WORD FOR MISSION
Reflection on mission and
on Sunday Liturgy

THE SPIRIT OF MISSION AND OF FORGIVENESS

Pentecost Sunday - Whitsun

Year “A” - Sunday 15.5.2005

Acts  2:1-11                      Psalm  103 1Cor. 12:3-7.12-13 John  20,19-23

Reflection

The Hebrew festival of Pentecost has gradually become a memorial of the great alliance of God with His people (with Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah, Ezechiel...), in a process of interiorisation of the Law that reached its peak with the gift of the Spirit, given to us as the true and definitive beginning of new life; a Spirit of unity (of faith and of love) in the plurality of charisms and cultures. The first and second Readings bring together the unity and plurality, both gifts of the same Spirit, manifested as wind and fire that fill the house and come down on each one present (Acts 2:2-3). Diverse peoples that make up the map of the known world understand a single language that is common to all (vv.9-11). St Paul clearly attributes to the Spirit the ability to make the Church one and multiple in the plurality of charisms, ministries and activities (cf. 1Cor.12:4-6).

The Holy Spirit is most certainly the greatest fruit of the Pasch of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, who breathes the Spirit on the disciples (Gospel): "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven" (Jn.20:22-23). He is the Spirit of the forgiveness of sins and the Spirit of the universal mission. For John, the gift of the Spirit is essentially linked to the forgiveness of sins. This connection is highlighted in the new formula of Absolution in the Sacrament, as also in the Prayer over the Gifts (Mass of the Saturday before Pentecost) where the Holy Spirit is invoked because "He is our forgiveness". For Luke, "conversion and the forgiveness of sins" is the message that the Apostles have to announce "to all nations" (Lk.24:47). The Sacrament of Reconciliation and the forgiveness of sins is the Paschal gift of Jesus, and a gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the Sacrament of Christian joy (cf. B. Häring).

Besides this, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the universal mission,  indeed, the main agent of the mission (cf. RMi cap. III; EN 75s.) that Jesus entrusts to the Apostles and their successors: "As the Father sent me, so I am sending you" (Jn.20:21). These are words that forever link mission to the life of the Trinity, because the Son is the missionary sent by the Father to save the world, with love. "As the Father sent me, so I am sending you: these are words to be read in parallel with those others: "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you (Jn.15:9, thus establishing and unbreakable link between mission and love, love and mission.

Jesus' breathing over the Apostles on the evening of Easter calls to mind the new creation that is the work of the Spirit, as a well-know exegetist explains: "The gesture of breathing on them symbolises the appearance of a new humanity; nevertheless the Apostles over which this gesture is made are not considered by Jesus as the starting point of this new creation, but rather as collaborators of Christ and the Spirit in the carrying out of this grandiose design: it is usually through their mediation that men and women are snatched from the domination of sin and receive a new life"  (A. Feuillet). In a very real way, even though invisible, the Spirit disposes the hearts of people, even non-Christians, for the saving encounter with Christ, as the Council teaches us. *

The action of the Spirit that can heal and make whole is closely linked to His creative and purifying action. It is a real and effective power, around which there is a particular sensitivity in the missionary world, even though it is not always easy to discern. Symbolically, at this very time (9-16 May) a World Ecumenical Conference is being celebrated in Athens (with over 500 delegates from Christian Churches and confessions, including a Catholic delegation), on the topic of Mission and Evangelisation and the theme "Come, Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile!" His healing action sometimes reaches the body, but much more frequently it touches the human spirit, healing its interior wounds and pouring out the balsam of reconciliation and of peace.

The words of the Pope

*  “By this Spirit... the whole man is inwardly renewed... All this holds true not for Christians only but also for all men of good will, in whose hearts grace is active invisibly. For since Christ died for all, and since all men are in fact called to one and the same destiny, which is divine, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being made partners, in a way known to God, in the paschal mystery"

Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et Spes 22.

(text quoted three times by John Paul II

in Redemptoris Missio, (1990) 6.10.28).

In the footsteps of Missionaries

- 9-16 May: World Ecumenical Conference in Athens on the topic of Mission and Evangelisation and the theme "Come, Holy Spirit, heal and reconcile!"

- 16/5: Bl. Simon Stock (+1265), an English hermit, entered the Carmelite Order, reviving devotion to Mary and consolidating the Order. He died in Bordeaux (France).

- 17/5: Bl. Ivan Ziatyk (1899-1952), a Ukranian Redemptorist priest. He was imprisoned and condemned to hard labour in the camp of Oserlag, near Irkutsk (Siberia), where he died.

- 20/5: St. Bernardine of Siena (1380-1444). A Franciscan priest, and an example of tireless itinerant missionary work and of preaching to the masses.

- 21/5: St. Charles Eugene de Mazenod (1782-1861), Bishop of Marseilles and Founder of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI).

- 21-29/5: The 24th Italian National Eucharistic Congress is celebrated at Bari. The theme is "We cannot live without Sunday!"

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edited by Fr. Romeo  Ballan, mcci – Director of CIAM, Rome – Website:  www.ciam.org   “Parola per la Missione”