The Promise and the Power

From the Catholic Liturgy for Ascension Sunday, June 2, 2019. Acts 1:1-11, Luke 24:46-53. Theme: The Promise and the Power.

Today we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, his return in triumph and victory to Heaven.  He has successfully completed the mission entrusted to him by the Father of rescuing us from sin and death. Now as a glorified human being, Christ takes his place of authority as King of all creation. This is why today’s responsorial psalm has us sing these words about Jesus, “God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord!”

But before leaving, He instructs his disciples as to how the blessings of this mission will be spread in the world and be passed on to future generations.  To this end, he makes a Promise to us and he speaks to us of a Power that he and the Father will bestow upon us. I say he is speaking to us today, and not just to his disciples, because whenever Jesus speaks in the gospel he is speaking also to all who will hear his word and follow him until the end of time.

First, He makes a Promise. He says, “…you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”  You see, in the Old Testament it was foretold that when the Messiah came he would pour out God’s Spirit upon his people, making them into something different, something new, transforming them from the inside out. This presence of God the Holy Spirit living within them would be like a re-creation of the human race, or at least a re-creation of those who were open to receiving this Gift.

Secondly, Jesus speaks about a special Power.  He says, “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses…”  We all know that power means the ability, energy and strength to do something beyond our normal capabilities.  Jesus informs us that this power that comes from being baptized with God’s Spirit gives us the ability to do things that we do not think we are capable of doing.

By means of this power-that-is-greater-than-ourselves we are meant, like those first disciples, to give bold witness or testimony to the truth about who Jesus is and what He can do for us.  It’s up to us to tell others by our words and most of all by our lives that Jesus is God come in the flesh as Lord and Savior, who wants to heal all brokenness and transform hearts and lives. Those who do not know him need to hear from us that Jesus is the solution that so many are seeking without even knowing it!  So, you can see that we need the  power of the Holy Spirit to do this with courage and conviction.

Jesus kept his promise to the disciples and the power was given them a little more than a week after his Ascension, on the day of Pentecost.  We will hear all about how that happened and what they did with it at next Sunday’s liturgy, but here’s the thing to remember today: our baptisms and our confirmations were meant to be our own personal Pentecosts, that is, those times when the Holy Spirit was given to us and his power bestowed upon us, so that we could continue Jesus’ mission on earth in our own little slice of life. 

It was through these sacraments that Jesus kept his promise and gave each one of us this power. Even though the actual ceremonies were  once-in-a-lifetime events, their giving of the Spirit was meant to be on-going throughout our lives…meant to be a gift that keeps on giving!  But since most of us received these sacraments as infants and children, we tended to take them for granted without having any real desire or expectation in our hearts.  And so for many of us, the power of the Spirit remains dormant and inactive, but it is still there, deep within us, waiting to be tapped.

Jesus wants to release and unleash the power of the Holy Spirit within each one of us so that we can give credible witness to him among those with whom we live, work and socialize.  He wants to pour out his blessings through us and give them, by the witness of our lives, tangible proof that God exists; that he loves each one of us so much that he left Heaven to come among us as Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified for our sins but is now risen and alive and very much interested in each person’s life and well-being. I think we each need to do is ask ourselves if we have ever unwrapped this Gift that we received so long ago? Or is it still somewhere in the closet  of our lives waiting to be found and opened?

Through today’s liturgy, Jesus is inviting each one of us, just as he did his first disciples, to spend the coming week between Ascension and Pentecost Sunday waiting and praying for the actualization of this Promise in our lives.  To help us do this I have included a special prayer in this Sunday’s bulletin. Please take one home and put it where you will see and use it every day this week. If we prepare for the great feast of Pentecost with truly open and willing hearts then I assure you that by the time next Sunday comes, we will be ready to reclaim the Promise that Jesus has made to us and eager to ignite the Power that is already within us.