“Whatever we are waiting for — peace of mind, contentment, grace, the inner awareness of simple abundance — it will surely come to us, but only when we are ready to receive it with an open and grateful heart.” ~ Sarah Ban Breathnach
In many ways, these next weeks of the Easter season are a “waiting game” of sorts. We have celebrated the resurrection of the Lord for the past several weeks. Now, we await the celebration of the Ascension. After that feast, we wait one more week for the culmination of the Easter season: the Feast of Pentecost.
The apostles probably thought that they would never make it to Pentecost. When Jesus ascended to heaven, He said goodbye to them. He told them that His mission was complete on earth and that His mission was being handed over to them. They had great anxiety both about His leaving as well as His entrusting the mission to them. How were they going to carry it out? But Jesus was not going to leave them in a lurch. He promised to send the Spirit.
Knowing that there was a promise but not knowing what the Spirit would really be able to do for them was probably even more nerve shattering. All they could do was wait and see.
We know, from the perspective of history, that the Holy Spirit, indeed, descended upon the apostles in the upper room on that day of Pentecost and that it gave everyone the courage needed to proclaim the Good News. We also know that the same Spirit has been promised to us. We celebrate our reception of that Spirit in baptism and a full measure of it in confirmation. However, for many, we still “wait and see” what the Spirit will prompt us to do.
We spend our lives waiting. Sometimes, we miss what it was we were waiting for because we allowed ourselves to become distracted.
As we wait for the coming of Pentecost, this would be a good time to clear our minds, hearts, and souls of the distractions that we often place in our lives so that, when the Lord speaks to us, we may be ready to listen and to receive the help we need in great abundance.
FAITH ACTION: Ask God to give you the patience that you need while you wait to understand what it is He wants of you.