Become a Powder Keg
The Monday Mystery Part 18: The Descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost
And they were all filled with the holy Spirit… (Acts 2:4)
Welcome to the eighteenth entry of The Monday Mystery. Each week I will write a reflection on a mystery (i.e. an episode in the life of Jesus or Mary) from the Rosary. My hope for this series is to provide fuel and inspiration for your own meditations. When you finish reading the reflection, I encourage you to do a ‘test run’ of the mystery by praying a decade of the Rosary (i.e. one Our Father, ten Hail Marys, and one Glory Be) while meditating on the mystery.
Last week I noted how odd Jesus’ words and actions were at the time of his Ascension. Shortly after telling someone you’ll always be with them is a strange time to definitively disappear. It’s ‘huh?’ inducing, even by Jesus’ standards. Although Jesus had spent considerable time with the disciples in the previous forty days, there’s no indication they saw this coming. Even after everything that had happened, they were still hung up on whether and when Jesus would restore the kingdom to Israel.
Jesus’ abrupt departure was not only confusing, but also highly inconvenient, to put it mildly. He had left behind an enormous mission; nothing less than the evangelization of the whole world. And he left behind a million and one unfilled-in gaps. In his essay From Christendom to Apostolic Mission, Msgr. James Shea illustrates how comically ill equipped the disciples were:
One can imagine them gathering for their first “evangelization committee meeting.”
Our Agenda: To bring the Gospel of Christ to the world.
Our Resources:
Bishops? Eleven.
Priests? Same number.
Deacons? None.
Trained theologians? None.
Religious orders? None.
Seminarians? None.
Seminaries? None.
Christian believers? A few hundred.
Countries with Christians in them? One.
Church buildings? None.
Schools and universities? None.
Written Gospels? None.
Money? Very little.
Experience in foreign missions? None.
Influential contacts in high places? Next to none.
Societal attitude toward us? Ignorant to hostile.
There’s a saying: If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” Imagine the disciples going to this meeting with flow charts, sociological analyses, sales scripts, and marketing plans. Even the cleverest and most hip Ted-Talker couldn’t make their job sound doable. So how did the disciples respond to what was perhaps the greatest ‘what now?’ moment in world history?
Many get this question wrong. They attempt to accentuate the impact of Pentecost by saying things like “the disciples went from cowering in the upper room to bold proclaimers of the Gospel.” That sounds nice, but it’s not true that the disciples were cowering. After Jesus ascended into heaven (and before Pentecost) the disciples “…returned to Jerusalem with great joy and they were continually in the temple praising God” (Luke 24:52).
What changed between the resurrection and the ascension? How were the disciples able to joyfully face yet another discombobulating turn of events leading to yet another impossible situation? Another common misconception about Pentecost is that this was where the disciples first received the Holy Spirit. But that had already happened in the upper room:
Jesus said to them again,“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them,“Receive the holy Spirit (John 20:21-22).
Far from cowering in the upper room, the disciples were now peacefully and prayerfully following Jesus’ commandment to “…stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.” To paraphrase the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, the disciples had accepted that their situation was impossible, but they had truly come to believe in a power greater than themselves, and they had fully turned their lives and their wills over to him. They had no trust in themselves, and full trust in God.
When someone is able to truly and sincerely reach this point, they become a powder keg. God sees and understands that he will be able to work fully and purely in and through us. He sees that his efforts will not be diluted by our ‘bright ideas;’ the good he does will not be tainted by our selfish motives, and his timeline will not be delayed by our laziness.
Ninety nine point nine percent of people don’t make it to this point. The point one percent that do change the world. We began this marathon series of reflections by considering Mary. Her openness to God, her ‘fiat’ changed the history of Heaven and Earth, opening the door for Jesus to come into the world.
And all of this to say nothing of Jesus’ fiat. From all eternity he has existed to love the Father and fulfill his will. In John Jesus says, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).
The opposite of all of this, and the greatest obstacle in the spiritual life is pride. Pride (not to be confused with a healthy self confidence) tells me that I do not need God, or other people. My ideas are the best, and my priorities are the most important. When we are prideful, we replace God, first by lowering him in our list of priorities, and then by trying to become him.
The disciples had many advantages when it comes to avoiding pride. Their ideas and their priorities - their many petty attempts at self aggrandizement and their narrow sectarian religious preconceptions - had been utterly confounded many times over. They had the privilege of Jesus’ physical risen presence, and of receiving the Holy Spirit from him.
Perhaps their most under-appreciated advantage was the impossibility of their situation. We all long for a comfortable, and stable life. And we are not wrong for wanting that. Paul instructs us to pray for those in authority “…that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way” (1 Tim 2:2). As good and desirable as this is, it’s much easier to see through the illusion of self sufficiency when we can see right before our eyes that we need God’s help.
The psalms reveal this powder-keg mentality: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God (Psalm 20:8). It’s no secret that the world is in trouble. We have war and terrorism, economic hardships, nasty political and social divisions, collapsing families, a tsunami of addiction and mental health challenges and many more. And where is the Church? She is at her weakest point in recent history at the very moment the world needs her the most. She is wracked by scandal, mediocrity, mismanagement, hypocrisy, and plummeting attendance.
How did we get here? How do we get out? The answer is that too many people said they trusted God to fly the plane, but then snuck a parachute on board. They looked to the world and other people for what only God could give them, and they extinguished the fire God was hoping to light through them. I believe things will begin to turn around when our culture can genuinely pray the following:
-‘Some trust in their savings account, and some in their investments, but we trust in the name of the Lord.’
-‘Some trust in their military, and some in their nuclear arsenals, but we trust in the name of the Lord.’
-‘Some trust in their training, and some in their talents, but we trust in the name of the Lord.’
-‘Some trust in their comfort, and some in their recreation, but we trust in the name of the Lord’
-‘Some trust in whether people like them, and some in whether they are respected, but we trust in the name of the Lord.’
Before doing your test run, I encourage you to take a few minutes to read the entire narrative of Pentecost (Acts 2). It’s one of the most remarkable and explosive moments in the Bible. It may have been a surprise, but it didn’t happen by accident. The disciples weren’t equipped, but they were ready to be clothed with power from on high. As you pray, consider how these events were ignited by the apostles obedient and joyful waiting on the Lord. If your spiritual life has become stagnant, ask Jesus and Mary to guide you into a right relationship with the Father, and into a place where you are ready to be clothed with power from on high.. May God bless you as you pray.