Sunday after Ascension - 2 June 2019

My Friends,


The Holy Gospel: Saint Luke 24 v 46-53


Let us consider  the second offering from St Luke: his Gospel account in which we hear the sense of a beginning, the beginning of the Church. The Ascension was not the end of the Father’s work but heralded a new era in salvation history. The promised Spirit would bring the Church to birth, nurturing its growth in every generation. At his Ascension Jesus first commanded his disciples to wait, “until you are clothed with the power from on high”. So it is with us as we seek, through Christ’s intercession, to discern the Father’s purpose for our own lives and our own time because their work was not to be undertaken alone but with the aid of the Counsellor. So also our works cannot begin without the enabling presence of the Holy Spirit. We work and pray in the Name of Father, Son and Spirit each time we make the sign of the cross. Often, we are impatient for growth and new life, both in ourselves and in the Church. And yet such life can never come from our own initiative, but must always spring from the Spirit. For him, we must wait in prayerful patience; with the disciples in Jerusalem, a little while longer, for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

 If prayerful patience sounds a little glum to you, think again. After all, the disciples “went back to Jerusalem full of joy; and they were continually in the Temple praising God.” Christ has entered from earthly glory into the Father’s heavenly glory where He prepares a place for us and from where he intercedes for us until He comes again. And this Good News is not only worth talking about but worth celebrating!


 Father Ed Bakker,
 Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province,
 Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne,
 Launceston
 Tasmania
 Australia