Sunday after Ascension 20.5.07 Prayer
The apostles spent a whole nine days praying between the time of the Ascension and Pentecost.
They were waiting for something to happen. They did not quite know what it would be but they prayed for it to happen anyway.
By this time they trusted Our Lord and His instructions.
We know what they were praying for and what happened – the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Yet, knowing this, we are not much wiser than they in terms of what happens next.
We also, as the whole Church, are constantly in a state of expectation and waiting for further activity from Heaven.
Waiting for instructions, waiting for grace, waiting for the right time.
When we look at the Scriptures we see a lot of examples of waiting (accompanied by praying). Times of fasting, long vigils of prayer (cf David for the life of his son; the Jews in Esther’s story; Hannah seeking a son)
Our Lord Himself waited 30 years to begin His public life. He began that public life by another 40 days in the desert.
Now we see the apostles waiting nine days for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
In all this we might ask: why doesn’t God speed things up. It took nearly two thousand years from the time of Abraham to the time of Our Lord. All that time the Israelites were waiting for a Messiah.
It has taken another 2000 years, and still counting, for Our Lord to come again.
Why does everything have to take so long?
One part of the answer must surely be that He is waiting for us to realize something.
To realize that we are meant to be a part of His plans, and not just leaving everything to Him.
He will act when we act. When we show that we have the maturity to trust in Him, to obey Him, to respond to Him – then the time is right.
The apostles had to wait for Pentecost because any earlier they would not have been ready.
It was not just when God was ready (which might have been sooner) but when the Church was ready to receive Him.
(The same no doubt could be suggested for the Incarnation and the Second Coming).
The apostles were praying, not so much to hurry God along, but to bring themselves to the boil, so God could take the next step.
And the same applies to us. We pray for all sorts of things to happen, and we sometimes wonder why they don’t happen. Where is God? Is He asleep? No, He is waiting for us to grow in maturity, to ripen in faith.
So we continue the prayer. Long, faithful, persistent prayer. Acknowledging God’s greatness, calling to mind His many favours of the past, and confidently expecting future blessings.
All the while, promising Him that we will be responsive to whatever He asks of us.
This is the tricky part. There are no limits to His power and goodness, but all sorts of limits and unpredictables about us.
Prayer is stating the obvious until it is obvious to us!
But even when it is obvious to us we still have to keep praying. We pray to get what we need, and then we pray in thanksgiving.
They still pray in heaven, and not only for us, but just for the sake of praying. Prayer is ultimately a state of union with God.
We cannot rest from prayer until we attain what we need. We cannot rest afterwards either.
The whole Church, in heaven and on earth, prays - in praise of God and for the fulfilment of His plans. Come Holy Ghost!
