Homily for The Ascension 2016
Ascension (Mother’s Day) 2016 I believe this is only the second time in forty-two years that I have actually preached on Mother’s Day. This past Wednesday marked my 42nd year of ordination. Now I feel like I am between the proverbial rock and a hard place because the day after ordination my mother said “don’t ever preach about mothers on Mother’s Day.” It isn’t that she didn’t like being a mother but she was tired of the insipid things she heard priests say on Mother’s Day. They don’t know what they are talking about and she didn’t want me following suit; and she was absolutely right; I don’t know the first thing about being a mother. Thank God we are celebrating the feast of the Ascension today, for I will have something to talk about. We need to view this feast in context. The context is much larger than we may think. The ascension and resurrection were not just event that took place 2,000 years ago; but event that are happening right n...