To the Band of Brothers: May 14, 2024

I’m going to try to kill two birds with one stone. No easy task considering the birds. Even less easy when you consider the stone. The birds are the Ascension and Pentecost. The stone (or pebble) is this installment of the Band of Brothers. I may be biting off more than I can chew, considering both events rocked the universe and have thousands of books written about them. But I figure I can give a small reflection inspired by the Eighth-Grade Pin Mass celebrated last Thursday.

In case you don’t remember, our eighth graders receive a pin marking the end of their middle school years and in preparation for high school. It’s a rite of passage celebrated in the Our Lady of Belen Chapel. The Holy Spirit was on fire that night. I felt it in the air. I was sweating so profusely that I had to remove my glasses at one point because they kept slipping off my face. I later found out the air conditioner of the chapel had broken, something about a fan belt. I’m still convinced that even if those cooling units were blowing at maximum capacity, the fire of the Spirit would be there.

The Ascension of our Lord is well documented in Scripture. The gospels of Sts. Mark (16:19-20) and Luke (24:50-53) cover it, Acts of the Apostles (1:6-12) does the same, and some of the letters of St. Paul allude to it (e.g., Ephesians 1:20). Since the Bible tells us it took place 40 days after the Resurrection, it lands on a Thursday. The Archdiocese of Miami, however, like many other dioceses, pushes the celebration back to the following Sunday. They do this to get a wider Mass-attending audience. Pentecost (from the Greek word meaning “50th day”), which celebrates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, lands appropriately the following Sunday. That means this week, we are comfortably snuggled between two Christian juggernaut feasts.

And here is where I see one powerful connection.

The ascension of Jesus into heaven was not simply a well-deserved compensation for his extraordinary service to the realm. It wasn’t only an exclamation point to a powerful statement that was the life of Jesus Christ. The ascension was a necessary exit of the second person of the Trinity in order to unleash upon mankind the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. This gift, which Jesus promised the Apostles on several occasions, was only made available when he made his way back to the first person of the Trinity, the Father. Like a present labeled “Don’t Open Until Christmas!”, the Holy Spirit was a powerful gift only to be released after Jesus was gone.

That Spirit is real. How else would you explain how a group of uneducated and unskilled individuals huddled and hiding in a room out of fear would go out into the world and preach the gospel of Jesus Christ so courageously? Did you know that all of them, except for St. John, were killed violently for preaching everywhere the gospel of Jesus Christ? This ragtag team of fishermen, tax collectors, and zealots were either crucified, thrown from the top of buildings, flayed, and beheaded because they wouldn’t back down from proclaiming that Jesus rose from the dead.

Chuck Colson (1931-2012), an American attorney and political advisor who served as special counsel to President Richard Nixon, who was jailed for his participation in the Watergate scandal, once said after his conversion to Christianity: “I know the Resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Watergate embroiled twelve of the most powerful men in the world and they couldn’t keep a lie for three weeks. You’re telling me that twelve apostles could keep a lie for forty years? Absolutely impossible.” That, my friends, was the Holy Spirit!

This is the very same Spirit that sustains us today. The Holy Spirit is a part of our lives and intimately involved in everything we do. The Holy Spirit is not simply a gift given to the Apostles some 2,000 years ago who quickly exited once Christianity took root. No! It is the same exact Spirit that today breathes life into the Church and breathes life in each and every single one of us. The key is to open our hearts and our eyes and our minds to realizing it is the Spirit that moves us. 

When you stand up to a bully and defend the bullied, it is the Holy Spirit who has given you courage. When you give food to the hungry or water to the thirsty or clothing to the naked, it is the Holy Spirit that has given you compassion. When you are faithful to your spouse or generous with your friends, it is the Holy Spirit that has given you love. When you are able to face illness or unemployment or failure, it is the Holy Spirit that has given you trust and peace. And when you are chosen from among 219 eighth-graders to deliver a speech on behalf of your class at the Pin Mass (Adrian Vidal ’28), it was the Holy Spirit that has chosen you. 

The Spirit unleashed after the ascension of Jesus and celebrated at Pentecost is part of God’s divine plan for the salvation and sanctification of the whole world. We need to be more aware of His presence among us. Don’t let grace be reduced to words of chance like “luck” or “coincidence.” That would take credit away from the Holy Spirit. Let’s give credit where credit is due.

Auspice Maria,