May God on this day of Pentecost bestow on us the grace to be guided into the whole truth by the Holy Spirit and make the message of Jesus penetrate into our souls, so that we may have the impulse to bear witness to Christ.
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(Acts 2, 1-11; Gal 5,16-25; John 15,26-27; 16,12-15: Solemnity of Pentecost, May 23, 2021)
Pentecost represents the triumphal conclusion of the paschal mystery. Everything converges towards the gift of the Holy Spirit. Jesus suffered, overcame death and rose again, to communicate the Holy Spirit to us, who puts us in intimate contact with the life of the Trinity.
The feast of Pentecost has several aspects, which are expressed in today's readings. The Acts of the Apostles recount the episode. The second reading shows us the importance of the Holy Spirit for our Christian life. In the Gospel, Jesus reveals to us the role of the Holy Spirit in Christian witness and deepening of Christian faith.
In the passage from the Acts of the Apostles the reality of the Holy Spirit is expressed through three symbols. Indeed, the Spirit is invisible. Sometimes it is represented as a dove, but it is not that. The Spirit is an interior reality and, at the same time, immense. As the entrance antiphon says, the Spirit of the Lord has filled the universe. The three symbols with which the Holy Spirit is indicated in this passage from the Acts of the Apostles are: the strong wind, fire and tongues. The Holy Spirit has the ability to give a strong impulse. In fact, in Hebrew the term spirit means breath; the same term is used to indicate breath and spirit. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: Suddenly a roar came from heaven, as of a mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where [the apostles and Mary] were. The Spirit produces a powerful impulse, a strong dynamism. We must welcome this impulse in our lives, in order not to remain immobile, inactivity or in spiritual laziness. The Spirit is also fire. In fact, it is not a material impulse, but a spiritual impulse, an impulse of love. God's love - Paul tells us - has been poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom 5, 5). God is love, and the Holy Spirit is Spirit of love, a fire of love that transforms everything it comes in contact with. The third symbol referring to the Spirit is that of tongues. We read in the Acts of the Apostles: Tongues like fire appeared to them, divided and rested on each one of them. In effect, the Spirit loosens the tongues and gives the ability to speak. On the day of Pentecost they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as the Spirit gave them the power to express themselves. The language of the Holy Spirit is not an ordinary language, but a language that expresses supernatural realities, intimate realities of God, realities of spiritual life. It manifested itself at the beginning of the Church with the gift of tongues. The disciples acquire the ability to express themselves in such a way that everyone understands what they say: The crowd gathered and was astonished because each one heard them speak their own language. For the Jewish feast of Pentecost an immense crowd gathered in Jerusalem; Jews came from all parts of the world: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and parts of Libya near Cyrene, foreigners from Rome, Jews and proselytes [that is, pagans who had been conquered by the Jewish faith]. Everyone hears the great works of God proclaimed in their tongues. The speeches of the apostles, in fact, are not ordinary speeches, but a praise of the great works of God. Thus, we can see that the Holy Spirit, from the beginning, goes in all directions, to re-establish unity and overcome human dispersion. In chapter 11 of Genesis, the episode of the tower of Babel is recounted: men who speak the same language, to make a name for themselves, want to build a very high tower, but they cannot, because God confuses their languages. They no longer understand each other, and are therefore, scattered throughout the world. At Pentecost, however, the Spirit reaches everyone, each in his own language, and brings about the unity of all. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, we are united with Christians around the world. This is the marvellous work of the Spirit, a work that is impossible to accomplish with our simple human strengths.
In the Gospel, Jesus announces the coming of the Holy Spirit, highlighting two aspects. First, declares that the Spirit will testify to him. And you too - Jesus says to the apostles - will bear witness to me, because you have been with me from the beginning. The Holy Spirit gives disciples the ability to bear witness to Jesus, giving them extraordinary strength. This, according to the account in Acts, takes place immediately, on the very day of Pentecost: Peter, who during the Passion had not had the courage to bear witness to Jesus, in fact, he denied him three times, now speaks with courage and audacity and speaks to all Jews to witness the passion and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of the Spirit. Thanks to the Holy Spirit, the Christian faith has spread throughout the world, and Christians have been able to face martyrdom to bear witness to Jesus. On the other hand, Jesus declares that the Spirit of truth will guide the disciples into a whole truth. During his public life Jesus spoke, acted, did wonderful works, but the apostles were unable to understand them. Everything remained on the surface for them, it did not penetrate their depths. But, with the coming of the Spirit, they will be guided into the whole truth. That is, the Holy Spirit will make the whole message, all the works of Jesus and his paschal mystery, penetrate into their souls. The Spirit - Jesus explains - will not speak on his own, but will say everything he has heard [...], he will take from mine and announce it to you. We are not dealing here with a new revelation, which has no relationship with the Incarnation of the Son of God. The Holy Spirit will take up Jesus’ words and make them understandable, he will make them penetrate into the soul of men. Jesus says: All that the Father possesses is mine; for this I have told you that he will take from what is mine and he will announce it to you. The Holy Spirit exercises an interior action essential for Christian faith, hope and charity. It is an intimate force, which brings light, warmth and makes everything alive, always keeping it in relationship with the mystery of Christ.
In the second reading, Paul tells us that our Christian life must be guided by the Holy Spirit. He must guide not only our faith (cf. today's Gospel passage), but also our behavior and our journey. To speak of behaviour, the Apostle often uses the terms journey, walk; and in this passage he says precisely: Walk according to the Spirit [that is, let yourselves be guided by the Spirit] and then you will not be led to satisfy the desires of the flesh. Paul explains to us that our personal life is a life of conflict. In us there is necessarily a struggle, because there are two principles that contrast: the flesh and the Spirit. The flesh indicates the selfish man, all tendencies that go in the direction of selfishness and evil, excesses of all kinds, from violence to impurity and so on. Paul declares: The flesh has desires contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit has desires contrary to the flesh; these two things oppose each other, so that you do not do everything you would like. There is a struggle in us. We cannot blindly follow all of our impulses. In fact, there are impulses of the flesh and impulses of the Spirit. We cannot at the same time live a life of selfish enjoyment and have the joy of generosity. We cannot at the same time indulge our natural tendency to dominate others and have the joy of selfless service. We cannot at the same time seek the satisfactions that come from money and the joy that comes from a generous life. We have to choose between these two things. We can choose the right way with the help of the Spirit. The flesh can be overcome, because if we walk according to the Spirit, we will not be inclined to satisfy the desires of the flesh. The works of the flesh are known; Paul lists them: first of all, fornication and uncleanness (that is, what we call the sins of the flesh), then idolatry, enmities, discord, jealousy, dissensions, divisions. These are sins of selfishness and violence. These things prevent us from living in a truly human and Christian way. If we go in this direction, our lives are lost; instead of being happy, we only get shame. Therefore, the Apostle declares: Regarding these things I warn you, as I have already said, that whoever does them will not inherit the kingdom of God. Instead, if we follow the Spirit, we go to heaven, and already on earth we can live in a way worthy of God, so that we feel profound satisfaction. Paul says: The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace and all the other virtues. Here we can note that the Apostle speaks of works of the flesh - in the plural - and of fruit of the Spirit - in the singular. This singular includes multiple aspects, but united with each other. The works of the flesh, on the other hand, go in contrasting directions and cause a dispersion of the human being that becomes unbearable for him. The Spirit creates harmony, peace and joy. Its main fruit is love, which procures joy and peace. Love is also manifested with patience, benevolence, goodness, faithfulness and mildness. Our ideal is to live by the Spirit. When we have to make a decision, we must let ourselves be guided by the Holy Spirit. For this we must pray. In fact, the Spirit is welcomed by us through prayer. The light he gives us is obtained through prayer, and the love he pours into our hearts is also received through prayer. Therefore, if we live by the Spirit [in fact, starting from our baptism we have the Spirit within us, we are his temple], we must walk according to the Spirit. We must let ourselves be guided by the Spirit, and then we will be sure to have a beautiful life, a life that gives us full joy and that is also very useful for all the people we come into contact with. +John I. Okoye
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