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This weekend, we celebrate the feast of the Ascension of the Lord and also Mothers’ Day. And you get a short homily and a commercial. For me, the gospel account of the Ascension of Jesus is colored by Mothers’ Day. The most difficult times for mothers to raise children, not according to my experience, but according to frequent reports and common wisdom and all kinds of legendary stories, are the terrible twos and the terrific teens.

When youngsters get to be two, they have the strength and the energy and the ability to get into everything and to get away from everybody. They go nonstop and they wear you out with their leg power and with their lung power. And our teenagers are now getting ready to move out, to grow up on their own. So it is the appropriate time for them to be testing everybody and everyone, to be making the lessons of life really their own by taking responsibility. That’s why our teens are so terrific. You see them stepping up and doing all kinds of leadership things that are astounding, and also being rebellious, which is saying, “I don’t believe this anymore. Leave me alone. I’m out of here.”

I remember the story of Billy Graham having a teenager come to him and saying, “I’m confused, Rev. Graham. I think I’m losing my faith.” And Billy Graham said, “You’re not losing your faith. You are losing your parents’ faith. You’re supposed to. Now, it is time for you to figure it out yourself. You’re supposed to be losing your parents’ faith and making it your own.” I mention this because in today’s gospel we see the disciples gathered around Jesus at the end of the course. Right? And we are told that they worshipped him AND they doubted, ...both things. They worshiped him and they doubted him. Isn’t that familiar? Poised between whole-hearted, unconditional love and committment and, at the very same time, “Wait a minute! Do I really believe this? Is this how it works? How does it work? What does this mean for me?” I think there is a suggestion here that God calls all of us who want to be disciples of the Lord, when it comes to faith, to be permanent teenagers. Always just one step away and one step toward fully grown-up faith. And that’s where we live.

The second point about the Ascension of Christ: you know, when you think about this feast, it sounds as if it is talking about Jesus going away, Jesus going up, Jesus finally making his final takeoff after several failed attempts, Jesus being God’s astronaut saying, “I’m out of here.” The feast of the Ascension, particularly if you listen to today’s gospel, is not about the absence or going away of Jesus, but about the presence of Jesus. He says, “Now I will be with you always until the end of time.” That’s Matthew’s gospel. You know Matthew’s gospel has twenty-eight chapters. First chapter begins by saying, “They will find that child and they will call him ‘Emanuel, which means God is with us.’ “ And we get to the last line of the last chapter of Matthew’s gospel, chapter twenty-eight, and the last line is “I am with you always, Emanuel, God with you.” It’s about the presence of God among us.

What’s God like? Well, we use lots of images because we can’t get our head around what God is like. God is always way beyond anything we can think of, but God is also near. So we use comparisons, metaphors, images. We say “God is a Good Shepherd.” God’s not a shepherd, but God does care for us like a flock. We say “God is a rock.” God is not a rock, but God is solid. We say, “ God is Father.” God’s not a father and God’s not a male, but God gives us life and support.

On this Mothers’ Day, I want to suggest another image that you might use about God, and it’s Grandmothers. Grandmothers tend to really enjoy their grandchildren. Grandmothers tend to really love us. Even if we do something wrong, they understand and, no matter what, they manage to stay on our side. I would suggest that God really enjoys us and God loves us and, even when we do something wrong, God understands and God always manages to stay on our side. So I think for our understanding and for our prayer, the image of God as a Grandmother is a pretty good one.

One way we experience the presence of God is in caring for one another. This weekend, we have a second collection for Catholic Charities of the East Bay, and I think, in many ways, Catholic Charities of the East Bay, for many people, has been the face of God. Now this year they had to get a new director. So they did a search. They searched in the East Bay Area. They did a search of the State of California. They did a national search. And they chose a new director, who happens to be one of our parishoners. He has been a parishoner here since 1993, an active member of our Social Justice ministry and a good friend. So I want you to welcome Soloman Belette. (Applause!)