Verse: “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”
After our daughter finished high school in Ecuador, I accompanied her to Pennsylvania to help her get settled for the university studies she was about to commence.
As soon as I left her, I started feeling this pain that I could only relate to the pain I experienced when my parents passed away. The realization that we were going to be separated, in time and distance, and that I would not be able to be with her in quite some time felt like it punctured a hole in my heart. The 6-hour flight back alone to Quito felt excruciating.
I wonder if the apostles felt something similar when Jesus departed from them. For sure they had His promise to return and that He would always be with them… “to the end of the Age.” Nevertheless, I perceive that they would still have felt devastated. After all, they had not yet been “baptized with the Holy Spirit” and received his power. That walk back to Jerusalem must have been a sad and quiet one.
Fortunately, they were not alone. They had Our Mother, the Virgin Mary, to sustain and encourage them while they were waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. What a Godcidence that today we have the Feast of the Ascension of Our Lord (though in Canada will be celebrated this Sunday) and the commemoration of the first apparition of Our Lady of Fatima to the three little shepherds. It is like a reminder that we are never alone. Whenever we lose sight of Jesus, Mary is there to help us find Him again. She is like the moon that has no light of her own but reflects all the light she receives from Jesus, the sun.
Beloved brothers and sisters, let us invite Mary to accompany us while we together wait for Pentecost. Moreover, I urge you to prepare for the coming of the Holy Spirit following the novena starting tomorrow, Friday. “It is the oldest of all novenas since it was made at the direction of Our Lord Himself when He sent His apostles back to Jerusalem to await the coming of the Holy Spirit on the first Pentecost. It is still the only novena officially prescribed by the Church. Addressed to the Third Person of the Blessed Trinity, it is a powerful plea for the light and strength and love so sorely needed by every Christian.”