Defying gravity: Homily for Ascension Thursday

From the vault, my homily for Ascension Thursday 2015:

This glorious feast of the Ascension—one of the “glorious mysteries” we pray on the rosary—asks each of us to do something glorious.

It asks us to rise with Christ, to defy the laws of gravity.

It asks us to defy the world. To change the world.

Where do we begin? The answer has been before us all along. Over the last few weeks, what has been the one recurring theme in the Sunday readings?

Love.

Love one another. We have heard it again and again in the readings. And for good reason.

That is where we begin. Making that choice. Living that choice. And making that choice visible to a doubting and disbelieving world—a world that, as the Pew Study shows, is increasingly turning away from Christ.

Our mission is to change that. St. Paul puts it beautifully in today’s letter to the Ephesians:

“Live in a manner worthy of the calling you have received,” he tells them “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love.”

But, of course, love is not static. It is active.

The first word Jesus speaks in the gospel today is our imperative: “Go.”

It’s also one of the last words I’ll say at the end of this Mass:

“Go in peace, glorifying the Lord by your life.”

The challenge before us is to do that, in every moment and in every choice.

Read the entire thing here.