Feast of the Ascension

Feast of the Ascension

28 May 2017

Homily

We are come to the conclusion – and climax of Matthew’s Gospel. Everything that has happened has been leading to this moment.

We are back in Galilee. All through Matthew, from when the family returned from Egypt, Galilee – Galilee of the Gentiles – has been a place of refuge. After all the convulsion s of that week in Jerusalem, the disciples are back somewhere familiar. All of us, at different times need to familiar to return to for rest and refreshment.

They have gathered on a mountain we are told. Remember in Scripture, mountains are where one meets the divine.

We hear that “they worshipped, but they doubted”. We are not told why they may have doubted, was it guilt over their actions in Jerusalem? Jesus calls them anyway. Have we ever doubted? If so, there is no reason to be ashamed of it, or to gloss over it. Pursue it, work out why it is there and what it tells you, but know that Jesus does not deny us because of doubt!

Matthew never paints a glossy, too good to be true picture of his community. He acknowledges that there will be doubts, dissensions, difficulties. He reminds us though that in the end, Jesus can help us overcome them.

Did you notice how, in contrast to our first Reading, there is no account of the Ascension as such? Matthew wants us to remember, to realise that Jesus is not some absent landowner or master, but here, present among us always.

We are told to make disciples of all nations. How do we follow this command in our own lives? How do we teach others what we have been taught?

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