We interrupt our series of Easter Letters to reflect on this Sunday between Ascension Day and the Day of Pentecost.
There are two strange pauses in the course of the Church Year.
One is the terrible and empty pause between Good Friday and Easter, when Jesus is dead and buried, and with him every hope.
The second strange pause is the one we're in now— the strange pause between the Ascension and Pentecost, when Jesus is no longer with us, and the Holy Spirit is not yet with us.
So what are we to do in this meantime? We are to do what The Acts of the Apostles tells us the disciples did— devote ourselves to prayer (Acts 1:14).
And what we pray is our Collect for today:
"O God, the King of glory,
you have exalted your only Son Jesus Christ with great triumph
to your kingdom in heaven:
Do not leave us comfortless,
but send us your Holy Spirit to strengthen us,
and exalt us to that place
where our Savior Christ has gone before. . . ."
Our Church has been praying this prayer on this Sunday between the Ascension and Pentecost ever since the very first Book of Common Prayer published in 1549.
And the story behind why we pray this prayer is a touching one.
The Venerable Bede was a monk and priest who lived in England from about the year 673 until 735.
Many consider him the greatest scholar of his time in the Western Church.
He wrote commentaries on the Scriptures, but more importantly he is known as "the Father of English History."
He was also much beloved.
It is from Bede that we learn the wonderful story of how Saint Gregory the Great, who sent Augustine to Canterbury as the apostle to the English, first became interested in such a mission.
The story goes that Gregory came upon a slave market, and saw a group of fair-haired and fair-complexioned boys being sold.
Bede writes that Gregory asked,
"'What is the name of this race?'
"'They are called Angles," he was told.
"'That is appropriate,' he said, 'for they have angelic faces, and is right that they should become joint-heirs with the angels in heaven.
"'And what is the name of the province from which they have been brought?'
"'Deira,' was the answer.
"'Good. They shall indeed be rescued de ira— from wrath— and called to the mercy of Christ.
"'And what is the name of their king?'
"'Aelle,' he was told.
"'Then,' said Gregory, 'making a play on the name, 'it is right that their land should echo the praise of God our Creator in the word Alleluia'"
[Bede: A History of the English Church and People, Penguin Books © 1968, page 100].
At the time the Venerable Bede lived, the Church sang a special antiphon on the eve of the Ascension. It's very close to today's Collect:
"O King of glory, Lord of might,
Who on this day ascended in triumph above all heavens,
do not leave us orphaned,
but send to us the Spirit of Truth,
the promise of the Father. Alleluia"
[from letter by Cuthbert, quoted by Leo Sherley-Price in his Introduction to Bede: A History of the English Church and People, Penguin Books © 1968.]
It was while this antiphon was being sung on May 25, 735, the Eve of the Ascension, that the Venerable Bede died, and when the first Book of Common Prayer was produced in 1549, the Collect for the Sunday after the Ascension was based on this antiphon in honor of Bede, whose memory was still alive in the Church after all those centuries.
In addition to praying during this strange pause between the Ascension and Pentecost, we can also prepare for the strengthening of the Holy Spirit by thinking about the readings for this Seventh Sunday of Easter.
Here's a portion of the reading from First John (5:11-13):
"God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
"Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
"I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life."
John's uses the present tense because eternal life is not just about what happens when we die, it is a present possession for those who believe Jesus is the Son of God.
In fact, John tells us that the reason he wrote the letter was so we would know that we have eternal life.
Why is it so important that we know now that we have eternal life?
Here's a portion of the Gospel reading for this Sunday, in which Jesus prays to his Father in heaven:
"I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
"I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.
"They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.
"Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.
"As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world" (John 17:14-18).
You and I have been sent into the world, a world which is at once good, because God created it; fallen, because it is subject to evil and hatred; and redeemable— as John writes earlier in his Gospel:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, to the end that all who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life.
"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him" (John 3:16-17).
It is because we are sent into a world which is subject to evil and hatred that we need to know that we have eternal life, so that no matter what confronts us, we can do the work we are sent to do with courage and steadfastness.
And what is that work?— it's the three things we find in our Baptismal Covenant:
first, to "proclaim by word and example the Good News"— which is peace and reconciliation;
second, to "seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving [our] neighbor as [ourselves]"; and,
third, to "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity and freedom of every person" (The Book of Common Prayer, page 305).
It is fitting to conclude with the Collect for the Feast of St. Bede:
"Heavenly Father, you called your servant Bede, while still a child,
to devote his life to your service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship:
Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of your truth to his generation,
so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make you known in all the world;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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