Reflection on Acts 1:5.8
Jesus said these words on the Mount of Olives on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, when ascending into His glory before the eyes of the apostles and disciples. Jesus emphasized that the apostles needed to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. They had already received Him on the Day of Christ’s Resurrection but not in fullness.
Jesus also told the apostles to stay in the city of Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit descended on them in fullness (cf. Lk 24:49). “…until you are endued with power from on high.”
Almost all of you, dear believers, have received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enlightens our mind and strengthens our will, that we may be true witnesses of our Lord Jesus Christ!
We know from experience that just as it was not enough for the apostles to have a one-time spiritual experience of receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit – the baptism with the Holy Spirit, as the Scripture says – so also it is not enough for us either (Jn 1:33). We need to walk in the Holy Spirit – it means to seek the will of God and to do it by faith. In general, the will of God is revealed to us in God’s commandments. Jesus says: “He who keeps My commandments, it is he who loves Me … We will come to him and make Our home with him.”(Jn 14) To keep His commandments, we again need the strength and light of the Holy Spirit. If we are faithful, the Spirit of God will guide us into the mystery of Christ’s cross and His suffering as well as into the mystery of true deliverance from the sin in us, which is only possible in Christ. No theologian, not even a holy one, let alone heretical, can teach us to put these fundamental truths into practice. Only the Holy Spirit can teach us to walk in the Spirit. But we have to be humble, willing to learn. I repeat: willing to learn rather than proud or egocentric. Walking in the Holy Spirit is a lifelong way. The way of following Christ, the way of unity with Christ, the way of a spiritual fight with sin in us and around us as well as a fight against the forces of darkness (Eph 6:12f). The receiving of the Holy Spirit is the beginning, which each of us experiences once in our life; however, walking in the Spirit means to renew the receiving of the Holy Spirit time and again and to do the will of God. However, this is not by our own might but by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Let us return to the Bible verse – the words of Christ: the word witness is referred to as martyr in the Greek original. This word means both a witness and a martyr. All the apostles were martyrs for Christ and His Gospel. The term power is referred to as dynamis in the Greek original of Scripture. It expresses great power (e.g. dynamite). Today every true Catholic believer needs the light because we live in a time when the spirit of lies has caused the inner decay of the Church through heresies. Most shepherds do not serve Christ but antichrist; they do not lead the souls to heaven but to hell. The present time calls for extraordinary heroism. We cannot and must not be in unity with those who are in unity with heresies, be it even members of our own family. We have to bear patiently this separation and pray for them but we cannot be conformed in false humility to the spirit of heresy which keeps them in deceit, for this would be no love but rather betrayal. Let us follow the example of the apostles, prophets and millions of martyrs who not only suffered humiliation but even laid down their lives for the sake of Christ.
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