A simple word count shows that the phrase "a short time" occurs four times in the five verses of today's Gospel passage. This phrase must have great importance to have been repeated so frequently. "The time is short" (1 Cor 7:29). "The world as we know it is passing away" (1 Cor 7:31). We have only "a short time" to bear fruit on this earth. Jesus expects us to bear abundant, lasting fruit for His Kingdom during our lives (see Jn 15:16). As followers of King Jesus, we don't want Him to be displeased with the fruit from our service; may we not hear Him tell us: "I find that the sum of your deeds is less than complete in the sight of My God" (Rv 3:2). We only have "a short time" to spread the Good News to people who desperately need to be saved from the world's dangers to their body and soul.
"Within a short time," ten days to be exact, the Church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost Sunday. We don't have much time, but the Spirit empowers us to get a lot done and go a long way in a short time (see Acts 8:39-40).
Tomorrow begins the Pentecost Novena, the first novena in the history of the Church. When Jesus ascended to the Father, the love which flowed between them, that is, the Holy Spirit, overflowed from the heavens. The Father and the Son poured out the Spirit upon the people of the earth (Rm 5:5). Thus there is hope for the world, because the Spirit's power is explosive (Acts 1:8; Lk 24:49). "Receive the Holy Spirit" (Jn 20:22).
| PRAYER: | Father, prune me of anything in my life which stops me from bearing fruit for You (Jn 15:2). |
| PROMISE: | "His whole household…put [their] faith in the Lord." –Acts 18:8 |
| PRAISE: | The day after Pete was prayed over at a Life in the Spirit seminar, the Holy Spirit opened his mind to understand the Scriptures in a bright, new way (Lk 24:45). He has since been teaching the Bible in the power of the Spirit for over forty years. |
Reprinted with permission from Presentation Ministries, a lay association of the Catholic Church that focuses on evangelization and discipleship through Bible teaching, daily Mass, the charisms of the Holy Spirit, and Small Christian Community. Their ministries include:
· One Bread, One Body
· Daily Bread Radio Program
· Annual Bible Institute
· Discipleship Retreats
· Guadalupe Bible College