{"id":5423,"date":"2025-09-04T10:54:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=5423"},"modified":"2025-09-04T10:56:18","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T14:56:18","slug":"homily-for-the-feast-of-the-ascension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/?p=5423","title":{"rendered":"Homily for the Feast of the Ascension"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May 29, 2025 Year C\u00a0<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

St. Mary\u2019s Barnstable, The Rev. Michael J. Horvath, Luke 24:44-53 <\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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The Rev. Michael J. Horvath<\/mark><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Early in my faith life, I assumed the Ascension was a little like Jesus getting promoted. Like after Easter, he\u2019s clocked enough miracles, logged enough parables, and finally, it\u2019s time for the big celestial corner office \u2014 complete with a cloud. One moment he’s blessing the disciples, and the next, up he goes \u2014 no chariot of fire, just a kind of holy lift-off. Luke tells us, quite simply, \u201cHe withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.\u201d I always imagine the disciples standing there with that dazed look you get when the person you’re counting on suddenly hands you the keys and says, “You’re in charge now.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a poignant and peculiar scene. Jesus leads them out as far as Bethany \u2014 a place with memories: the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, the place where Jesus had wept and feasted and prayed. And there, he blesses them. That\u2019s the final gesture: not a speech, not a miracle, but a blessing. His hands raised, he pours grace over them like oil \u2014 fitting, since these same hands had broken bread, washed feet, and carried a cross. And then, as he\u2019s blessing them \u2014 not after, not before, but in the very act of blessing \u2014 he withdraws. It\u2019s such a gentle image. No cosmic fanfare, no dramatic exit music. Jesus doesn\u2019t leave with a bang but with a benediction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the disciples? Strangely enough, they are not devastated. Not this time. They don’t go back to the Upper Room in fear like they did after the crucifixion. No, Luke says they returned to Jerusalem \u201cwith great joy.\u201d Joy! After watching Jesus leave! That\u2019s not the reaction we\u2019d expect. But I think something finally clicked for them\u2014that Jesus hadn\u2019t really left at all. He hadn\u2019t been taken away so much as multiplied. Loosed into the world. Diffused into every act of love, every Eucharistic moment, every quiet corner of worship where two or three gather in his name. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let me confess something. I imagine if I had been one of the disciples that day, I would have panicked. \u201cWait! You’re going now? We just figured out what resurrection is and now you’re ascending? Is there a manual? Who\u2019s in charge of table linens? Where\u2019s the to-do list?\u201d This is probably why I am not in the original twelve.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But you know who wouldn\u2019t have panicked? The altar guild. The altar guild would\u2019ve looked at each other and said, \u201cAll right, people. Let\u2019s get to work.\u201d And then someone would\u2019ve quietly ironed the corporal, found the good purificator, and made sure the Paschal candle didn\u2019t drip wax on the rug. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because if there is a group of people who know what it means to prepare for Jesus to show up \u2014 even and especially when he doesn\u2019t look like you expect \u2014 it\u2019s you. The altar guild. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You prepare holy ground with starch and polish and prayer. You wrestle with sacristy drawers that haven’t opened since 1983. You decipher handwritten notes in the flower guild calendar written in a dialect only known to your predecessor. You transform chaos into liturgical order \u2014 every week. You don’t ascend \u2014 you descend. Into sacristies, into the details, into service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here\u2019s the thing. I\u2019m convinced that Jesus, when he lifted his hands to bless the disciples, wasn\u2019t just blessing them. He was blessing you. Blessing everyone who would carry on the work of embodying him. Everyone who would make space for his presence in bread and wine and song and silence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You see, Ascension Day isn\u2019t about absence. It\u2019s about presence. A new kind of presence \u2014 Christ no longer limited to one place, one body, one moment in time. Instead, he becomes present in the Church. In us. In candles lit in dim chapels. In worn pages of the Gospel book. In chalices polished and polished again. In the altar prepared as lovingly as a grandmother sets the table for Sunday supper. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, let\u2019s be honest. Not everyone sees what you see. Some folks come to church and think the altar sets itself. Or that the fair linen magically floats down from heaven each week, perfectly pressed. They don\u2019t see the sacred art behind the scenes. But God sees it. And Jesus, who once folded his burial cloth with care before walking out of the tomb, knows exactly how much holiness can be hidden in the humble and the handmade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So today, as we remember Jesus ascending \u2014 not into the clouds alone, but into our hearts and our hands \u2014 I want to say thank you. Thank you for your quiet faithfulness. For showing up early and staying late. For knowing the rhythm of the liturgical year better than the priest sometimes does. For holding the mystery in your hands \u2014 literally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus withdrew, yes \u2014 but not to leave us. To bless us. To trust us. To call us. And the disciples went back to Jerusalem with joy because they finally realized: they were not waiting for the Church anymore. They were the Church. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And so are you. Not just caretakers of linens and vessels \u2014 but caretakers of holy space. Curators of beauty. Bearers of Christ\u2019s presence.\u00a0 So keep doing what you do. Keep making the way ready. Keep preparing the table, because he is still showing up. And if anyone ever asks where Jesus went, you can just smile and say, \u201cHe\u2019s right here, and we\u2019ve already got the altar set.\u201d Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Early in my faith life, I assumed the Ascension was a little like Jesus getting promoted. Like after Easter, he\u2019s clocked enough miracles, logged enough parables, and finally, it\u2019s time for the big celestial corner office \u2014 complete with a cloud […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5426,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,8,1],"tags":[24,26,36,93,142],"class_list":["post-5423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sacristy","category-liturgy","category-uncategorized","tag-altar-service","tag-eucharist","tag-liturgy-2","tag-prayer","tag-spirit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5423"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5433,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5423\/revisions\/5433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nationalaltarguildassociation.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}