Ascension of the Lord

May 29, 2022

Fr. John C. Garrett

 

We are in the second week of our message series “Veni Sancte Spiritus,” which means Come Holy Spirit. This is a three week series that is leading up to the celebration of Pentecost next weekend. The bottom line for this series is for us to want more of the Spirit in our lives so that we ask for the Holy Spirit to come into our lives. If we ask for the Spirit, he will come.

Today are going to continue to push ourselves a bit out of our comfort zone. We are going to do that by looking at a passage from the beginning of the book the Acts of the Apostles. “In the first book, Theophilus, I dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen” (Acts 1:1-2). St. Luke says that in his gospel he tells all that Jesus BEGAN to do and teach because Acts of the Apostles is all about how Jesus began the restoration of the world. Jesus came to redeem the world and to restore it. So the gospel tells how Jesus redeemed the world, and the Acts of the Apostles tells how Jesus begins to restore the world.

Here is a brief analogy to help us understand the difference between redeeming something and restoring something. Say that your family had a beautiful house that fell into disrepair and neglect after many years. Since no one had paid the mortgage, the bank was going to foreclose and sell the property to someone who would demolish the house. However, you have some means and decide to buy the house to keep it from destruction. You redeemed it. However, it would still need work to restore it to its original state. It would still be falling apart and need to be made new and whole.

Jesus came to restore the world and as we said in the last series to make it Brand new. 

Jesus began the work of restoration but that work continues through the Holy Spirit and through the Church. The idea of the Church is to be a community of believer who are driven by the Holy Spirit and walk in step with the Holy Spirit to continue the work Jesus began of the restoration of the world. The restoration of the world includes healing individuals, healing communities, healing our broken world so that it is made whole.

After his resurrection, Jesus met with the disciples multiple times over the course of 40 days. We come to that last time that Jesus will meet with his Apostles in a physical way. “While meeting with them he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the ‘promise of the Father’ which you have heard of me speak; for John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:4-5). Jesus tells them to wait for the Holy Spirit.

In our day and age, influenced by the Star Wars movies, some people have a tendency to think of the Holy Spirit as the Force; “use the Force Luke” (Skywalker, not saint Luke who wrote the gospel and Acts). However the Holy Spirit is not some impersonal power that we use. We do not use the Holy Spirit, we receive him. We have to develop the patience to wait for the Holy Spirit to come to us. We can invite the Spirit to come, but the Spirit will come in his own time.

Often in the beginning the Holy Spirit will come more quickly to us. As we mature in faith, the spirit does not come as quickly. 

How do we wait for the Spirit? We wait by making ourselves available to God through prayer. We wait in prayer. That’s what the apostles did along with another 120 disciples. They went and prayed and waited for the Holy Spirit to come at Pentecost. We dedicate time to wait for the Holy Spirit to come to us.

We hate waiting but we will wait for things that we value and believe are important. We will wait for people we love. To receive the Holy Spirit means to learn to wait for him. 

We also wait for what we value or for people we value. You will wait for your kids or your spouse because you value them. We show we value the Holy Spirit when we wait.

Jesus tells the apostles to wait. Then they ask a question. “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” He answered them, “It is not for you know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority” (Acts 1).

The apostles were constantly asking dumb questions or the wrong questions at the wrong time. Instead of saying wow that is amazing, we are going to receive the Holy Spirit they ask when Jesus is going to restore the kingdom of Israel. God’s plan to restore Israel was not to make them a political power, but to make them a source of blessing to the whole earth.

A key way God wants to restore us and heal us is by being a conduit of his blessing to others. If we just stay focused on ourselves then we will never receive the blessing God has in store for us. His way to restore us is by being a conduit of blessing to others.

This is why Jesus goes on to say, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:). Jesus promise the apostles power. The Holy Spirit brings power to our lives. The Holy Spirit brings power to our lives when we are witnesses to God’s love and mercy in the person of Jesus Christ.