Ascension The Coming of the Spirit
In the Gospel of John, Jesus states that unless he goes, the Spirit cannot come. These words can seem amongst the strangest in the Gospel. Surely Jesus and the Spirit can coexist! But when we look at the disciples in the First Reading from the Acts, we get some idea of where the problem lies. Even after all the years of Jesus’ teaching, even after he had risen from the dead, they were still expecting him to bring in an earthly Kingdom. They still hadn’t got it. But when he ascends, when he leaves them again, there is such a gap in their lives, they are so bereft, so empty, that they truly experience the emptiness of life without him. And into that emptiness the Spirit comes, not just to fill them with love and joy, but to transform them so that they can go out and be the face, the hands and the heart of Jesus to the world. Those who kept misunderstanding what the Kingdom was about become the preachers of the Kingdom. We can often wonder why doesn’t God intervene and improve things in our lives. When we feel like that we need to wonder what our idea of ‘improvement’ would be. Just like the disciples, our idea of the Kingdom of God can be misguided. But if we have to struggle, we will then turn to God, and ask what are God’s ways and how we can transform ourselves according to that plan. And then like the disciples we will be given the Spirit to preach the Gospel.
Sr Kym Harris OSB |