Homily for the Feast of the Ascension

The Feast of the Ascension

Get on with it!  We have all said it.  Parents have said it to their children when the young person is making all kinds of excuses and reasons for not completing a task, trying to find a way out of it.  Friends have said it to each other – often when there is something difficult to do or be said.  Bosses have said it to their staff, sports people say it to themselves; spectators say it to their teams– get on with it.  A few short words sum up a wealth of meaning.  Move on; let go; be positive, think of the task ahead; look forward.  And today we hear the phrase in the Acts of the Apostles.  Not in so many words but that is what the disciples are being told to do.  Why are you standing there looking into the sky?  Get on with it!  

The experience of the disciples was that in continuing to carry on the work of Jesus they found that he was present among them.  As they preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins; as they read the scriptures in light of his death and resurrection and as they broke bread together as he had instructed they found that he was present among them.  The Eucharist, the Mass is the celebration of ‘getting on with it”.  The Eucharist opens for us a positive way forward in our lives and in our world.  We always acknowledge our failings at the start of the Eucharist and then we immediately give praise to God with our Gloria because we know that we are loved and forgiven.  The Eucharist invites us to engage with the Word of God in the Scripture – hearing it addressed to us.  Go – you are forgiven; come follow me; who is your neighbour; go and do the same.  

This is the meal in which we are given the bread of life; the body of Christ which calls us to ‘get on with doing what Christ did.”  Looking with love on those around us – brother, sister, parent, friend.  Being a person of forgiveness and not harboring hatred and division.  When the body of Christ is broken and we take it and eat it we are joining ourselves to it.  We are opening ourselves to be broken and given for others.  We can no longer stand and look into the air; we can no longer stand and do nothing; leave it to others.  To eat this meal is to become an active member of the Christian community.  The Ascension is then our feast.  It is our feast of getting on with it.  And the feast we celebrate next week – Pentecost – is the feast that celebrates we do not get on with it alone but with the guidance of the promised Spirit. 

Let us pray during this week that we can put our faith into action in some small way; that we can “get on” with being a living witness to the celebration we share here today.

Fr Brendan