My Thoughts on 21/05/2020

We celebrate on today’s feast of the Ascension the simple yet profound truth that just as Jesus was welcomed to the right hand of the Father we are welcomed to the right hand of Jesus. We are invited to share his glory and that invitation will never be withdrawn.

The challenge is for us to accept this invitation and live lives of love. When we talk about heaven we imagine it as somewhere far away, quite removed, another place and if we imagine God in this heaven then there is a danger of thinking of God as remote from us. But we say in the preface of the Mass today “he ascended, not to distance himself from our lowly state but that we, his members might be confident of following where he, our Head and Founder, has gone before.

St Augustine in one of his homilies says “Just as he ascended without leaving us, so too, we are already with him in heaven, although his promises have not yet been fulfilled in our bodies.”

Lord thank you for being with us today in the teaching preaching and sacraments of the church and may we prepare ourselves for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit this Pentecost that we may continue to bring about your Kingdom here and now.