Wait a minute – come back here!

Dear Friends,
Does this exhortation from the mysterious “men in white garments” mentioned in the first reading from Acts seem a bit brusque to you?

     Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return       in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.

I imagine that the apostles, still reeling from the events of Good Friday and Easter and overwhelmed with awe and wonder at the privilege of encountering Jesus in his post-resurrection appearances, might have been a bit startled when he was “lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.” Maybe you are like me: I sometimes need Jesus to be a bit more real, more definite, more substantive than the abstract idea of a savior who once walked the earth but is now in a place (it seems) I can’t get to him. Like the little kid who, upon waking from a nightmare, is told by a sleepy parent that God is watching over him. He responds that he needs “a God with skin on.” While the promise that he will return in the same way is comforting, still, it’s been a long time, and no one knows the day or the hour.

What I also infer here from the “why are you standing there looking at the sky” question is a strong implication that the apostles (and we!) should quit standing around and get to work building up the kingdom. We know what that meant for the apostles and we are the beneficiaries. But what does it mean for us? For me, it is a mystery that unfolds one day, sometimes one minute at a time. I know I am to minister Jesus Christ to those whose paths cross mine. I suspect that it is in ordinary life where the rubber really meets the road. St Paul’s prayer and hope for the church of Ephesus (see the second reading) is a prayer for all of us who are trying to follow Jesus Christ:

     May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call...

Jesus’ gift of the Holy Spirit is the answer to St. Paul’s prayer, and to all of our prayers for wisdom, courage and guidance. Confirmation, which we celebrated recently with our young people, is a celebration of the release of the gifts of the Holy Spirit which they (and we) received in baptism. It is by means of the Holy Spirit that Jesus fulfills his promise to the apostles and to us, made just before his ascension into heaven:

     And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age. 

​Siempre Adelante.


Dominic MacAller
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Director of Liturgy and Music 

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