“It is better for you that I go…” (John 16:7).
A midnight earthquake that releases prisoners is clearly a metaphor for the continuing power of the resurrection. by Luke Acts of the Apostles intends to tell the gospel story of Jesus in the life of the early church. What he did – preach, heal and raise from the dead – the disciples do too. When Paul and Silas are beaten and imprisoned for preaching about Jesus at Philippi, the foundation of an old reality shifts and opens up to release new life and freedom. (Acts 16:22ff). The world is taking a somersault. The gospel cannot be chained down, and the new creation revealed in Jesus’ death and resurrection cannot be repressed.
Jesus prepares his apostles for his departure: “It is better for you that I go away, because when I leave, I will send the Advocate to you”. The absence of Jesus is necessary to open in them the space which will receive the Holy Spirit. Like music needs silence, love needs nostalgia. We say “absence makes the heart grow fonder”. In fact, couples often don’t know they are in love until the separation occurs. It is the pain of absence that reveals how important the other has become in their lives. Loneliness becomes the space in the heart that contains the mutual love that unites them.
Grief, loss and soul-searching, the deepest unfinished prayer the disciples ever endured in the dark interval after Jesus’ departure, is what becomes the foundation of the Church at Pentecost. He comes back to them in wind, fire and an earthquake.
We who believe in Jesus and have made his life, death and resurrection the story of our own existence. We are going to enter the liturgical time between Ascension and Pentecost. Jesus must go to come back in the Holy Spirit. It is a sacred moment of expectation and longing before something new and wonderful is born.