The Spirit of the Conqueror

WORD 2day: Monday after Ascension 

May 22, 2023: Acts 19:1-8; John 16: 29-33

No one probably understood Jesus when he was around. They were only making their guesses, putting together things that they saw, the things they heard and the things that were being reported. Today in the Gospel, as many other times, Jesus confronts them with the truth! When the disciples presume that they knew and understood what Jesus was saying, Jesus makes them realise their folly and their weakness - not out of despise - but out of genuine concern. 

They still had not known the Spirit, as those men of Ephesus whom we come across in the first reading. Jesus introduces to them and speaks to us of the continuous presence of God, which is the indwelling Spirit. It is with the coming of the Spirit that the apostles come to understand Jesus and Him, they become conquerors.

From this day, for a week we shall prepare ourselves towards the coming of the Spirit of Christ, the paraclete promised. We are invited to contemplate this Spirit of the Lord, who will make of us too, "conquerors of the world and all its viles"!