Acts 2:1-11
Psalm
103
Romans 8:8-17
John 14:15-16.23-26
Reflections
The Jewish feast of
Pentecost - seven weeks, or 50 days
after the Pasch (Easter) - was originally a harvest festival following 
the reaping
of the wheat crop (cf Ex 23:16; 34:22). Later on, a “memorial” was
added: the promulgation
of the Law on Mt. Sinai. From an agricultural feast, Pentecost became increasingly an historical
celebration: a recalling of the great alliances of God with His
people (see
Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:24-27…). Besides a
calendar
change, it is important to note a new viewpoint regarding the
Law and
how the new alliance was understood and lived. The Law was a gift of
which Israel
was proud, but it was only a transitional stage, and incomplete.
A process of
assimilation-interiorisation of the Law was
needed: a process that culminates in the gift of the Holy Spirit, who
is given to
us in place of the Law, as the true and definitive beginning of
new life.
The Christian Pentecost celebrates the
gift of the Spirit, “who is Lord
and giver of life” (Creed). Israel grew
and developed as a people, based on the Law. In God’s new family,
cohesion does
not come from an external commandment, no matter how excellent it may
be, but from
within, from the heart, in the strength of the love given by the
Spirit, “because
the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rm
5:5). Thanks
to Him (2nd Reading) “we are
children of God” and we cry out “Abba, Father!” We are the people of
the new alliance,
called to live a new life, by the power of the Spirit who makes
us the family
of God, with the dignity of children and heirs (v. 14-17). This
requires
a way of life in keeping with our dignity. Paul describes two
life-styles, different
and, indeed, opposed to each other, according to the choice of each
individual:
life
according to the flesh or life according to the Spirit (v.
8-13).
The Spirit leads
individuals and groups of people, renewing
and transforming them from within. The Spirit opens hearts, purifies
them, heals
them, reconciles them, helps them to overcome barriers, and brings them
to communion.
He is a Spirit of unity-faith-love in the plurality of charisma and of
cultures,
as is seen in the event of Pentecost (1°
Reading), in which unity and plurality come together harmoniously,
each being the gift of the same Spirit. Various nationalities
understand one language
that is common to all: the map of nations must become an agape table, a
community house to “announce God’s great works in all languages” (v
11). St. Paul
clearly attributes to the Spirit the ability to make the Church
one and multiple
in the plurality of charisma,
ministries and works (cf 1Cor 12:4-6). The
Church has before it a permanent challenge to be both Catholic and
missionary: to
make the human family pass from Babel to Pentecost, from ghetto to open field,
through the power of the Spirit.(*)
The Spirit manifested
as wind, fire, gift of tongues is
the Spirit of the universal Mission. Indeed, he is the protagonist
of Mission
(cf RMi ch. III; EN 75s.), which Jesus entrusts to his Apostles and
their successors.
For this Mission to be carried out, the Spirit is always close to us
and active,
as Jesus promises five times in his long discourse at the Last Supper
(Jn 14:16-17;
14:26; 15:26; 16:7-11; 16:13-15). He is the Consoler (Gospel)
who remains
with us always, who lives in those he loves (v. 16:23); he is the
Teacher who teaches
everything and reminds us of all that Jesus has said to us (v.
26). At Pentecost
the Apostles finally understood the words of Jesus who has sent them: Go into
the whole world, and make of all nations a single family.
A modern prophet of
this mission and of Christian unity
was Athenagoras, Patriarch of Istanbul, a man full of
the Spirit,
as can be seen in this statement: “Without the Holy Spirit, God is
remote, Christ
remains in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church just an
organisation,
authority a power, mission a propaganda, worship something out of date,
moral conduct
the behaviour of slaves. But in the
Holy Spirit the cosmos is mobilised
for the setting up of the Kingdom, the risen
Christ is present,
the Gospel becomes power and life, the Church achieves the Trinitarian
communion,
authority is transformed into service, liturgy is a memorial
and anticipation,
and human behaviour is made divine.”
The
Pope’s words
(*) «We must overcome the temptation to
restrict ourselves
to what we already have, or think we have, safely in our possession: it
would be
sure death in terms of the Church’s presence in the world; the Church,
for that
matter, can only be missionary, in the outward
movement of the Spirit. From its origins, the Christian people has
clearly recognized
the importance of communicating the Good News of Jesus to those who did
not yet
know him. In recent years the anthropological, cultural, social and
religious framework
of humanity has changed; today the Church is called to face new
challenges and is
ready to dialogue with different cultures and religions, in the search
for ways
of building, along with all people of good will, the peaceful
coexistence of peoples.
The field of the mission ad gentes appears much broader today,
and no longer
to be defined on the basis of geographic considerations alone; in
effect, not only
non-Christian peoples and those who are far distant await us, but so do
social and
cultural milieu, and above all human hearts, which are the real goal of
the missionary
activity of the People of God».
Benedict XVI
Homily
at Porto (Portugal), 14.05.2010
In
the footsteps of Missionaries
- 23/5: Feast of
Pentecost: the Holy Spirit speaks in all languages.
- 24/5: Bl. John of
Prado (1563-1631), Spaniard
Franciscan priest, martyred in Morocco while working to restart that
mission
and spiritually assisting Christian slaves.
- 25/5: Africa Day, on
the anniversary of the setting
up of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU, now AU) in Addis Ababa
(Ethiopia,
1963).
- 26/5: St. Philip Neri
(1515-1595), priest, apostle
of the youth in Rome, founder of the Oratorio.
26/5: St. Mary Ann of
Jesus of Paredes (1618-1645),
Ecuador, Franciscan tertiary laywoman who spent her life in assisting
indigenous and afro people in Quito (Ecuador).
- 27/5: St. Augustine,
Bishop of Canterbury (+604/605).
He was a monk in Rome, and Pope Gregory the Great sent him to England
as a missionary.
He founded several dioceses.
- 28/5: Blessed
Anthony Julian Nowowiejski (1858-1941) and Leo Wetmanski (1886-1941),
Bishop and
Auxiliary Bishop of Polock in Poland, and also President and Secretary
of the Missionary
Union of the Clergy. They both died in a concentration camp.
- 29/5: Bl.
Joseph Gérard (1831-1914) OMI, a French priest who was a
missionary pioneer in South
Africa, especially in Lesotho.
- 29/5: St.
Ursula (Julia) Ledóchowska (1865-1939), an Austrian nun who
founded the Ursulines
of the Dying Heart of Jesus. She undertook several missionary trips to
countries
in Europe.
