The leap of faith begins in the inner room

Ascensiontide sermons often criticize the disciples of Jesus for remaining in the inner room after Jesus' departure, rather than "going out to all the nations, baptizing them." They either make the disciples into cowards, trembling behind locked doors, or assert their incapability of spreading the faith without the particular gifts of Pentecost. One forgets that Jesus had already sent them out two-by-two, to spread the Gospel, heal the sick, and cast out demons. Locking the doors must have been a reasonable security measure, rather than an expression of irrational fear. Once we let go of our premature, possibly hypocritical judgment, we can see what they were doing in the upper room: praying together, with Mary Coredemptrix and Priest, awaiting the promised coming of the Advocate. In this awaiting, they are already executing the leap of faith that Jesus demands of them: to face the paradox of a God whom we actually have perceived, who even has real power over life and death, but who draws himself back from human contact and silently asks us to deal with life and death by ourselves. When one is despair asks, "Where is God?", that one asks not whether God exists, but why God doesn't come down and resolve the situation by force. To relinquish force -- to overcome the gross by the subtle -- is the characteristic of the Christ as Christians know him. This is the leap of faith: to face the paradox in prayer, in the inner room.