by Fr. Tommy Lane
You go on vacation every year and I do also. We need time away to recharge our batteries and replenish our energy. Many of you tell me where you go on vacation, and you go to all sorts of interesting places. As well as going on vacation every year, priests and religious also go on vacation with the Lord—it is called a retreat. Priests and Sisters take this holiday with the Lord every year, but an increasing number of lay people also take this holiday with the Lord—a retreat, every year. Why? The pace of life is such now that we need a quiet time to spend with the Lord, loving him and soaking up his love and reflecting on our lives and where we’re going. We all need our private space and time apart, our time with the Lord.
After Jesus’ ascension, the apostles returned to the upper room where they had celebrated the Last Supper and they gathered in prayer with Mary and others. They needed time apart after Jesus’ ascension. It was like a time of retreat for them. Before his ascension, Jesus said to them to stay in the city until they would be clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). Jesus promised that he would send them a Comforter or Advocate—the Holy Spirit. So, they spent these days on retreat praying for the Holy Spirit. Although, after his ascension, Jesus was no longer with them as he had been, he continued to be with them when they celebrated the Eucharist and was with them through his Spirit whom they received at Pentecost after this time of prayer together.
Remembering Mary, the apostles, and others gathered in prayer for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, reminds us of the importance of praying for what we need. While prayer makes us more open to God and helps us respond better to God’s grace in our lives, we also believe that God’s love leads him to hear and answer our prayers of petition. We greatly admire the faith of people who pray to God every day for a request and a long time afterwards have their prayer answered. People often ask priests and sisters to pray for their intentions and ask priests to offer Mass for their intentions; that is good, but it is also good that each of us prays for ourselves. Don’t you all leave it to me to pray for your intentions; you should all pray for your intentions. Jesus himself taught the importance of asking God for what we need: “Ask and it will be given to you; search and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For the one who asks always receives; the one who searches always finds; the one who knocks will always have the door opened to him.” (Luke 11:9-10) Once Jesus told a parable about someone visiting his friend in the middle of the night looking for bread because he had a surprise visitor. Although the friend did not want to get up, Jesus said persistence will be enough to make him get up and give his friend all he wants (Luke 11:5-8). In that parable, Jesus taught us to keep asking God for what we want. So please pray.
Is prayer wasting time instead of doing something good? We need both work and prayer in our lives. Remember what Jesus said to Martha who was busy serving Jesus while Mary sat listening at his feet: “Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so many things and yet few are needed, indeed only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part and it shall not be taken from her.” (Luke 10:41-42). If we do not pray every day, there is a huge void in our lives, and we cannot hope to be happy.
Not all prayers are answered, or I should say, not answered in the way we want. Even though not all prayers are answered in the way we desire, hopefully we can see that we have received graces we probably would not have received had those prayers been answered as we wished. We have plans and sometimes our plans are not fulfilled. Our lives can sometimes revolve around ‘me’ or ‘I’ or ‘myself. God has still more wonderful plans for us if we will allow them to be fulfilled. It is only in the next life that we will fully understand God’s plans. Even after Jesus’ resurrection, some of Jesus’ disciples still did not understand his kingdom and asked him when he would restore the kingdom to Israel, as we heard in the first reading for the Ascension (Acts 1:6). They still believed he was a Messiah to drive out the Romans from Israel and did not yet fully understand that he was a Messiah to save us from our sins. They understood Jesus only when they received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. They needed the grace of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost to fully understand Jesus. Like them, when we wait in prayer like Mary, the apostles, and the others before Pentecost, we will receive graces from prayer that otherwise we would not receive.
During this week before Pentecost, I ask you to please pray like Mary, the apostles, and the others, for a renewed outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church and on all of us that we may respond to God better. Pray that our celebration of Pentecost will lead to the Church being strengthened by God’s Spirit. As well as going on holiday every year, why not give some thought to taking a holiday with the Lord by going on a retreat?
Lord God, you promised not to leave us orphaned but to remain with us always. Be with us in our confusion and disappointment when we do not know what to do. Grant that we may hear your call to silence and prayer, and withdraw to our “upstairs room.” There we ask you to pour out on us afresh your Holy Spirit that we may be better witnesses to you in our families, parishes, and places of work.
Copyright © Fr. Tommy Lane 2001
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More material for the Seventh Sunday of Easter
Waiting in prayer for the Holy Spirit: intercessory prayer
Related Homilies: Gathered around Our Lady after Jesus’ ascension 2018
Praying together before Pentecost 2021