We Wait For What Is Coming

We wait for what is coming. At least in the Churches’ liturgy it’s coming.  The Holy Spirit, who we celebrate at Pentecost, was always here. In the beginning as Wisdom playing at the feet of God before creation was formed. It was the Holy Spirit that God breathed over the dark chaos to still the primordial waters. It was the Holy Spirit that enflamed and drove on the patriarchs and the prophets.

 Next week we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord, which is not the Risen Lord leaving us, for he promised that he would never leave us, but rather it is the Son returning to the Father, prompting the sending forth of the  Holy Spirit, (now Jesus’ Spirit), forever as the Paraclete.

Following the Ascension we, of course, celebrate the great feast of Pentecost, where the Spirit, swept through the disciples, as they waited in the upper room. And like tongues of fire, the engulfing flames set ablaze heart and mind with a new courage and a new understanding of what Jesus had said and done.

 Indeed we celebrate anew each season, the coming of the Holy Spirit. But, we must remember that we live in the time of the Spirit. Because, we live in the time of the Church. The great abiding work of the Spirit who has always been the driving force in the acquiring, confessing, and witnessing to faith in Jesus Christ.

 The Holy Spirit (like the wind) goes where it wants too. But, it only wants to go where the Son directs it according to the Father’s will. It’s freedom is always directed towards the Truth.

 In the first reading we hear that Philip went to a city in Samaria. And it was the Holy Spirit that guided him there. It was the Spirit that moved the people to gather and listen to the Gospel Philip proclaimed. With eyes opened, by the Spirit, the people saw and recognized the signs of healing that Philip did. It was the delighted Spirit that filled their hearts and minds with an excess of joy.

 And in joy Peter and John, upon hearing about the work Philip was doing, went to that city.  Though many there were already baptized (in the name of Jesus) they all received the Holy Spirit, that day, with the lying on of hands.

 In the second reading Paul describes the work of the Holy Spirit that animates the faithful. It is only in the Spirit that one can accept Jesus as Lord. It is in the Spirit that one proclaims Jesus crucified and risen. It is in the Spirit that one witnesses to truth by words and deeds. We abide in the Spirit’s gentleness and reverence for all life. We take comfort in the Spirit who strengthens our perseverance in the face of those who are against us. In the Spirit, Paul says, do good, even if you must suffer for it. Do not be led by the world or the flesh for indeed you have the Spirit now and you have been made new.

 In today’s Gospel passage Jesus prepares, as he always did, his disciples for the new life that was to come when he would no longer will be with them “If you love me”, he tells them, “you will keep my commandments.”

To keep is to do. Knowing Jesus is not enough. Desiring to love as Jesus loved is not enough. Only “doing love” as Jesus did love, Loving others first and unconditionally is enough.

 Jesus then tells them “You will not be alone, I will send you another Advocate”. This other Advocate, who will be sent by Jesus to continue his mission is the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete; defender, and counsel, helper and comforter. It is this new Advocate who will now guide them (as he does us) to all truth and who will walk beside them (and us) as Jesus did.

 And this is a good thing. Left alone, the disciples (and we ourselves) can not do what needs to be done. For the disciples, and us, there is a gap between desiring to love Jesus by keeping his commandments and the ability to do so. This gap, this “distance between” is the workspace where the Holy Spirit labors within us. It is the Holy Spirit with its fruits and gifts that bridges the gap between our desire to be-in-love with God and our ability to do so.

 Jesus then warns the disciples that the world does not (at least not very often) know the Truth. Because, the world does not know the Spirit and the Spirit is Truth. The reason the world does not know the Holy Spirit, Advocate and Paraclete, is because the Spirit confounds princes and principalities by its clarity and vision, confounds them by declaring what is right and just, confounds them by witnessing to Jesus, crucified and risen, confounds them by the pouring out of God’s excessive love into the world itself.

 “The world will no longer see me”, Jesus says, Jesus, now glorified and transcendent, will ascend into heaven, to sit at the right hand of God the Father. The world will no longer see Jesus, but the world will see and feel his effects upon it, as if darkness itself now sees the light.

But, do not be afraid “you will see me”, he consoles them, “because I now live in the Spirit and you too will live in the Spirit. And in the Spirit, the Father and the Son and those who keep his commandments are one.

 This “making one” is the work of the Holy Spirit. And think on this - through baptism we share in the life of the one Holy Spirit. And if we share in the life of the Holy Spirit we surely share in the work of the Spirit. If we share in the work of the Spirit, we share in the fruit (all fruit) of that work.

This includes, but is certainly not limited to, the sacramental life of the  Church, the bread and wine turning into body and blood, the gathering and binding together of the Body of Christ, the making Jesus present to us in the Spirit’s eternal now, which is beyond earthly space and time. Who would not want this for themselves, their spouse, their children, for every person of goodwill?

 “If you love me you will keep my commandment”. For in our loving without counting the cost or seeking anything in return, Jesus reveals himself to us. It is being in love with God that things are revealed which otherwise remain hidden.