Image: "Ascension"
© Jan Richardson
© Jan Richardson
June 1, 2014
It helps, now and then, to
step back and take a long view.
Journeying to the metaphoric Matthean mountain in
Galilee where he began his ministry teaching, Jesus now comes to his friends
for a final bon voyage.
Having completed his work upon earth, Jesus imparts
his compelling words “go, make disciples of all nations.”
It is a graduation of sorts for the apostles,
indicating that the earthly mission of Jesus is complete, and the
responsibility for its continuation now rests with his followers.
But it holds the consolation that Jesus will be with
them in the power of the Holy Spirit until the end of the age.
It is usually during Advent of the liturgical year
when the church enters into the season of waiting.
But it is in this weekend celebrating the Ascension of
the Lord—wherein we hang between two worlds with Christ who is leaving the
earth in body, and yet coming in a new way in Spirit—we are called to enter a
dynamic waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit!
We must, like a gardener waiting for the earth to
bloom, stand open and ready to receive what comes from above.
God’s purposes are to be revealed through the Spirit,
and Jesus asks us to heed the waiting time for that revelation.
It is a paradigm shift that the ascending Jesus
suggests.
The Hebrew Scriptures limited the Spirit’s actions to
certain great prophets, judges or kings who had the privilege and
responsibility to speak the words of Yahweh.
Now the Holy Spirit will be sent to all people who are
baptized into the Trinitarian relationship with Father, Son and Spirit.
All believers will be invited to proclaim the good
news of Jesus Christ to every nation.
Confessing our faith will be part of our very
identity.
I remember as a teenager praying the “prayers at the
foot of the altar” after Mass.
The priest prayed to St. Michael the Archangel, to
Mary the Holy Queen, for the intentions of the Pope…
Then one day, a new prayer was added, both surprising
us and filling us with anticipation.
We were asked to pray for the success of an ecumenical
council scheduled on the horizons of the new year.
Every church throughout the world was asked to pray
for the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Pope John XXIII referred to the prayer in his
convocation to the Vatican Council on Christmas Day, 1961, begging the “Divine
Spirit to answer in a most comforting manner the prayer that rises daily to Him
from every corner of the earth:”
“Renew your wonders in our time, as though for a new
Pentecost, And grant that the Holy Church, preserving unanimous and continuous
prayer, together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and also under the guidance of
St. Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Savior, the reign of truth and
justice, the reign of love and peace”[1]
The prayer had a way of engaging Catholics with
anticipation of what might happen if the world was again infused by the Holy
Spirit.
We all stood once more with Peter and the apostles,
listening in a new way to the Lucan invitation to “wait for the promise of the
Father about which you have heard me speak…for in a few days you will be
baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:8).
That power which would come though the Holy Spirit
will create some tremendous opportunities to be “my witnesses in Jerusalem…and
to the ends of the earth.”
We go into this dark night of opportunity not alone,
but with Christ, as his witnesses.
The Vatican Council changed the face and the heart of
the Church.
The Spirit of Pentecost came once again in our
history!
Rather than a bon voyage, the ascension of the Lord
solicits a new call to bid us actively await the coming of the Spirit so that
the reign of God might be proclaimed afresh to all peoples.
It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long
view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even
beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of
the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work…
We plant the seeds that one day will grow….
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference
between the master builder and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
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