Church Fathers keenly perceived this salvific dimension of the Ascension. John Chrysostom sees in it the completion of the mediator’s work: Christ definitively reconciles God and humanity by presenting our glorified human nature to the Father. The image of the “firstfruits” is particularly significant: Christ’s humanity is offered as the first portion of a humanity called in its entirety to share in divine glory. What happens to Christ thus foreshadows the ultimate destiny of believers.
Augustine deepens this insight by emphasizing the unity of Christ. The Word has not abandoned the humanity he had assumed. The glorified Christ remains both true God and true man. Therefore, the Ascension does not signify an absence. On the contrary, Augustine affirms that Christ “did not depart from us when he ascended into heaven.” His presence changes in mode, but it remains real. Moreover: Christ’s humanity remains eternally the way to God. Christ’s mediation therefore does not belong solely to the past of salvation history; it continues into eternity.
As for seeking where and how the Lord’s body is in heaven, that is superfluous curiosity: one need only believe that it is in heaven. For it is not for our weakness to explore the secrets of the heavens, but for our faith to acknowledge the glorious dignity that befits the Lord’s body. (Augustine, De fide et symbolo 6, 13, BA 9, p. 45)
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Thomas Aquinas develops this idea from a more systematic perspective. For him, the Ascension is the cause of salvation because it opens access to the Father for humanity. The glorified Christ now fully exercises his role as mediator and intercessor. The humanity assumed by the Word has entered into glory without being dissolved or absorbed. Thomas thus attempts to conceive of the unheard-of reality of a creature being introduced into the very heart of the Trinitarian life.
Hans Urs von Balthasar’s reflection adds a new dimension. According to him, the Ascension should not be understood as a distancing of Christ, but as a transformation of his relationship to the world. By leaving earthly visibility, Christ becomes capable of a deeper and more universal presence. His “being at our side” becomes “being within us.” The visible withdrawal of the Risen One thus prepares the gift of the Spirit and the extension of his presence throughout the entire Church.
Although the Resurrection can only take place in the Father’s heaven, and consequently already includes the Ascension, the latter is nevertheless designated by the Word as a distinct event. It is an event that determines in a new way, not so much his own relationship with heaven, as his relationship to the world. (H. U. von Balthasar, On Integration. Aspects of a Theology of History, Paris, DDB, 1970, p. 297)
This permanence of Christ’s humanity leads Nathalie Requin to highlight an often-forgotten aspect of Christianity: its “sublime materialism,” to use Karl Rahner’s expression. The Christian faith does not despise the body; on the contrary, it affirms that human flesh is called to glory. In a culture oscillating between fascination with the body and the temptation of spiritual abstraction, the Ascension reminds us that salvation concerns the whole person.
The Christ of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who is yesterday, today, and forever, necessarily has a soteriological significance for us. The human reality of Christ will always be for us the permanent mediation of God’s immediate presence. (K. Rahner, I Believe in Jesus Christ, trans. H. Rochais, coll. Méditations théologiques, Paris, DDB, 1971, p. 88)
The article also shows how this truth has concrete spiritual consequences. Teresa of Avila already rejected the idea that Christ’s humanity would become unnecessary in the mystical life. For her, seeking to reach God by setting aside the incarnate Christ was tantamount to “walking on air.” The believer never goes beyond the humanity of Christ: he encounters God through it.
The most holy humanity of Jesus Christ must not be counted among the things to be set aside. This is the point that must be clearly understood, and on which I would like to express myself clearly. (Teresa of Avila, “Book of Life” 22, 8, in Complete Works, Cerf, Paris, 1995, p. 162)
Understood in this way, the Ascension appears as a feast of Christian hope. It proclaims that in Jesus Christ, humanity has already entered into the glory of the Father. It also reveals that the glorified Christ remains near, alive, and active. The Word made flesh does not cease to be man after Easter: he is now man for eternity.
Alban Massie, S.J.