Wednesday, June 19, 2019

General Audience reflecting on tongues of fire

This morning's General Audience began at 9:00am local time (3:00am EDT) in Saint Peter's Square where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful from Italy and from every corner of the world.

In his speech, the Pope continued the new cycle of catecheses on the Acts of the Apostles, adding his meditation on the theme: Like tongues of fire Pentecost and the dynamism of the Spirit that enflames the human word and makes it a gospel (Acts 2:3).

After having summarized his catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father offered particular greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.

The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Our Father and the Apostolic blessing.


Catechesis of the Holy Father, Pope Francis
for the General Audience

Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!

Fifty days after Easter, in that cenacle which had become their home and where the presence of Mary, mother of the Lord, was the element of cohesion, the Apostles experienced an event that exceeded their expectations. Gathered in prayer - prayer is the lung that gives breath to the disciples of all times; without prayer one cannot be a disciple of Jesus; without prayer we cannot be Christians! It is air, it is the lung of Christian life - the disciples were surprised by the irruption of God. It is an irruption that does not tolerate anything that is closed: it opens the doors through the force of a wind that brings to mind the ruah, the primordial breath of God, and fulfills the promise of strength made by the Risen One before his dismissal (cf Acts 1:8). Suddenly, from above, a roar, almost a wind that crashes down, filled the whole house where they were (Acts 2:2).

Then the fire is added to the wind which recalls the burning bush and the Sinai with the gift of the ten words (cf Ex 19:16-19). In the biblical tradition, fire accompanies the manifestation of God. In fire, God gives his living and energetic word (cf Heb 4:12) which opens to the future; fire symbolically expresses his work of heating, illuminating and testing hearts, his care in proving the resistance of human works, in purifying and revitalizing them. While at Sinai the voice of God is heard, in Jerusalem, on the feast of Pentecost, it is Peter who speaks, the rock on which Christ chose to build his Church. His word, weak and even capable of denying the Lord, mingled with the fire of the Spirit gains strength, becomes capable of piercing the hearts and moving to conversion. In fact, God chooses what is weak in the world to confuse the strong (cf 1 Cor 1:27).

Thus, the Church is born of the fire of love and of a fire that flares up at Pentecost and which manifests the strength of the Word of the Risen One imbued with the Holy Spirit. The new and definitive Covenant is founded no longer on a law written on stone tablets, but on the action of the Spirit of God who makes all things new and is engraved in hearts of flesh.

The word of the Apostles is imbued with the Spirit of the Risen One and becomes a new, different word, which however can be understood, as if it were translated simultaneously in all languages: in fact each one heard them speaking in his own language (Acts 2: 6). It is the language of truth and love, which is the universal language: even the illiterate can understand it. Everyone understands the language of truth and love. If you go with the truth of your heart, with sincerity, and with love, everyone will understand you. Even if you can't speak, but with a caress, that is truthful and loving.

The Holy Spirit not only manifests itself through a symphony of sounds that unites and harmonically composes the differences but presents itself as the orchestra conductor who plays the scores of the praises for the great works of God. The Holy Spirit is the the creator of communion, it is the artist of reconciliation who knows how to remove the barriers between Jews and Greeks, between slaves and free, to make one body. He builds the community of believers by harmonizing the unity of the body and the multiplicity of the members. It makes the Church grow by helping it to go beyond human limits, sins and any scandal.

The sense of marvel was so great, and someone wondered if those men were drunk. Then Peter intervened on behalf of all the Apostles and reread that event in the light of Joel 3, where a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit was announced. The followers of Jesus were not drunk, but they experienced what Saint Ambrose calls the sober intoxication of the Spirit, which provided prophecy through dreams and visions among God's people. This prophetic gift is not reserved only for some, but for all those who invoke the name of the Lord.

From then on, from that moment, the Spirit of God has moved hearts to welcome the salvation that passes through a Person, Jesus Christ, the One whom men had nailed to the wood of the cross and whom God had raised from the dead freeing him from the sorrows of death (Acts 2.24). It is He who had poured out that Spirit that orchestrated the polyphony of praise and that everyone could hear. As Benedict XVI said, this is Pentecost: Jesus, and through Him God himself, comes to us and draws us into himself (Homily, 3 June 2006). The Spirit works the divine attraction: God seduces us with his Love and thus involves us, to move history and initiate processes through which new life filters. Only the Spirit of God in fact has the power to humanize and fraternize every context, starting from those who welcome it.

Let us ask the Lord to let us experience a new Pentecost, which expands our hearts and tunes our feelings with those of Christ, so that we proclaim his transforming word without shame and bear witness to the power of love that calls to life all that it encounters.
Original text in Italian



The Holy Father's catechesis was then summarized in various languages, and the Holy Father offered greetings to each group of the faithful in attendance.  To English-speaking visitors, he said:

I welcome all the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in today’s Audience, especially those from England, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Australia, India, Indonesia, Canada and the United States of America. My special greeting goes to the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Youth Peace Messengers from Japan. I also greet the winners of the traditional Bible Contest of the Holy Land. Upon all of you I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you!

No comments: