Waiting to celebrate Pentecost

Yesterday we celebrated the feast of the Ascension, the return of Jesus to his Father. He would no longer be physically present on earth as he had been with his disciples. You would think they would be very sad at his leaving but Luke's gospel tells us that ''they returned to Jerusalem with great joy,'' (Luke 24:52). He had told them that he would return in a little while to be with them forever. In the Liturgy we are spending the ''little time'' of this week as we wait to celebrate the return of Jesus in his Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At the first Pentecost the disciples rejoiced that Jesus had kept his promise to return to be with them through the Spirit. In today's first reading (Acts 19:1-8) we receive a wake-up call. Paul visited a group of disciples in Ephesus. ''Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?'' he asked them. ''No,'' they said, ''we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.'' They had only received the baptism of John. So Paul baptized them in the name of Jesus and when he laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. We have heard of the Holy Spirit and have been baptized in his name, but this week leading up to Pentecost is a special time to know him better. Let us make the prayer of Dag Hammarskjold our own as we ask the Holy Spirit to bring Jesus to us. ''Give me a pure heart that I may see you, a humble heart that I may hear you, a loving heart that I may serve you and a faithful heart that I may abide in you.''