Something Better Still to Come! (Ascension B.2021)

Just this week, two young adults talked with me about how much they miss Mass. I half suspect that the church closure is harder on the young than the old, partly because watching YouTube is old hat to them but still something of an accomplishment for my age group!

I miss Mass too. Well, I can’t say I miss Mass, of course; I miss the way Mass used to be. In other words, I miss you.

But think about this: how does losing our Sunday gathering compare with what the disciples lost at the Ascension?

We’ve had to say goodbye to our weekly Eucharist together. They said goodbye to Jesus.

Isn’t that massively worse than anything we’re dealing with? Wasn’t the Ascension the worst day in the apostles’ lives, after the Crucifixion?

When the disciples met to break bread after the Resurrection, Jesus was at the head of the table. They ate and drank with him. And then he left.

It seems obvious that this should have been a very dark day. And maybe it was—there is something a bit pathetic about the disciples staring up at the sky after Jesus has ascended.

But only for a day. Only for a day.

What followed the Ascension was so amazing that it left no room for disappointment, no lasting loss. You all know why: the Lord’s departure was followed almost immediately by the Spirit’s arrival.

Even before his death,  Jesus told his followers “I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (Jn 16:7)

Since this is key to what I’m saying today, I’ll repeat that in a translation that uses simpler language: “I am telling you the truth: it is better for you that I go away, because if I do not go, the Helper will not come to you. But if I do go away, then I will send him to you.”  

Let’s just stop for a second and think about that. Jesus says it is to our advantage, it is better for us, that he leaves.

Come on! He’s going to disappear but something better will follow? What on earth could be better? Jesus was the most wonderful, comforting, generous, gracious, interesting, intelligent person who ever walked on earth. On top of that, he was God.

How can it be better that the Lord vanish from sight?

We have to accept the answer he himself gives us—because unless he goes the Spirit will not come.

Obviously, the Advocate, the Helper, the Comforter—all words that name the Holy Spirit—is so marvelous, so splendid a gift, that he can replace what the disciples lost when Jesus departed.

This is crucial for any Christian. We can only guess what it was like to walk and talk and eat and pray with Jesus. There’s no way we will ever share that experience with his earthly followers. It’s not God’s plan.

But there is no reason—no reason at all—to think that the first disciples’ experience of the Holy Spirit was intended to be any different than our own. That is God’s plan.

Some things about the apostolic age were very different from today. Miracles, for instance, regularly demonstrated the power of Jesus Christ in the early Church. And the first Pentecost was accompanied by visible flames, something we haven’t seen since—much to the relief of bishops and priests as they administer Confirmation.

But apart from the miraculous tongues of fire, there’s just no reason to think that the Holy Spirit was given to the first Christians in some unique way or for some unique purpose. What they received, we can receive; what they experienced, we can experience.

If you or I have not encountered the Advocate, if we have not received the power that the Risen Lord promised his disciples in today’s first reading, the difference lies in us, not in God.

If we can’t relate to what St. Paul is talking about in the second reading—if our hearts aren’t enlightened, if we don’t know the hope to which we are called, and we know neither the riches of God’s glorious inheritance nor the immeasurable greatness of his power—it’s not because those are first-century-only things.

Yes, the first Christians were blessed uniquely by knowing Jesus in the flesh. But they got a still greater blessing—he’s the one who said so—when he sent them his Spirit.

That greater blessing is ours. Again, if we haven’t received it, it’s not because God didn’t offer it.

The Risen Jesus promises the disciples that they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Clearly, he is speaking of the entire experience of Pentecost, something the Church has traditionally identified with the sacrament of Confirmation.

In recent decades, there has been more thought given to what it means to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Is it only the sacrament of Confirmation? And if so, why is the average Catholic's experience of that sacrament so different from the first Pentecost?

Beginning with St. John XXIII right up to Pope Francis, our Popes have prayed for a new Pentecost in the life of our Church. What are they hoping for?

Baptism in the Holy Spirit is one answer. We can define it as “a life-transforming experience of the love of God the Father poured into one’s heart by the Holy Spirit, received through a surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It brings alive the sacramental graces of baptism and confirmation, deepens communion with God and with fellow Christians, enkindles evangelistic fervor and equips a person with charisms for service and mission.” (Baptism in the Holy Spirit, International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services Doctrinal Commission)

That’s an approved theological statement. But it’s a whole lot more. It describes what God wants to give every one of us. This baptism in the Holy Spirit can be everything the first Christians experienced. It can bring to life the graces we were given in baptism and confirmation, deepen our relationship with God and our brothers and sisters, and give us zeal for the Gospel.

 Most of all, this life-transforming experience equips us with the gifts we need to serve and to become part of the mission of the Church. In other words, it is the Spirit’s power that makes it possible for us to live today’s Gospel—to proclaim the Good News as Jesus commands.

Does it sound good to you? Do you want this outpouring of the Spirit that is even better than the human presence of Jesus? If so, where can it be found?

Many roads lead to the baptism in the Holy Spirit. For many years, the Life in the Spirit seminar was the best-known way to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. It is still a sure path.

But I can say that much of what we do as a parish aims at “a life-transforming experience of the love of God the Father poured into one’s heart by the Holy Spirit, received through a surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ,” as the statement says that I quoted earlier.

Alpha’s “Holy Spirit Saturday” is nothing less than an invitation to surrender to God and experience the fullness of the Spirit. Our faith studies also lead in the same direction.

We’d be wearing black vestments today, or at least purple, if the Ascension was a one-way feast. Happily, joyfully, it was not. The Lord went up to heaven. And, as we’ll celebrate next Sunday, his Spirit came down on earth.