Holy Patience

7th Sunday of Easter - Acts 1:12-14

After Jesus had been taken up to heaven the apostles
returned to Jerusalem
from the mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem,
a sabbath day’s journey away.

When they entered the city
they went to the upper room where they were staying,
Peter and John and James and Andrew,
Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew,
James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot,
and Judas son of James.
All these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,
together with some women,
and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.

Even though it is the divinely inspired Word of God chosen by the Church for us to read at Mass this week, that was kind of a boring First Reading, am I right? It is essentially just a catalog of the eleven Apostles who remained after Judas’ suicide during Holy Week. Yet even without obviously relevant words or soaring rhetoric about the spiritual life, the Spirit still whispers to us through these words. 

After the Ascension, the Apostles go and wait with Jesus’ mom and some other believing women. The Apostles are listed almost exclusively in pairs, begging the question: were these the pairs who went out two by two during Jesus’ ministry? The names and number of the Apostles were important to the Early Church. Afterall, the highly symbolic number twelve was also the number chosen by Jesus. He could have stopped at seven or ten or gone on to seventy-two, but he made the conscious choice of twelve. He also called them each by name, the very names listed here. The catalog of Apostles is a unique expression of Jesus’ willful choice while on earth. 

Jesus told the Apostles, “stay in the city [of Jerusalem] until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). He gave them the Great Commission to go transform the world, and then told them to wait. Wait? Wait. There is such a thing as holy zeal to do the will of God, but there is also such a thing as holy patience. As a hardwired achiever, the idea of waiting grates against me. As fellow members of our microwave culture with free same-day shipping, it probably grates a bit on you too. And yet Jesus tells them to stay put before they go out.

During this great pause before activating their own ministries, they “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,” which is the greatest waiting activity of all time. In those ten days from Ascension to Pentecost, they filled the ranks of Apostles, a decision infused with prayer (see Acts 1:24-25), by electing Matthias to replace Judas Iscariot (see Acts 1:15-26). Jesus’ choice of twelve was important, and so it was important to get back to twelve. Once they were at full strength during this prayerful waiting, the Spirit fell upon them.

Is the Lord calling you to wait for something now? Are you in a spiritual pause of your own? How dedicated to prayer are you during this pregnant pause? Jesus has made deliberate choices in your life, and he has called you by name into something that may not be fully revealed just yet or may not be what you thought it would be. This week, the Spirit reminds us to be patient, to stick close to fellow believers whom we know by name, and to be dedicated to prayer.