HOMILY ON PENTECOST SUNDAY, 5/11/08
Here is a translation of the homily by the Holy Father at the Pentecost Sunday Mass he celebrated at St. Peter's Basilica today:
Dear brothers and sisters,
The narrative of the event of Pentecost which we heard in the first Reading is placed by St. Luke in the second chapter of the Acts of teh Apostles.
The chapter is introduced by the words: "When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together" (Acts 2,1). They are words which refer to the preceding episode, in which Luke had described the small group of disciples who gathered assiduously in Jerusalem after Jesus's ascension to heaven (cfr Acts 1,12-14).
It is a description rich in details: the place 'where they lived' - the Cenacle - is a place 'on the upper floor'; the eleven Apostles are enumerated by name, and the first named are Peter, John and James, the 'pillars' of the community; with them are mentioned 'some women', 'Mary, the mother of Jesus' and 'his brothers', who had now been added to this new family, no longer based on blood bonds but on faith in Christ.
Clearly it is this 'new Israel' that is alluded to in the total number of persons who were 'nearly 120', a multiple of the 12 associated with the apostolic college.
The group constituted an authentic
qāhāl, an 'assembly' modelled after the first Alliance, the community convoked to listen to the voice of the Lord and walk in his ways.
The Book of the Acts underscores that "all these devoted themselves with one accord to prayer" (1,14). Therefore, prayer was the principal activity of the Church being born, through which it received its unity from the Lord and allowed itself to be guided by his will, as shown even by their choice to draw lots to elect him who would take the place of Judas (cfr Acts 2,25).
This community found itself assembled in the same place, the Cenacle, on the morning of the Jewish feast of Pentecost, feast of the Alliance, which commemorated the event on Sinai when God, through Moses, said that Israel would be his special possession among all the peoples, to be a sign of his holiness (cfr Ex 19).
According to the Book of Exodus, that ancient pact was accompanied by a terrifying manifestation of power on the part of the Lord: "Mount Sinai was all wrapped in smoke," we read, "for the LORD came down upon it in fire. The smoke rose from it as though from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently" (Ex 19,18).
We find the elements of wind and fire again in the Pentecost of the New Testament, but without resonances of fear.
In particular, the fire takes the form of tongues of flame which came to rest on each of the disciples, who were "all filled with the Holy Spirit", and as a result, "began to speak in tongues" (Acts 2,4).
It was a true 'baptism of fire' for the community, a sort of new creation. On Pentecost, the Church was constituted not by human will, but by the power of the Spirit of God.
It soon became apparent how this Spirit gave life to a community which is at the same time one and universal, thus overcoming the curse of Babel (cfr Jn 11,7-9).
Indeed, only the Holy Spirit, who creates unity in love and in the reciprocal acceptance of diversity, can liberate mankind from the constant temptation of a will to earthly power which wants to dominate and homogenize everything.
"Societas Spiritus" - society of the Spirit - is how St. Augustine calls the Church in one of his sermons (71, 19, 32: PL 38, 462). But before him, St. Irinaeus had formulated a truth which I like to recall: "Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God, and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church and every grace, and the Spirit is the truth. To distance oneself from the Church is to refuse the Spirit" and therefore, "to exclude oneself from life" (Adv. Haer. III, 24, 1).
Since the event of Pentecost, this marriage between the Spirit of Christ and his mystical Body, namely, the Church, has been fully manifested.
I would like to linger on a peculiar aspect of the action of the Holy Spirit, which is the weaving together of multiplicity and unity. The second Reading today deals with it - the harmony of different charisms in communion with the same Spirit.
Already in the Acts narrative that we heard, this interweaving is demonstrated with extraordinary evidence. In what took place at Pentecost, it is clear that the Church counts with many different languages and cultures - and that, in the faith, they can all understand and enrich each other reciprocally.
St. Luke clearly wished to convey a fundamental idea: that at the very moment of its birth, the Church was already 'catholic', universal. From the very beginning, it spoke all languages, because the Gospel that was entrusted to it is destined for all peoples, according to the will and the mandate of the resurrected Christ (cfr Mt 28,19).
The Church that was born at Pentecost was not above all a local Church - the Church of Jerusalem - but the universal Church, which speaks the languages of all peoples. From it would be born other communities in every part of the world - local Churches which are all and always realizations of the one and only Church of Christ.
The Catholic Church is therefore not a federation of Churches, but a single reality: the ontological priority [priority of origin] pertains to the universal Church. A community that is not catholic in this sense would not even be a church.
To this, one must add another aspect: the theological vision of the Acts of the Apostles regarding the journey of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome. Among the peoples represented in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, Luke also cites "strangers from Rome' (Acts 2,10).
At that time, Rome was still remote, "foreign' for the newborn Church - it was the symbol of the pagan world in general. But the power of the Holy Spirit would guide the steps of his witnesses "up to the extreme limits of the earth" (Acts 1,8), including Rome.
The Acts of the Apostles ends, in fact when St. Paul, through providential design, reaches the capital of the empire and announces the Gospel there (cfr Acts 28,30-31).
Thus, the journey of the Word of God, begun in Jerusalem, reached its goal, because Rome represented the whole world and thus incarnated the Lucan idea of catholicity. The universal Church was thereby realized - the Catholic Church, which is the continuation of the chosen people whose history and mission it made its own.
At this point, and to conclude, the Gospel of John offers us a word which is in great harmony with the mystery of the Church created by the Spirit. The word that came out twice from the lips of the resurrected Christ when he appeared among his disciples at the Cenacle on Easter night was "Shalom" - peace be to you! (Jn 20,19-21).
The expression Shalom is not simply a greeting; it is so much more - it is the gift of the peace that was promised (cfr Jn 14,27) and conquered by Jesus at the price of his blood. It is the fruit of his victory in the struggle against the spirit of evil. Therefore, it is not a peace 'such as the world gives' but only that which God can give.
In this feast of the Spirit and of the Church, we wish to thank God for having given his people, chosen and formed among all peoples, the invaluable gift of peace, his peace!
At the same time, let us renew our awareness of the responsibility connected to this gift: the responsibility of the Church to be constitutionally a sign and instrument of the peace of God for all peoples.
I sought to bring this message in my recent visit to United Nations headquarters to address the representatives of the world's peoples. But one should not only think of such events 'at the summit'. The Church realizes its service to the peace of Christ above all in its ordinary presence and action in the midst of men, with the preaching of the Gospel, and with the signs of love and mercy that accompany it (cfr Mk 16,20).
Among these signs one must underscore principally the Sacrament of Reconciliation, instituted by the resurrected Christ at the same time that he gave the disciples his peace and his Spirit.
As we heard in today's Gospel, Jesus breathed on the Apostles and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained" (Jn 20,21-23).
How important and also, unfortunately, not enough understood, is the gift of Reconciliation which pacifies hearts! The peace of Christ can be spread only through the renewed hearts of mean and women who are reconciled and who have made themselves servants of justice, ready to spread peace in the world with only the power of truth, without stooping to compromises with the mentality of the world, because the world cannot give the peace of Christ.
That is how the Church can be a ferment for the reconciliation that comes from God. It can only be so if it remains obedient to the Spirit and bears witness to the Gospel, only if it carries the Cross like Jesus and with Jesus. And this what the saints of all ages have shown us.
In the light of this Word of life, dear brothers and sisters, may the prayer which we offer today to God, in spiritual union with the Virgin Mary, be ever more fervent and intense. May the Mother of listening, the Mother of the Church, obtain for our communities and for all Christians a renewed effusion of the Holy Spirit and Paraclete.
"Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur, et renovabis faciem terrae" - Send forth your spirit and renew the face of the earth. Amen!
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 14/05/2008 07:56]