These are powerful words. In the book of Acts too, we read that Jesus told them to wait for what the Father had promised and that they would soon be baptised with the Holy Spirit.
I find it interesting to ponder why there is a time gap between Jesus’s ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. What is the significance of this time? I sense it may be a time of inner preparation, of deepening desire; of opening ourselves more fully to receive the gift of the Spirit. Longing opens up space inside of us.
In the days after the Ascension the disciples needed time and space to take in and process all they had experienced in their encounters with Jesus in the days after his resurrection. They needed to be readied to be missioned and sent out by the Holy Spirit. They wait together in the upper room in Jerusalem, the place where they had celebrated the last supper. It is a place suffused with
significant memories. Memories of having their feet washed, of Jesus breaking the bread; of the appearance of the Risen Lord. As they waited, they prayed together, sharing memories and reminding each other of what Jesus had promised. Not knowing when it would happen, or how long they would need to wait.
Sometimes waiting is to allow space for continued healing and strengthening. God does not rush things, but lovingly allows us the time needed. When the Spirit comes, the disciples will enter a new time of being sent to bear witness to what they themselves have experienced, preaching and living the good news publicly with all the implications of the risks and dangers that are part of
that. This in-between time is a vitally important time of inner preparation for each one and for the community. A time to allow the whole impact of their relationship with Jesus and then the encounters with their Risen Lord to reverberate in them and to settle in their being.
For us too, we are given the space to hold the ways in which we have experienced the Lord, and for a longing to deepen in us to enable others to share in that gift. We wait, trusting that in the waiting and longing for the Spirit we are being prepared to share more fully in Christ’s mission.
What in my experience of the Risen Lord do I need to stay with and allow to deepen in these days?
Can I pray for God to deepen my desire in these days so that the space within me can be expanded for God’s Holy Spirit to fill me anew?
