1. At the Last
Supper Jesus had said to the Apostles: “Nevertheless I tell you the
truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go
away, the Counsellor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send
him to you” (Jn 16:7). On the evening of Easter Day, Jesus keeps his
promise: he appears to the Eleven gathered in the Upper Room,
breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22).
Fifty days later, on Pentecost, occurs “the definitive manifestation
of what had already been accomplished in the same Upper Room on
Easter Sunday” (Dominum et Vivificantem, n. 25). The Acts of the
Apostles has preserved a description of the event for us (cf. Acts
2:1-4). By reflecting on this text, we can discern some features of
the Holy Spirit’s mysterious identity.
2. It is first of all important to see the connection between the
Jewish feast of Pentecost and the first Christian Pentecost.
Initially, Pentecost was the feast of seven weeks (cf. Tb 2:1), the
harvest feast (cf. Ex 23:16), when the new grain was offered to God
(cf. Nm 28:26; Dt 16:9). Later on the feast acquired a new meaning:
it became the feast of the Covenant God had made with his people on
Sinai, when he gave Israel his law. St Luke describes the Pentecost
event as a theophany, a manifestation of God similar to the one on
Mt Sinai (cf. Ex 19:16-25): a roaring sound, a mighty wind, tongues
of fire. The message is clear: Pentecost is the new Sinai; the Holy
Spirit is the New Covenant; it is the gift of the new law. St
Augustine keenly grasps this connection: “Here is a great and
wondrous mystery, brethren: if you observe closely, on the day of
Pentecost [the Jews] received the law written by the finger of God
and on the same day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit came” (Ser. Mai.,
158, 4). And an Eastern Father, Severian of Gabala, notes: “It was
fitting that the grace of the Holy Spirit should be given on the
same day that the old law was given” (Cat. in Act. Apost., 2, 1).
3. The promise made to the fathers is thus fulfilled. We read in the
prophet Jeremiah: “This is the covenant which I will make with the
house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law
within them, and I will write it upon their hearts” (Jer 31:33). And
in the prophet Ezekiel: “A new heart I will give you, and a new
spirit I will put within you; and I will take out of your flesh the
heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be
careful to observe my ordinances” (Ez 36:26-27). In what way is the
Holy Spirit the new and eternal Covenant? By taking away sin and
pouring the love of God into the human heart: “The law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and
death” (Rom 8:2). The law of Moses pointed out obligations, but
could not change the human heart. A new heart was needed, and that
is precisely what God offers us by virtue of the redemption
accomplished by Jesus. The Father removes our heart of stone and
gives us a heart of flesh like Christ’s, enlivened by the Holy
Spirit who enables us to act out of love (cf. Rom 5:5). On the basis
of this gift, a new Covenant is established between God and
humanity. St Thomas Aquinas says with keen insight that the Holy
Spirit himself is the New Covenant, producing love in us, the
fullness of the law (cf. Comment. in 2 Cor., 3, 6).
4. On Pentecost the Holy Spirit descends and the Church is born. The
Church is the community of those who are “begotten from above”, “by
water and the Spirit”, as we read in John’s Gospel (cf. Jn 3:3, 5).
The Christian community is not primarily the result of the free
decision of believers; at its ori- gin there is first and foremost
the gratuitous initiative of the Love of God, who offers the gift of
the Holy Spirit. The as- sent of faith to this gift of love is a
“response” to grace and is itself motivated by grace. Therefore,
between the Holy Spirit and the Church there exists a deep and
indissoluble bond. St Irenaeus says in this regard: “Wherever the
Church is, the Spirit of God is also there; and wherever the Spirit
of the Lord is, the Church is there and every grace” (Adv. Haer.,
III, 24, 1). Then we can understand St Augustine’s daring
expression: “The Holy Spirit is possessed in so far as one loves the
Church” (In Io., 32, 8). The account of the Pentecost event
emphasizes that the Church is universal at her birth: this is the
significance of the list of peoples — Parthians, Medes, Elamites,
etc. (cf. Acts 2:9-11) — who hear the first proclamation made by
Peter. The Holy Spirit is given to all people of every race and
nation, and accomplishes in them the new unity of Christ’s Mystical
Body. St John Chrysostom highlights the communion brought about by
the Holy Spirit with the vivid observation: “He who dwells in Rome
knows those in the Indies to be his members” (In Io., 65, 1; PG 59,
361).
5. Since the Holy Spirit is “the New Covenant”, the work of the
Third Person of the Holy Trinity consists in making the risen Lord
present and, with him, God the Father. The Spirit carries out his
saving action by making God’s presence immediate. The new and
eternal Covenant consists in this: God can now be reached by each
one of us. Everyone, “from the least to the greatest” (cf. Jer
31:34), is given in a certain sense a direct knowledge of the Lord,
as we read in the First Letter of St John: “The anointing which you
received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone
should teach you; as his anointing teaches you about everything, and
is true, and is no lie, just as it has taught you, abide in him” (1
Jn 2:27). Thus the promise Jesus made to his disciples at the Last
Supper is fulfilled: “The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring
to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). Through
the Holy Spirit, our meeting with the Lord occurs in the ordinary
context of filial life, in the “face to face” encounter of
friendship, in the experience of God as Father, Brother, Friend and
Bridegroom. This is Pentecost. This is the New Covenant.
To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
I warmly greet the students of the Pontifical Beda College who will
be ordained deacons this afternoon, as well as their families and
friends. I extend a special greeting to the priests from the Diocese
of Scranton on pilgrimage to Rome and the Holy Land. I also welcome
the Buddhist group Rissho Kosei Kai and the Shinto group Omoto-Kyo,
from Japan.
Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially
those from England, Singapore, Japan, Canada and the United States
of America, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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