But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
Acts 1:8
May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call. . .
Ephesians 1:18
In the first verse that jumped out at me from this week’s readings, we’re given a promise that I’ve long interpreted as a command that I was constantly failing to fulfill, a command that felt pretty close to impossible to fulfill.
The first verse does give us a mission, the mission — but not one that belongs to any one of us by ourselves. It’s one we fulfill in ways we don’t always understand because it is fulfilled not by us alone but by the Holy Spirit working through us. The reading from Ephesians reminds us of
the surpassing greatness of his power for us who believe, in accord with the exercise of his great might, which he worked in Christ, raising him from the dead and seating him at his right hand in the heavens, far above every principality, authority, power, and dominion, and every name that is named not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things beneath his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of the one who fills all things in every way [italics mine].
Ephesians 1:19-23
This letter is written to a group of people who have allowed Christ to have dominion over their lives and who rejoice in the power and the hope of being members of his body. They are members of the early church because they’ve learned and experienced that Jesus came to be the first resurrected one among them but not the last. Their destiny is to be resurrected like him, provided they empty themselves as he emptied himself.
I imagine they knew they needed to surrender whatever blocked the movement of the Holy Spirit within and among them.. I imagine they knew “the fullness of the one fills all things in every way,” who works where he has room to work and they wanted to give him lots of room because they were excited to be the body tasked with putting that faith that the Spirit inspires into action so that the body can thrive (Eph. 1:23). (It’s weird to me to use a gendered pronoun to describe the Spirit, which has nobody, but because Jesus does so in John 14:15-21, I’ve done so here.) To me, to thrive means to remain open and to grow, not to stagnate.
I feel the most open, the most consistently on a path of growth when I’m not settling for recounting someone else’s experience of the Spirit’s movement but looking for its movement within and around me and sharing what I experience and see. This sharing what I experience is my current understanding have of what it means to be a witness. A friend of mine once said that this understanding wasn’t completely different from being a witness in court or the witness of an accident. Should I find myself in these situations, I’m not called to repeat what I haven’t personally experienced.
So how can I experience the movement of the Holy Spirit within and around me so that I can be a witness to the life he offers? For me, this is where the second verse I started this post with comes in. I ask the Spirit “to enlighten [my] heart, that [I] may know the hope that belongs to his call” [italics mine] (Eph.1:18).
This knowing isn’t merely a process of the mind. It isn’t the result of memorization, though memorization can lay the groundwork for knowing with the heart. What we receive from those who came before us and those who journey with us, which is partly head knowledge, gives us words for naming our experiences and names for how those experiences relate to each other. This language gives us a means for interpreting our experiences and for putting them into perspective. Without the words we’ve been taught, we couldn’t share our heart knowing with one another. We would neither be able to name the heart knowledge we had in common, nor what is unique to each of our callings. And both the unique aspects and the shared ones are important facets of each person’s vocation and effectiveness as a witness.
Lord, teach me to have a humble spirit that’s open to Your wisdom and beauty so I can recognize and experience both in the people and places around me and share my experience of You with others. Amen.
The Bible.The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm
As I rejoin Jesus’ first followers, they have been praying behind locked doors, huddling in fear. In their time with Jesus, they’ve experienced hope, joy, grief, and fear. These experiences are repeated and shared in Christian life, and indeed, in human life.1 Peter reflects this reality, acknowledging, “now for a little while you may have to suffer through various trials, so that the genuineness of your faith . . . may prove to be for praise, glory, and and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ,” the perfect union with others in Him that is Heaven (1 Peter: 7). This union in its fullness won’t be revealed now, but is “ready to be revealed in [that] final time” (1 Peter: 5).
There are times, even prior to that perfect union, when the pouring out of Divine Love becomes apparent in overtly supernatural ways. One such occasion is when Jesus comes through that locked door into the room where the apostles are praying and breathes the Holy Spirit onto them. (To read a story based on John’s account of when the apostles received the Holy Spirit, follow this link to a post I wrote around this time last year.) Another comes later in the same chapter when Jesus comes again through the locked doors and shows Thomas his wounds (John 20: 26-28).
The other account of the descent of the Holy Spirit is in Acts. In Acts 2:4-11, The Spirit allows the apostles to speak languages they haven’t previously known. In my my imagination, they not only speak these languages but do so enthusiastically, animatedly — to the point where observers think they must be drunk (Acts 2: 13).
But they aren’t. What’s happened is the Holy Spirit has given the disciples what they need to fulfill their calling. They have new skills and greater understanding of what they’ve experienced. The Holy Spirit has replaced their grief and confusion with faith, joy, and generosity. The reading from Acts tells me, “All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and positions and divide them among all according to each one’s need” and that “[e]very day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area into breaking bread in their homes” (Acts 2: 44-45). The reading adds, “They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God and enjoying favor with all the people” (Act 2:46-47). This description doesn’t paint a picture of a reserved or sedately appreciative people. These people are overflowing with qualities that draw others to their community.
I read that “many signs and wonders were done through the apostles,” but it stands out to me that I read this after I read that the first Christians “devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles . . . to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers” (Act 2:42-43). It’s after I read this summary of what early Christian life was like that I’m told “Awe came upon everyone, and many signs and wonders were done through the apostles” (Acts 2:43) The passage doesn’t focus on these “signs and wonders” (Acts 2:43). Instead, it focuses on the wonders that come forth from the soil, along with the gifts of generosity, sincerity, faith, community, and joy. These qualities are just a few of the facets of God’s mercy. It isn’t made visible only through a single supernatural event. It “endures forever”(Psa. 118:4). It works in acts of sincerity, faith, gratitude, generosity, and joy and has immeasurable power to bring people along on a journey toward God.
Lord, I ask that the gifts of your Holy Spirit shine forth from me and from the communities in which I share so that they may draw everyone to You. Amen.
The Bible.The New American Bible Revised Edition, Kindle edition, Fairbrother, 2011.
Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc. “Sunday July, 2 2023: Readings at Mass.” The New American Bible, 2001. Universalis for Windows, Version 2.179, Universalis Publishing Ltd., 26 Feb. 2023, https://universalis.com/n-app-windows.htm
Sitting with the Sacred 