One day your little boy or girl is a bright, inquisitive child, interested in butterflies and stars, football and skateboards, letters and numbers. A day at the grandparents is nothing less than heaven; and there is nobody they would rather spend time with than you.

And then that beautiful child disappears under a set of headphones. He or she seldom emerges from a room filled with an alphabet of electronic devices. They are wired and connected to a world that is theirs and theirs alone.

A mother asks if all of this is too much, if we are entertaining our children to death. She writes:

“Should we parents worry about the almost complete loss of the quiet or boring interval in a kid’s life? Quiet moments can force kids to be creative. They might even find time to ponder some of life’s deep questions like, ‘Who is God?’ or ‘What’s my purpose on this planet?’ All good stuff to consider, even if you’re only nine. ..I wonder if we are setting up a situation where kids will feel they have a right to be entertained at all times, which is pretty chilling. Perhaps they’ll think that life ought to be as exciting and as winnable as a video game.”

This Mom’s prayer mirrors Christ’s prayer for his Church: that all of us who follow him will come to know God and the things of God –love, compassion, mercy, justice, peace -and take on the work of God, the work of discipleship – to help one another know and embrace that life.

All of us -parents as well as children -need to “unplug” in order to connect with the things of God; we need to take life “off line” from the busyness of the world so that we may know the love of those who mean the most to us.

Christ is the centre of our Church in Word, in sacrament, in every moment of generosity and every act of compassion we perform and experience. In imitating his selflessness, in embracing his Gospel of reconciliation and justice, we are bound together into the body of the Risen One- even with people we don’t like or disagree with or would rather have nothing to do with. The Ascension of the Lord is not the marking of a departure but the celebration of a presence: Matthew’s Gospel begins with the promise of Emmanuel -God is with us; it concludes with the promise of the Risen Christ, I am with you always, even to the end of time.

“With a spirit of wisdom and insight to know him clearly,” we can discover Christ’s presence at every turn of our lives’ journey to his final return at the end of time.

May Jesus’ prayer in today’s Gospel become our prayer: that we find the grace and wisdom to put aside the distractions that steal away our time and energy from one another and embrace God’s gift of this life not as a time for fleeting amusement but for experiencing the joy and wholeness of compassion and forgiveness.