“A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles . . . A Reading from the Acts of the Apostles . . . .” Yep, this will continue all Easter long. We are now in our third week of continuous reading from the Acts of the Apostles, and as long as the Easter days keep coming, so will the readings from the Acts of the Apostles. But if we are an Easter people, and if Alleluia is our song, then the Acts of the Apostles is our book.
Acts begins with the Lord’s Ascension and his instruction “to wait for the promise of the Father,” the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4). It ends, meanwhile, with Saint Paul in Rome “preaching the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ quite openly and unhindered” (Acts 28:31). The Acts of the Apostles is the story of the Church and the story of the Spirit.
The word “Spirit” appears 70 times in the Acts of the Apostles. Seven times ten—if you want to show that something perfect has come to completion, this is how you do it. Easter is the time for perfection, for “at the climax of the Paschal Mystery, the Holy Spirit is definitively revealed and made present in a new way” (Pope Saint John Paul II, Dominum et Vivificantem, no. 42), but what is this “something” that Acts celebrates?
Our liturgical reading of Acts points us to Pentecost as that “something.” We spend the Easter season earnestly praying for the Spirit to come in fullness, beginning our reading on Easter Monday with Acts 2:14, and ending with the preceding passage of Pentecost on Easter’s last day. Saint Luke, however, was inspired to point us in another direction. In reading Acts, the Spirit’s seventy-fold fullness is not found at Pentecost (the word “Spirit” has only shown up five times by Pentecost), but rather, the 70th use of “Spirit” is found in the preaching of the Church in Rome. Saint Luke shows us that the great acts of the apostles are entirely dependent on Pentecost, but Pentecost finds its perfect fulfillment in their acts. The Spirit acts in the Church, and indeed, “the grace of Pentecost is perpetuated in the Church” (Dominum et Vivificantem, no. 25).
We read the Acts of the Apostles every Easter because we find fulfillment in the acts of the apostles. The Holy Spirit was given to Peter and the Eleven—and the Holy Spirit has remained. The Spirit of Truth is active in the acts of the apostles and now in their successors, the bishops of the Church of Rome. Veni Creator Spiritus.
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Image: Photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew, O.P., detail (used with permission)
