Whether we realise it or not we are commissioned to go out to the world at the end of every liturgy, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.’ This changes our worship. We are not here just for ourselves. Mass, which comes from a word meaning ‘to be sent’, indicates that our liturgy is about celebrating what God has done in the world in and through us, and is a preparation for what God still wants to accomplish. Finally, we continue to experience the abiding presence of Christ in our daily lives or else we wouldn’t be here. God, as revealed in Jesus Christ, is not distant to our lives or impervious to our needs; we believe in a Companion-God who seeks our company as much as we need his. In this Mass, then, let’s thank God for the mountain top of Christ’s Ascension that lifts us up out of our everyday life to celebrate that we are creatures, not the Creator. Let us hear again Christ’s call to each of us to move away from the complacency of a spiritual cafeteria to a church moving out to change the world. And let’s rejoice in Christ’s presence which abides before us, behind us, over and in us, within and without, now and forever. Amen.