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WORD FOR MISSION Every week CIAM offers
to lay, religious people and priests an itinerary of reflections on the
Sunday Liturgy in a missionary prespective. These are elements for a
missionary meditation, individual or in community, on the Word of God ,
which constantly and surprisingly continues to enlighten, strengthen
and sustain the missionary journey of the Church, for the life of the
World
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The Spirit is constantly launching Mission
Pentecost Sunday Anno C - Domenica 27.5.2007 Acts 2:1-11 Psalm 103 Romans 8:8-17 John 14:15-16,23-26
Reflections The Jewish feast of Pentecost - seven weeks, or 50 days after the Pasch (Easter) was originally a harvest festival following the reaping of the wheat crop (cf Ex.23:16; 34:22). Later on, a “memoria” was added: the promulgation of the Law on Mt. Sinai. As time went on, Pentecost became increasingly an historical celebration: a recalling of the great alliances of God with His people (see Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Ezechiel 36:24-27…). Besides a calendar change, it is important to note a new viewpoint regarding the Law and how the new alliance was understood and lived. The Law was something of which Israel was proud, but it was only a transitional stage, and incomplete..
A process of assimilation-interiorisation of the Law was needed: a process that culminates in the gift of the Holy Spirit, who is given to us in place of the Law, as the true and definitive beginning of new life. The Christian Pentecost celebrates the gift of the Spirit, “who is Lord and giver of life”. Israel grew and developed as a people, based on the Law. In God’s new family, cohesion does not come from an external commandment, no matter how excellent it may be, but from within, from the heart, in the strength of the love given by the Spirit, “because the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rm.5:5). Thanks to Him (2nd Reading) “we are children of God” and we cry out “Abba, Father!” We are the people of the new alliance, called to live a new life, by the power of the Spirit who makes us the family of God, with the dignity of children and heirs (vv.14-17). 14-17). This requires a way of life in keeping with our dignity. Paul describes two life-styles, different and indeed, opposed to each other, according to the choice of each individual: life according to the flesh or according to the Spirit (v. 8-13).
The Spirit leads individuals and groups of people, renewing and transforming them from within. The Spirit opens hearts, purifies them, heals them, reconciles them; helps them to overcome barriers, brings them to communion. He is a Spirit of unity (of faith and love) in the plurality of charismata and of cultures, as is seen in the event of Pentecost (2nd. Reading), in which unity and plurality come together harmoniously, each being the gift of the same Spirit. Various nationalities understand on language that is common to all: all peoples together must become a communion (‘common union’) to announce God’s great works in all languages (cfr. 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 works (cf. 1Cor.12:4-6). The Church has before it a permanent challenge to be both Catholic and missionary to pass from Babel to Pentecost, as Pope Benedict XVI teaches. (*)
The Spirit manifested as wind, fire, gift of tongues is the Spirit of the universal Mission. Indeed, he is the protagonist of Mission (cf RMi ch. III; EN 75s.), which Jesus entrusts to his Apostles and their successors. For this Mission to be carried out, the Spirit is always close to us and active, as Jesus promises five times in his long discourse at the Last Supper (Jn 14,16-17; 14,25-26; 15,26-27; 16,7-11; 16,12-15). He is the Consoler (Gospel) who remains with us always, who lives in those who love (v. 16.23); he is the Teacher who teaches everything and reminds us of all that Jesus has said to us (v. 26). At Pentecost the Apostles finally understand the words of Jesus who has sent them: Go into the whole world, and make of all nations a single family…
A modern prophet of this mission and of Christian unity was Athenagoras, Patriarch of Istambul, a man full of the Spirit, as can be seen in this statement: “Without the Holy Spirit, God is remote, Christ remains in the past, the Gospel is a dead letter, the Church just an organisation, authority a power, mission is propaganda, worship something out of date, moral conduct the behaviour of slaves. But in the Holy Spirit the cosmos is mobilised for the setting up of the Kingdom, the risen Christ is present, the Gospel becomes power and life, the Church achieves the Trinitarian communion, authority is transformed into service, liturgy is a memoria and an anticipation, and human behaviour is made divine.”.
The Pope’s words (*) “The Holy Spirit gives understanding. Overcoming the breach begun in Babel -the confusion of hearts, putting us one against the other- the Spirit opens borders... The new People of God, the Church, is a people that derives from all peoples. The Church is catholic from her beginning and this is her deepest essence... The Church must always become anew what she already is; she must open the borders between peoples and break down the barriers between class and race. In her, there cannot be those who are forgotten or looked down upon. In the Church there are only free brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. The wind and fire of the Holy Spirit must continually break down those barriers that we men and women continue to build between us; we must continually pass from Babel - being closed in on ourselves - to Pentecost.
Benedict XVI Homily on Whit Sunday, 15.05.2005 In the footsteps of Missionaries - 27/5: Pentecost: the Holy Spirit “speaks” in all languages. - 27/5: St. Augustine, Bishop of Canterbury (+AD 604/605). He was a monk in Rome, and Pope Gregory the Great sent him to England as a missionary. He founded several dioceses. - 28/5: Blessed Anthony Julian Nowowiejski (1858-1941) and Leo Wetmanski (1886-1941), Bishop and Auxiliary Bishop of Polock in Poland, and also President and Secretary of the Missionary Union of the Clergy. They both died in a concentration camp. - 29/5: Bl. Joseph Gérard (1831-1914) OMI, a French priest who was a missionary pioneer in South Africa, especially in Lesotho. - 29/5: St. Ursula (Julia) Ledóchowska (1865-1939), an Austrian nun who founded the Ursulines of the Dying Heart of Jesus. She undertook several missionary trips to countries in Europe. - 30/5: St. Giuseppe Marello (1844-1895), Bishop of Acqui Terme (in Piedmont) and Founder of the Oblates of St. Joseph for the moral and Christian formation of youth. - 31/5: Feast of the Visitation: the encounter of Mary and Elisabeth is one of faith and of praise of God. - 1/6: St. Justin, a Christian philosopher, born in Palestine and martyred in Rome (+165). - 1/6: Bl. John B. Scalabrini (1839-1905), Bishop of Piacenza and founder of the Missionaries of St. Charles, for pastoral assistance to emigrants. - 1/6: St. Hannibal M. of France (1851-1927), a priest from Messina in Sicily, and apostle of Prayer for Vocations and founder of the Rogationists. - 2/6: Pope Paul III, with the Bull ‘Sublimis Deus’, condemned slavery in 1537.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Compiled by Fr. Romeo Ballan, mcci - former Director of CIAM, Rome Translated by Fr. J.M. Troy, mccj Website: www.ciam.org “The Word for Mission” ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ |
