Watching and Waiting for the Gift of the Spirit

The stage is set for the end. It seems that there is always something coming to an end, and this time of year is no exception. There is the end of the school year, the end of spring is just around the corner, and the stage is set for the end of the Easter Season. But the end of one thing is always the beginning of something new.

During Holy Week we recalled the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. We remembered how one human being was caught up into the Divine Mystery in such a way that a difference was made in God, and in humanity. God was no longer a God who was adored from a distance; now the Eternal God is one of us forever. The end of Jesus’ life was the beginning of life for all of creation in God. What God has done in Jesus is the promise for all of humanity: fidelity to the Word of God will bring us eternal life. It is this that will be the measure for our judgement. Jesus’ passion revealed to us how God is a God with us, even in moments of utter defeat and rejection. Jesus’ cry on the cross was not something done for the reader of the gospel; it was a real cry of feeling abandoned by God in the most empty moment of his life. But God was not far from him. In fact God was with him throughout the ordeal and won out over the apparent defeat of Love. God raised Jesus, and in so doing, raised all of us to the exalted place of his sons and daughters. The end of Jesus’ life was the beginning of life forever in God.

The season of Easter is not about flowers and bunny rabbits. It’s about life for all of creation in God. What God has assumed into his very self was what we celebrated this week: all of creation is brought into the heart of God; the human and the frail is wedded forever with the Divine and the eternal.

We began Easter with hope; we end it with more hope. The writer of the Book of Revelation shares with us his vision of the New Jerusalem. It is not just something that comes from above and is imposed on us. The New Jerusalem is made now, here amid the muck and the mire of daily life. The promise of Jesus’ resurrection is what we have been baptised into. A life of death, yes. But a life of love and unity based on the relationship of Jesus with his Father.

We draw close to the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost next week. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead is present, offering us the same offer given to Jesus. If we have heard anything this Easter, we have heard that we are to be Jesus’ love for our broken world, a brokenness that was very evident in the past seven weeks. Just as the Spirit unites the Father and the Son in a relationship of Justice and Peace, we are united with one another in the same Spirit that is as close as the air we breath. The unity Jesus speaks about is not far fetched. Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Morning Star in the night darkness. May his light burn brightly in all our hearts.