NOTES for Act 1:1-26

The apostles find themselves in a state of waiting: they no longer see the risen Lord in the flesh, yet they do not yet live by His presence as it will be revealed to them in the experience of Pentecost, when they “receive power” from the Holy Spirit. Their state is in many ways like ours. We ourselves have never seen the Lord Jesus “according to the flesh,” and as for the Spirit, we often live by anything at all except His breath within us.

What matters greatly for us here is how the apostles lived through those ten days. Reading these lines again and again, we find in them the path we should follow if we, too, desire the “acquisition of the Holy Spirit” promised to everyone who believes in Jesus. Above all, it is a path of diligent prayer and of communal love for one another; and also — this is the principle by which Matthias and Barsabbas are chosen — a living remembrance of Christ's earthly life, His death, and His Resurrection.