You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you…
Are we ready to exercise the power of Christ’s love?
We are always in a state of misunderstanding. Faith can and will lead us to understanding, but it is a process, not a fiat. The early Christian community was left with many questions when Jesus ascended to heaven: When will he be back? How will he return? In the Acts of the Apostles, they ask outright, Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel? Before he ascends, Jesus needs them to finally recognize that his power is not intended to topple regimes but to win hearts. The power Jesus gives his disciples – and that he gives us – is the power to love and to love profoundly, to love past barriers. We are still working toward mastering this power.
It helps to remember, as Paul tells the Ephesians, that if the eyes of our hearts are enlightened, then we may know what is the hope that belongs to his call. Christ, in dying and rising, did the one thing that could bring salvation: he offered himself for all humanity, a superlative act of love that made him king eternally, seated at the right hand of God in the heavens. But the throne of which Psalm 47 sings, the throne God mounts to shouts of joy, is also and always, for Christians, the enthronement of Jesus Christ in us, for all eternity.
To believe this is to have true knowledge of him, which then empowers us – who, like the eleven disciples in Matthew’s Gospel, worship, though we doubt – to go and make disciples of all nations, revealing his love that we choose to participate in, secure in the love that makes him king of our hearts, with us always, until the end of the age.
This post is based on Fr. Pat’s Scripture Class.
Image source: www.wordclouds.com
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