May 28 Ascension Homily Prep

-This Sunday's Scriptures can be found at www.usccb.org
-I will be celebrating mass at 4:00 on Saturday and 8:00am on Sunday

Move Over!

Today's celebration of  the Ascension of our Lord,  like the  common expression "move over", is the invitation to make room  in our lives for another. The reading from the Acts of the apostles, Saint Luke's second book, says very clearly that "this Jesus who has been taken up will return to you in the same way."

Rather than another new idea about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, our ascension theology or spirituality might be understood as  an invitation  to open ourselves, making room for a deeper relationship with God in our lives.

This speaks clearly to the notion of communion and the spirituality of encounter and the theme of resurrection  that I have been sharing throughout this Easter time.  The resurrection is not only something that happened to Jesus but something that has transformed our world. Step into the resurrection which is new life.

This notion of making room or "move over" can  especially affect our attitude in prayer. If praying were understood as the spiritual practice in faith of moving over to make more room for God in our hearts we might pray very differently.

This notion of "moving over" might also be helpful in our desire to live a more compassionate life in communion. The world talks to us about "tolerating others" while we in our ascension spirituality might better understand it as gently moving over and making room in our lives for others-welcoming others into our hearts.

Move over!