Ascension of our Lord
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Earlier in May I had gotten a couple tickets for me and Jacob, a friend of mine, to see the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. I usually get to see this friend once or twice a year because of his (and my) busy schedules. The entire week before I looked at my weather app each day, to see what it was supposed to be. Would it rain? Would it be hot? Would there be thunderstorms or sunshine? Each day I’d check to see what the weather was forecasted to be, hoping that the game would be played and we could enjoy a game and each other’s company. The day finally came, it was somewhere around 80 degrees and sunny when the first pitch was thrown, and we had a great time, except that the Tigers lost, 9-0.
This is not to say that waiting meant sitting on their hands. St. Luke reports that, after our Lord ascended, the apostles did was He commanded and returned to Jerusalem. But then Peter proceeds to inform them of an impending election, to fill the spot of the betrayer, Judas. Two candidates are put forward, they ask for the Lord’s help in choosing the correct one, and St. Matthias is chosen as the new twelfth Apostle. Who knows what else happened, but we do know they remained in that Upper Room for much of the time, until Pentecost happened and the sending of the Holy Spirit.
Waiting builds anticipation and heightens the senses. It focuses one on what is upcoming. My baseball game with Jacob had me attentive to details, hoping sure the event would happen and turn out well, and checking and praying for good weather on a twice-daily basis. As children wait for Christmas, especially in the days between the end of classes and Christmas Day, there is an attentiveness and an excitement for celebrating Christ’s birth, but probably mostly for the gifts that they hope to receive.
When a couple gets engaged, we ask them to wait (usually nine months) before they get married. This allows time for them to prepare, to make sure they understand the lifelong commitment they are entering into, and make sure that they truly will love each other with the sacrificial love that holy matrimony requires.
But then, once the day gets there, the celebration is all the more worth it and joyful. Yes, it would have been nice to see the Tigers win, but I was really glad to spend time with Jacob and catch up since the last time we saw each other. On Christmas morning, the kids are often the first ones up, with joyful readiness to tear off the wrapping paper with abandon and discover what presents they received. And when the wedding day comes, the bride and groom are full of joy and happiness that all their waiting has come to an end, and they can celebrate being the couple, the one-flesh-union, that they had desired to be since their engagement. Indeed, the emotions are often so high that there are tears of joy from both the woman and the man!
That is the spirit in which we should wait for Pentecost, for our annual renewal of the gifts and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We, too, should wait over these nine days, this primordial novena, asking for the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts, minds, and souls with His sacred presence. We know that the Apostles, having waited nine days, began to speak in tongues, and were so elated that most thought them drunk (I always chuckle at St. Peter’s speech to the crowds, asserting that the apostles aren’t drunk because it’s only nine o’clock in the morning; having lived in East Lansing, I can tell you that nine o’clock means nothing on a football Saturday morning or St. Patrick’s Day). Yes, this joy that overflowed was the work of the Holy Spirit, but was it perhaps also made possible by their waiting, their anticipation which opened them up for more of a gift of the Holy Spirit? The amount of gifts that they received from the Holy Spirit could have been at least correlated to, if not caused by, their preparation and waiting.
We, living in 2022, are still waiting. We are not waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have received Him at Baptism and Confirmation in particular, but we also see Him at work every time Mass is celebrated. Still, we can always increase our ability to receive the Holy Spirit, which should be part of our waiting each year from the Ascension to Pentecost.
But we are waiting for the Lord to return “‘in the same way as [the Apostles and the Blessed Mother] saw him going into heaven.’” Our anticipation should grow each day in longing for the Lord to return to us, to set all things right, and to usher in a new heaven and a new earth, where pain and sorrow, death and mourning are no more. We have waited for almost 2,000 years, and each day we are closer to when Christ returns in glory. It seems like too long, as it probably felt for the Apostles and the Blessed Mother. But this waiting can heighten our desire for the Lord, our desire for heaven, if we cooperate with the same Holy Spirit, and do not grow drowsy from our wait. Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of the faithful, and enkindle in us the fire of your love, you who are the gift of the Father and the Son, and are co-eternal God for ever and ever. Amen.
