|
Pope Benedict XVI- Homilies |
 "In the Act Itself of Her Birth the Church Is Already 'Catholic'"
Homily
on Pentecost Sunday
St. Peter's Basilica
H.H. Benedict XVI
May 11, 2008
www.zenit.org
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The account of the event of Pentecost that we heard in the first
reading is placed by St. Luke at the beginning of the Acts of
the Apostles. The second chapter is introduced with these words:
"When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one
place together" (Acts 2:1). These words refer to the previous
chapter in which Luke described the little group of disciples
that assiduously gathered in Jerusalem after Jesus' ascension
into heaven (cf. Acts 1:12-14). It is a description that is rich
in details: The place "where they lived" -- the cenacle -- is an
environment "in the upper room"; the 11 apostles are listed by
name, and the first three are Peter, John and James, the
"pillars" of the community, already integrated into this new
family, no longer based on family bonds but on faith in Christ.
The total number of persons, which was "about 120," a multiple
of the 12 of the apostolic college, clearly alludes to this "new
Israel." The group constitutes an authentic "qāhāl," an assembly
on the model of the first covenant, the community convoked to
hear the voice of the Lord and to walk in his ways. The Book of
Acts emphasizes that "all of them devoted themselves with one
accord to prayer" (1:14). Prayer, therefore, is the principal
activity of the nascent Church. It is through prayer that she
receives her unity from the Lord and allows herself to be guided
by his will, as the decision to cast lots for the one to take
Judas' place shows (cf. Acts 2:25).
This community found itself gathered together again in the same
place, the cenacle, on the morning of the Jewish feast of
Pentecost, a feast of the covenant, in which there was
commemorated the event on Sinai where, through Moses, God
proposed that Israel be his property among all the nations, to
be a sign of his holiness (cf. Exodus 19). According to the Book
of Exodus, that ancient covenant was accompanied by a terrifying
sign of power on the part of the Lord: "Mount Sinai," one reads
there, "was all wrapped in smoke, 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" (Exodus 19:18).
We find the elements of wind and fire again at the Pentecost of
the New Testament but without the resonances of fear. In
particular the fire takes the form of tongues that come to rest
upon all the disciples, "who were all full of the Holy Spirit"
and on account of that outpouring, "began to speak in other
languages" (Acts 2:4). We have here the community's true
"baptism" with fire, a kind of new creation. At Pentecost the
Church is not constituted by a human will, but by the power of
the Spirit of God. And it immediately appears how this Spirit
gives life to a community that is at the same time one and
universal, thus overcoming the curse of Babel (cf. John 11:7-9).
Only the Spirit, in fact, which creates unity in love and in the
reciprocal acceptance of diversity, can liberate humanity from
the constant tension of an earthly will-to-power that wants to
dominate and make everything uniform.
"Societas Spiritus," society of the Spirit: This is what St.
Augustine calls the Church in one of his sermons (71, 19, 32: PL
38, 462). But already before him, St. Irenaeus formulated a
truth that I would like to recall here: "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 truth; to
distance yourself from the Church is to reject the Spirit" and
thus "to exclude yourself from life" (Adv. Haer. III, 24, 1).
Beginning with the event of Pentecost, this connubium or
"marriage" is manifested between the Spirit of Christ and his
mystical body, that is, the Church.
I would like to reflect on a particular aspect of the Holy
Spirit, on the intertwining of multiplicity and unity. The
second reading speaks about this, treating of the harmony of the
different charisms in the communion of the same Spirit. But
already in the passage from Acts that we have listened to, this
intertwining reveals itself with extraordinary evidence. In the
event of Pentecost it is made clear that multiple languages and
different cultures belong to the Church; they can understand and
make each other fruitful. St. Luke clearly wants to convey a
fundamental idea, namely, in the act itself of her birth the
Church is already "catholic," universal. She speaks all
languages from the very beginning, because the Gospel that is
entrusted to her is destined for all peoples, according to the
will and the mandate of the risen Christ (cf. Matthew 28:19).
The Church that is born at Pentecost is not above all a
particular community -- the Church of Jerusalem -- but the
universal Church, that speaks the language of all peoples. From
her, other communities in every corner of the world will be
born, particular Churches that are all and always actualizations
of the one and only Church of Christ. The Catholic Church is
therefore not a federation of churches, but a single reality:
The universal Church has ontological priority. A community that
is not catholic in this sense would not even be a Church.
In this regard it is necessary to add another aspect: that of
the theological vision of the Acts of the Apostles in respect of
the journey of the Church from Jerusalem to Rome. Luke notes
that among the peoples represented in Jerusalem on the day of
Pentecost there are also "foreigners from Rome" (Acts 2:10). At
that time Rome was still distant, "foreign" for the nascent
Church: It was a symbol of the pagan world in general. But the
power of the Holy Spirit will guide the steps of the witnesses
"to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8), to Rome. The Acts of the
Apostles ends precisely when Paul, by providential design,
arrives at the empire's capital and proclaims the Gospel there
(cf. Acts 28:30-31). Thus the journey of God's Word, begun in
Jerusalem, arrives at its goal, because Rome represents the
whole world and thus incarnates the Lucan idea of catholicity.
The universal Church is realized, the catholic Church, which is
the continuation of the chosen people and makes its history and
mission her own.
At this point, and to conclude, John's Gospel offers us a word,
which accords very well with the mystery of the Church created
by the Spirit. The word spoken twice by the risen Jesus when he
appears in the midst of the disciples in the Cenacle on Easter
evening: "Shalom -- Peace to you!" (John 20:19, 21). The
expression "shalom" is not a simple greeting; it is much more:
It is the gift of the promised peace (cf. John 14:27) and is won
by Jesus with the price of his blood, it is the fruit of this
victory and his struggle against the spirit of evil. It is thus
a peace "not as given by the world" but as God alone can give
it.
On this feast of the Spirit of the Church we would like to thank
God for having given to his people, chosen and formed from all
nations, the inestimable gift of peace, of his peace! At the
same time we renew the awareness of the responsibility connected
with this gift: the Church's responsibility to constitutionally
be a sign and an instrument of the peace of God for all peoples.
I tried to be a conveyor of this message when I recently went to
the headquarters of the U.N. to speak to the representatives of
the nations. But one must not only think of these "summits." The
Church realizes her service to the peace of Christ above all in
her ordinary presence and action among men, with the preaching
of the Gospel and with the signs of love and mercy that
accompany it (cf. Matthew 16:20).
Among these signs, the sacrament of reconciliation must
naturally be emphasized, the sacrament that the risen Christ
instituted at the same time that he gave his disciples the gift
of his peace and his Spirit. As we heard in the passage from the
Gospel, Jesus breathed upon his disciples and said: "Receive the
Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose
sins you retain are retained" (John 20:21-23). How important
and, unfortunately, how insufficiently understood is the gift of
reconciliation that brings peace to hearts! Christ's peace
spreads only through the renewed hearts of men and women who
have been reconciled and made themselves servants of justice,
ready to spread peace in the world only with the force of truth,
without compromising with the mentality of the world, because
the world cannot give Christ's peace: This is how the Church can
be a ferment of that reconciliation that comes from God. She can
do this only if she remains docile to the Spirit and bears
witness to the Gospel, only if she carries the cross like Jesus
and with Jesus. This is precisely what the saints of every age
testify to!
In light of this word of life, dear brothers and sisters, may
the prayer that today we address to God in spiritual union with
the Virgin Mary become ever more fervent and intense. May the
Virgin who listens, the Mother of the Church, obtain for our
community and for all Christians a renewed outpouring of the
Holy Spirit the Paraclete. "Emitte Spiritum tuum et creabuntur,
et renovabis faciem terrae -- Send forth your Spirit and
everything will be recreated and you will renew the face of the
earth." Amen!
[Translation by Joseph G. Trabbic]
© Innovative Media, Inc.
Look
at the One they Pierced!
This page is the work of the Servants of the Pierced Hearts of Jesus and
Mary
|
