31/05/2009 - Pentecost - B
Ist. Reading Acts 2,1-11 Psalm 103 2nd. Reading Gal 5,16-25 Gospel Jn 15,26-27;
16,12-15
Come, Holy Spirit, come! And from your celestial home shed a ray of light divine!
This is what we pray today with the whole Church. We know that the Holy Spirit
was given to us, but we continue to invoke his coming, because we know that
we are like holed containers, unable to hold all we get to receive. We are still,
and always be, sinners, and because of this reality the Spirit of God does not
find place in our heart and in our body. Our ego and our sin sadden the Holy
Spirit because we impede him to reflect the holiness of God in our lives. Hence,
we continue to ask him: Come, come to heal, to clean, to purify, come to make
straight, to warm up, come to replace our mundane and superficial spirit. St.
Paul, writing to the Galatians, clearly instruct us to discern so that we can
learn how to embrace with all our heart the Spirit of God rejecting at the same
time all that keeps him away from us. He tells us that the desires of the flesh
are an obstacle for the Spirit. The desires of the flesh give way to the satisfaction
of the instinct of having more, gluttony, of sexuality, power, and these impede
the love, that is, the presence and the work of God. It is only the Holy Spirit
that shows us and communicates to us the truth which is in God, his pure and
gratuitous love. The presence of the Spirit in us produces: "love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control".
None of this fruit harms man, on the contrary, it builds him and prepares him
to live in communion with others and hence build the Church, the place in which
God gathers all the peoples. Come, Holy Spirit! Every day the world spirit is
making some victory in us. Everyday our ego makes itself felt in our desires
and in our words. Let us therefore continue to call upon the Spirit of the Lord.
Jesus promised him to us and he will send him to us!
The Spirit comes from the Father, and therefore his is love. Jesus sends him
as the Paraclete and as Spirit of truth. As a Paraclete he assists us in every
weak situation. To live as children of the Father and disciples of Jesus we
need power, consolation, exhortation, defense, to be sustained. The Spirit is
the Paraclete, that is, he accompanies us on our journey, called to come close
to us and help us in every situation in which we are weak and unable. He is
a pure Spirit of truth, because he makes our way of action and our being a manifestation
of him whom no one can see, who is hidden because he lives in heaven. The Holy
Spirit in fact, actualize in us and through us the works of love, behavior that
communicates love, words that make live and present the love of the Father.
Jesus would want to say many things to his disciples and would have loved that
all he said to them remain always in their hearts. But they are not ready to
understand and accept the mystery of the will of God, that mystery that has
the cross at its center. Therefore Jesus trusts the Spirit the work to remind
and to instruct, when it is necessary, their hearts. He will "guide to
the whole truth" and "say will say all he heard", "he will
take what is mine and give it to you". Jesus can now go in peace, without
any worry, because even though his own might not be well formed and sure, the
Spirit will come and assists them in the various and difficult circumstance
of their story.
Today we can be sure of the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.
We only need to give a look at her history. In difficult times, when the Church
seemed to have come to an edge of falling down, even so because of the difficult
internal conflicts, or the sin of her leaders, or because of the internal divisions
and the presence of violence and misunderstandings, then the holiness of the
Church and the newness of the evangelical life was flourishing. Church History
is truly a history of a colorful sin of man, but above all, a story of new men
and women, of movements and works that manifest the presence of God and the
kindness of Jesus. The Spirit of God continues to guide the Church, continues
to bring to her the children of God from all peoples, continues to put on the
hearts of men and women initiatives that reflect the holiness of the Father
and his mercy.
With the coming of the Spirit on the disciples of Jesus, something changed in
the whole world. This is what Luke says when he affirms that all heard in their
own language the great works of God. Their surprise was the first consequence,
but their surprise turned to be a listening and therefore a decision. The great
works of God were fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus: who welcomes
this news, is moved by the Spirit to become one with the Son of God, to enjoy
his love and together with him, comes to love the whole world. "Come, Holy
Spirit"!