From the Sunday Note, with additional thoughts–
He presented himself alive to them
by many proofs after he had suffered,
appearing to them during forty days
and speaking about the kingdom of God.
While meeting with them,
he enjoined them not to depart from Jerusalem,
but to wait for “the promise of the Father
about which you have heard me speak;
for John baptized with water,
but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”
When they had gathered together they asked him,
“Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He answered them, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons
that the Father has established by his own authority.
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.”
When he had said this, as they were looking on,
he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight.
Acts 1:3-9 from the first reading for the Solemnity of the Ascension
“Forty days” was conventional phrasing, like “a month or so” in English. Substantial time, not merely a few days. Long enough for everyone to get over their amazement at the Resurrection and to face their doubts about who he was. (“What did I eat over the weekend? Is it affecting my brain? Is this just some wild, emotional idea spreading through my relatives? Etc.)
It is Jesus. (“He is alive. If anything, he is even more of what he was before the crucifixion—the god-awfullest way to kill a man the Romans have, and we all saw him die by it—yet there is something MORE about him now than there was before! More, but all along the same track, if you catch my meaning… .”)
Over forty days his followers have assimilated that fact. He is alive, vindicated by the Father in heaven who loves him. But about everything else they tend to revert to their previously inadequate understanding: “okay, then, now does he restore Israel as a kingdom?”
He flatly tells them, as to now, no. In fact, “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.” This, for two reasons, I think. First, if he gave a timetable, it would undermine and distort human choices all along the way. No need to clean up the house today if you know mom and dad won’t be back for 3 more days, for instance. Second, Jesus knows his human followers need time to begin to absorb and accept God’s vast idea of what “kingdom” means and what “restoring” will actually cost them, too.
Jesus’ Ascension leaves them to their thoughts and prayers and communal conversations for ten days, at which point he will send the Holy Spirit to empower them for the task he has prepared them for: going about everywhere, enlarging the Kingdom by calling people to faith in Christ, the Risen One.
Ten days later, at Pentecost, a harvest festival, God’s Holy Spirit cascades down upon them and the harvest begins.
For further reflection
As long as Jesus was with them as he was after the Resurrection, they would naturally expect him to give them orders, day-by-day, as he had through the training period of his public ministry. Now it was necessary that they step away from that privileged time back into the ordinary time of human history. Now they would have to make decisions and spread the Good News in a human way that could not depend upon Jesus immediately directing and orchestrating their every move. Jesus would empower the movement and send them His Spirit to give them discernment and guidance, but in a way that relied simultaneously upon free human choices and decisions. Thus giving those free human choices and decisions tremendous importance for all peoples in our world. He prepared them. He gave them ongoing helps. And he left them the ability to be true–or less than true–to everything he wants done. And here we are–it is our turn.
Please note:
Listening to the Lord will be on hiatus for a couple of weeks. Family visiting. Lord willing, it will return May 31.
Enjoy your family!