“The assumption of the humanity into God”

Last updated on: May 13, 2013 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

Yesterday was Ascension Sunday. (The actual Ascension Day, 40 days after Easter, the time the risen Christ remained on earth, was last Thursday.) It commemorates something important and profound: the now-and-still Incarnate Son of God, His work of redemption complete, returning to His Father and assuming His eternal place in the Holy Trinity.

Some people think Ascension Day means that Jesus isn’t here anymore. (I have heard that put forward as a way to deny His presence in Holy Communion!) But what it really means is that now He can be present in all times and places (particularly Holy Communion!) because the Ascended Christ fills all things (Ephesians 1:20-23).

Christ’s Ascension has to do with His Incarnation, which, according to the Athanasian Creed

, was “not by conversion of the divinity into flesh, but by “the assumption of the humanity into God.” Think of that! Our human nature, taken on by Christ, has been taken “into God.” This is why, in connection to Holy Communion, Christ’s body and blood, elements of his and our physical human nature, can be distributed to us human beings in our own times and places. What are some other implications of “the assumption of the humanity into God”?

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