Catechesis of Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Part I: The Coming of the Spirit of Truth

 1.   “I believe in the Holy Spirit”

 2.   The Paraclete – the Spirit of Truth

 3.   The Holy Spirit as Advocate

 4.   The coming of the Holy Spirit in the light of the Old Testament promises

 5.   Preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit

 6.   Mary’s presence in the Upper Room at Jerusalem

 7.   Pentecost was originally a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest

 8.   Pentecost is a powerful manifestation of God

 9.   Pentecost: an outpouring of divine life

10   Pentecost: God’s gift of divine adoption

11   Pentecost is the fulfillment of the New Covenant

12   Pentecost: the law of the Spirit

13   Pentecost: People of God, a holy people

14   The birth of the Church

15   Baptism in the Holy Spirit

16   The intrinsic link between the Eucharist and the gift of the Holy Spirit

17   Pentecost marks the beginning of the Church’s mission

18   The Church’s universality and diversity

19   Peter’s discourse after the descent of the Holy Spirit

20   The initial apostolic preaching

21   The effect of Peter’s discourse at Pentecost

22   The presence of Christ’s Kingdom in human history

23   The Holy Spirit in the life of the primitive Church

24   The Pentecost of the Gentiles

25   The Holy Spirit in the mission to the Gentiles

26   The fruitfulness of Pentecost

27   The meaning of “Spirit” in the Old Testament

28   The creative action of the divine Spirit

29   The guiding action of the Spirit of God

30   “The Spirit lifted me …”

31   The Holy Spirit as sanctifier

32   God’s Spirit purifies

33   The Spirit, the Word and Wisdom

34   The Divine Spirit and The Servant (lacking)

1- “I believe in the Holy Spirit”

General Audience, Wednesday 26 April 1989

“1. “I believe in the Holy Spirit”.

In our reflections on the Apostles’ Creed, we now pass from the articles which concern Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man for our salvation, to the article in which we profess our faith in the Holy Spirit. The Christological cycle is followed by that which is called pneumatological. The Apostles’ Creed expresses this concisely in the words: “I believe in the Holy Spirit.”

The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed develops this at greater length: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. With the Father and the Son he is worshipped and glorified. He has spoken through the prophets.”

2. The Creed, the profession of faith formulated by the Church, refers us back to the biblical sources where the truth about the Holy Spirit is presented in the context of the revelation of the Triune God. The Church’s pneumatology is based on Sacred Scripture, especially on the New Testament, although to a certain extent the Old Testament foreshadows it.

The first source to which we can turn is a text from John’s Gospel in Christ’s farewell discourse to his disciples on the day before his passion and death on the cross. Jesus speaks of the coming of the Holy Spirit in connection with his own “departure,” by announcing the coming (or descent) of the Spirit upon the apostles. “I tell you the truth; it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7).

The content of this text may appear paradoxical. Jesus, who makes a point of emphasizing “I tell you the truth,” presents his own “departure” (and therefore his passion and death on the cross) as an advantage: “It is to your advantage….” However, he explains immediately what the value of his death consists in. Since it is a redemptive death, it is the condition for the fulfillment of God’s salvific plan which will be crowned by the coming of the Holy Spirit. It is therefore the condition of all that this coming will bring about for the apostles and for the future Church, as people will receive new life through the reception of the Spirit. The coming of the Spirit and all that will result therefrom in the world will be the fruit of Christ’s redemption.

3. If Jesus’ departure takes place through his death on the cross, one can understand how the evangelist John can already see in this death the power and glory of the crucified. However, Jesus’ words also imply the ascension to the Father as the definitive departure (cf. Jn 16:10), according to what we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “Being exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:33).

The descent of the Holy Spirit occurred after the ascension into heaven. It is then that Christ’s passion and redemptive death produce their full fruit. Jesus Christ, Son of Man, at the climax of his messianic mission, received the Holy Spirit from the Father, in the fullness in which this Spirit is to be given to the apostles and to the Church throughout all ages. Jesus foretold: “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). This clearly indicates the universality of redemption both in the extensive sense of salvation for all humanity, and in the intensive sense of the totality of graces offered to the redeemed.

But this universal redemption must be realised by means of the Holy Spirit.

4. The Holy Spirit is he who comes as a result and by virtue of Christ’s departure. The words of John 16:7 express a causal relationship. The Spirit is sent by virtue of the redemption effected by Christ: “If I go, I will send him to you” (cf. DV 8). Indeed, “according to the divine plan, Christ’s ‘departure’ is an indispensable condition for the ‘sending’ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, but these words also say that what begins now is the new salvific self-giving of God, in the Holy Spirit” (DV 11).

Through his “elevation” on the cross, Jesus Christ will “draw all people to himself” (cf. Jn 12:32). In the light of the words spoken at the Last Supper we understand that that “drawing” is effected by the glorified Christ through the sending of the Holy Spirit. It is for this reason that Christ must go away. The Incarnation achieves its redemptive efficacy through the Holy Spirit. By departing from this world, Christ not only leaves his salvific message, but gives the Holy Spirit, and to that is linked the efficacy of the message and of redemption itself in all its fullness.

5. The Holy Spirit, as presented by Jesus especially in his farewell discourse in the upper room, is evidently a Person distinct from himself: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor” (Jn 14:6). “But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). In speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus frequently uses the personal pronoun “he.” “He will bear witness to me” (Jn 15:26). “He will convince the world of sin” (Jn 16:8). “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13). “He will glorify me” (Jn 16:14). From these texts it is evident that the Holy Spirit is a Person, and not merely an impersonal power issuing from Christ (cf. e.g., Lk 6:19: “Power came forth from him…”). As a Person, he has his own proper activity of a personal character. When speaking of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said to the apostles: “You know him, for he dwells in you, and will be in you” (Jn 14:7). “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). “He will bear witness to me” (Jn 15:26). “He will guide you into all the truth.” “Whatever he hears he will speak” (Jn 16:13). He “will glorify” Christ (cf. Jn 16:14), and “he will convince the world of sin” (Jn 16:8). The Apostle Paul, on his part, states that the Spirit “cries in our hearts” (Gal 4:6); “he apportions” his gifts “to each one individually as he wills” (1 Cor 12:11); “he intercedes for the saints” (Rom 8:27).

6. The Holy Spirit revealed by Jesus is therefore a personal being (the third Person of the Trinity) with his own personal activity. However, in the same farewell discourse, Jesus showed the bonds that unite the person of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. He announced the descent of the Holy Spirit, and at the same time the definitive revelation of God as a Trinity of Persons.

Jesus told the apostles: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor” (Jn 14:16), “the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father” (Jn 15:26), “whom the Father will send in my name” (Jn 14:26). The Holy Spirit is therefore a Person distinct from the Father and from the Son and, at the same time, intimately united with them. “He proceeds” from the Father, the Father “sends” him in the name of the Son and this is in consideration of the redemption effected by the Son through his self-offering on the cross. Therefore, Jesus Christ said: “If I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father” is announced by Christ as the Counselor, whom “I shall send to you from the Father” (Jn 15:26).

7. John’s text which narrates Jesus’ discourse in the upper room contains the revelation of the salvific action of God as Trinity. I wrote in the encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem: “The Holy Spirit, being consubstantial with the Father and the Son in divinity, is love and uncreated gift from which derives as from its source (fons vivus) all giving of gifts vis-Ã -vis creatures (created gifts): the gift of existence to all things, through creation; the gift of grace to human beings through the whole economy of salvation” (n. 10).

The Holy Spirit reveals the depths of the divinity: the mystery of the Trinity in which the divine Persons subsist, but open to human beings to grant them life and salvation. St. Paul refers to that when he writes in the First Letter to the Corinthians that “the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10).”

2- The Paraclete – the Spirit of Truth

General Audience, Wednesday 17 May 1989

“1. Several times we have cited Jesus’ words in his farewell discourse to the apostles in the upper room when he promised the coming of the Holy Spirit as a new and definitive defender and counselor: “I will pray the Father and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever…the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him” (Jn 14:16-17). That farewell discourse, situated in the solemn account of the Last Supper (cf. Jn 13:2), is a source of primary importance for pneumatology, the theological discipline concerning the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke of him as the Paraclete who “proceeds” from the Father, and whom the Father “will send” to the apostles and to the Church “in the name of the Son” when the Son himself “will go away,” a departure which will be effected by the sacrifice of the cross.

We must consider the fact that Jesus called the Paraclete the “Spirit of truth.” He also called him this at other times (cf. Jn 15:26; 16:13).

2. We recall that Jesus in that same farewell discourse, in reply to a question from the apostle Thomas about his identity, said of himself: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). From this twofold reference to the truth made by Jesus to define both himself and the Holy Spirit, one deduces that if he calls the Paraclete the “Spirit of truth,” this means that the Holy Spirit is he who, after Christ’s departure, will preserve among the disciples the truth which he had announced and revealed and, indeed, which he himself is. The Paraclete is the truth, as Christ is the truth. John said so in his First Letter: “The Spirit is the witness, because the Spirit is the truth” (1 Jn 5:7). In that same letter John also writes: “We are of God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and he who is not of God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error” (1 Jn 4:6). The Son’s mission and that of the Holy Spirit meet, are connected and are mutually completed in the affirmation of the truth and in victory over error. Their fields of action are the human spirit and the history of the world. The distinction between truth and error is the initial stage of that work.

3. To remain in the truth and to act in the truth is the essential task of Christ’s apostles and disciples, both in the early times and in all succeeding generations of the Church down the centuries. From this point of view the announcement of the Spirit of truth has a key importance. Jesus said in the upper room: “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (Jn 16:12). Jesus’ messianic mission lasted a short time, too short to disclose to the disciples all the contents of revelation. And not only was the available time short, but the preparation and intelligence of the hearers were limited. On several occasions it is stated that the apostles themselves “were utterly astounded” (cf. Mk 6:52), and “did not understand” (cf. e.g., Mk 8:21), or even misunderstood Christ’s words and deeds (cf. e.g., Mt 16:6-11).

This explains the full significance of the Master’s words: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (Jn 16:13).

4. The first confirmation of this promise of Jesus will be had on the day of Pentecost and the subsequent days, as the Acts of the Apostles attests. The promise is not limited to the apostles and their immediate companions in evangelization. It extends to the future generations of disciples and confessors of Christ. The Gospel is destined for all nations and for all the successive generations which will arise in the context of diverse cultures and of the manifold progress of human civilization. Viewing the whole range of history Jesus said: “The Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father will bear witness to me” (Jn 15:26). “He will bear witness,” that is to say, he will show the true meaning of the Gospel within the Church, so that she may proclaim it authentically to the whole world. Always and everywhere, even in the ceaselessly changing events of the life of humanity, the “Spirit of truth” will guide the Church “into all the truth” (Jn 16:13).

5. The relationship between the revelation communicated by the Holy Spirit and that of Jesus is very close. It is not a question of a different disparate revelation. This can be deduced from the actual words of Christ’s promise: “The Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26). The “bringing to remembrance” is the function of memory. By recalling, one returns to what has been, to what has been said and done, thus renewing the awareness of things past, and as it were, making them live again. In regard to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of a truth endowed with divine power, his mission is not limited to recalling the past as such. “By recalling” the words, deeds and the entire salvific mystery of Christ, the Spirit of truth makes him continually present in the Church. The Spirit ensures that he takes on an ever new “reality” in the community of salvation. Thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit, the Church not only recalls the truth, but remains and lives in the truth received from her Lord. The words of Christ are fulfilled also in this way: “He (the Holy Spirit) will bear witness to me” (Jn 15:26). This witness of the Spirit of truth is thus identified with the presence of the ever living Christ, with the active power of the Gospel, with the redemption increasingly put into effect and with a continual exposition of truth and virtue. In this way the Holy Spirit “guides” the Church “to all the truth.”

6. This truth is present in the Gospel, at least implicitly. What the Holy Spirit will reveal has already been said by Christ. He himself revealed it when, speaking of the Holy Spirit, he emphasized that the Spirit “will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak…. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:13-14). The Christ, glorified by the Spirit of truth, is first of all the same Christ who was crucified, stripped of everything and as it were “emptied” in his humanity for the redemption of the world. Precisely by the work of the Holy Spirit the “word of the cross” was to be accepted by the disciples, to whom the Master himself had said: “…but you cannot bear them now” (Jn 16:12). The shadow of the cross was looming up before those poor men. A profound intervention was needed to make their minds and hearts capable of discerning “the glory of the redemption,” which was accomplished precisely in the cross. A divine intervention was required to convince and transform interiorly each one of them, in preparation especially for the day of Pentecost, and then for the apostolic mission in the world. Jesus informed them that the Holy Spirit “will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” According to St. Paul only the Spirit, who “searches the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10), knows the mystery of the Son-Word in his filial relationship with the Father and in his redemptive relationship with the people of every age. He alone, the Spirit of truth, can open human minds and hearts and make them capable of accepting the inscrutable mystery of God and of his incarnate Son, crucified and risen, Jesus Christ the Lord.

7. Again Jesus said: “The Spirit of truth…will declare to you the things that are to come” (Jn 16:13). What is the meaning of this prophetic and eschatological projection? In it, Jesus placed under the ray of the Holy Spirit the entire future of the Church, the entire historical journey it is called upon to carry out down the centuries. It means going to meet the glorious Christ, toward whom it reaches out as expressed in the invocation inspired by the Spirit: “Come, Lord Jesus!” (Rev 22:17, 20). The Holy Spirit leads the Church toward a constant progress in understanding of revealed truth. He watches over the teaching of that truth, over its preservation and over its application to changing historical situations. He stirs up and guides the development of all that serves the knowledge and spread of that truth, particularly in scriptural exegesis and theological research. These can never be separated from the guidance of the Spirit of truth nor from the Magisterium of the Church, in which the Spirit is always at work.

Everything happens in faith and through faith under the action of the Holy Spirit, as was stated in the encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem: “For the mystery of Christ taken as a whole demands faith, since it is faith that adequately introduces man into the reality of the revealed mystery. The ‘guiding into all the truth’ is therefore achieved in faith and through faith: and this is the work of the Spirit of truth and the result of his action in man. Here the Holy Spirit is to be man’s supreme guide and the light of the human spirit. This holds true for the apostles, the eyewitnesses, who must now bring to all people the proclamation of what Christ did and taught, and especially the proclamation of his cross and resurrection. Taking a longer view, this also holds true for all the generations of disciples and confessors of the Master, since they will have to accept with faith and confess with candor the mystery of God at work in human history, the revealed mystery which explains the definitive meaning of that history” (n. 6).

In this way the Spirit of truth continually announces the things that are to come. He continually shows to humanity this divine future, which is above and beyond every temporal future, and thus fills with eternal value the future of the world. Thus the Spirit convinces man, making him understand that with all that he is and has and does, he is called by God in Christ to salvation.

Thus the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, is man’s true Counselor. Thus he is the true defender and advocate. He is the guarantor of the Gospel in history. Under his influence the good news is always the same and always near, and in an ever new way he illumines man’s path in the perspective of heaven with “words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).”

3- The Holy Spirit as Advocate

General Audience, Wednesday 24 May 1989

“1. In the previous reflection on the Holy Spirit we began with John’s text of Jesus’ farewell discourse. In a certain way this is the principal gospel source of pneumatology. Jesus announced the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, who “proceeds from the Father” (Jn 15:26). He will be sent by the Father to the apostles and the Church in Christ’s name, by virtue of the redemption effected in the sacrifice of the cross, according to the eternal plan of salvation. In the power of this sacrifice the Son also “sends” the Spirit, for he announced that the spirit will come as a consequence, and at the price of his own departure (cf. Jn 16:7). There is a connection stated by Jesus himself between his death-resurrection-ascension and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, between the Pasch and Pentecost. Indeed, according to the fourth Gospel, the giving of the Holy Spirit took place on the very evening of Easter Sunday (cf. Jn 20:22-25). It may be said that the wound in Christ’s side on the cross opened the way for the outpouring of the Spirit, which will be a sign and a fruit of the glory obtained though the Passion and death.

We learn from Jesus’ discourse in the upper room that he called the Holy Spirit the “Paraclete”: “I will pray the Father, and he will send you another Paraclete, to be with you forever” (Jn 14:16). Similarly we read in other texts: “the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit” (cf. Jn 14:16; 15:26; 16:7). Instead of “Paraclete” many translations use the word “Counselor.” That term is acceptable, though it is necessary to have recourse to the original Greek word Parakletos to grasp the full meaning of what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit.

2. Parakletos means literally: “one who is called or appealed to” (from para-kalein, “to call to one’s assistance”). He is therefore the defender,” “the advocate,” as well as the “mediator” who fulfills the function of intercessor. It is this meaning of “advocate-defender” that now interests us, while not forgetting that some Fathers of the Church use Parakletos in the sense of “Counselor” particularly in reference to the Holy Spirit’s action in regard to the Church. For the present we shall speak of the Holy Spirit as the Paraclete-Advocate-Defender. This term enables us to grasp the close relationship between Christ’s action and that of the Holy Spirit, as can be seen from a further analysis of John’s text.

3. When Jesus in the upper room, on the eve of his passion, announced the coming of the Holy Spirit, he did so in the following terms: “The Father will give you another Paraclete.” These words indicate that Christ himself is the first Paraclete, and that the Holy Spirit’s action will be like that of Christ and in a sense prolong it.

Jesus Christ, indeed, was the “defender” and remains such. John himself will say so in his First Letter: “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 Jn 2:1).

The advocate (defender) is he who, taking the part of those who are guilty because of sin committed, defends them from the penalty due to their sins, and saves them from the danger of losing eternal life and salvation. This is precisely what Jesus Christ did. The Holy Spirit is called the Paraclete because he continues Christ’s redemptive work which freed us from sin and eternal death.

4. The Paraclete will be “another advocate-defender” also for a second reason. Remaining with Christ’s disciples, he will watch over them with his omnipotent power. “I will pray the Father,” Jesus said, “and he will give you another Paraclete to be with you forever” (Jn 14:16). “He dwells in you, and will be in you” (Jn 14:16). This promise must be taken together with the others made by Jesus when going to the Father: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). We know that Christ is the Word who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14). When going to the Father he said: “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Mt 28:20). It follows that the apostles and the Church must continually find, by means of the Holy Spirit, that presence of the Word-Son which, during his earthly mission, was physical and visible in his incarnate humanity, but which, after his ascension to the Father, is completely immersed in mystery. The Holy Spirit’s presence which, as Jesus said, is interior to souls and to the Church (“He dwells with you, and will be in you”: Jn 14:17), will make the invisible Christ present in a lasting manner “until the end of the world.” The transcendent unity of the Son and the Holy Spirit will ensure that Christ’s humanity, assumed by the Word, will be present at work wherever the trinitarian plan of salvation is being put into effect through the power of the Father.

5. The Holy Spirit-Paraclete will be the advocate-defender of the apostles, and of all those down through the centuries in the Church who will be the heirs of their witness and apostolate. This is especially so in difficult moments when they are tested to the point of heroism. This was Jesus’ prophecy and promise: “They will deliver you up to councils…you will be dragged before governors and kings…. When they deliver you up, do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say…for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you” (Mt 10:17-20; likewise Mk 13:11; Lk 12:12 says: “for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that hour what you ought to say”).

Even in this very practical sense the Holy Spirit is the Paraclete-Advocate. He is close and even present to the apostles when they must profess the truth, justify it and defend it. He himself then inspires them. He himself speaks through their words, and together with them and through them he bears witness to Christ and his Gospel. Before their accusers he becomes the invisible advocate of the accused, by the fact that he acts as their counselor, defender and supporter.

Especially during persecutions in all ages, those words of Jesus in the upper room are verified: “When the Paraclete comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father…he will bear witness to me; and you also are witnesses, because you have been with me from the beginning” (Jn 15:26-27).

The action of the Holy Spirit is that of “bearing witness.” It is an interior, “immanent” action in the hearts of the disciples, who then bear witness to Christ externally. Through that immanent presence and action, the transcendent power of the truth of Christ who is the Word-Truth and Wisdom, is manifested and advances in the world. From him, through the Spirit, the apostles obtained the power to bear witness according to his promise: “I will give you a mouth of wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict” (Lk 21:15). This happened already in the case of the first martyr Stephen, of whom we read in the Acts of the Apostles that he was “full of the Holy Spirit” (6:5). His adversaries “could not withstand the wisdom and the spirit with which he spoke” (Acts 6:10). Also in the following centuries the opponents of the Christians continued to rage against the heralds of the Gospel. At times they stifled the Christians’ voice in their blood, but without succeeding in suffocating the truth of which they were the messengers. That truth continued to flourish in the world through the power of the Spirit.

7. The Holy Spirit – the Spirit of truth, the Paraclete – is he who according to the words of Christ, “will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment” (Jn 16:8). Jesus’ own explanation of these terms is significant: “Sin” signifies the lack of faith that Jesus met with among “his own,” those of his own people who arrived at the point of condemning him to death on a cross. In speaking of “righteousness,” Jesus seems to have in mind that definitive righteousness which the Father will confer upon him (“…because I go to the Father”) in the resurrection and ascension into heaven. In this context “judgment” means that the Spirit of truth will demonstrate the guilt of the world in rejecting Christ, or more generally, in turning its back upon God. Because Christ did not come into the world to judge and condemn it but to save it, then in actual fact that “convincing the world of sin” on the part of the Spirit of truth must be understood as an intervention directed to the salvation of the world, to the ultimate good of humanity.

“Judgment” refers particularly to the “prince of this world,” namely, Satan. From the very beginning he tried to turn the work of creation against the covenant and union of man with God: knowingly he opposes salvation. Therefore, he “is already judged” from the beginning, as I explained in the encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem (n. 27).

8. If the Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, is to convince the world precisely of this “judgment,” undoubtedly he does so to continue Christ’s work aimed at universal salvation.

We can therefore conclude that in bearing witness to Christ, the Paraclete is an assiduous (though invisible) advocate and defender of the work of salvation, and of all those engaged in this work. He is also the guarantor of the definitive triumph over sin and over the world subjected to sin, in order to free it from sin and introduce it into the way of salvation.”

4- Pentecost is the fulfillment of the New Covenant

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 2 August 1989

“1. The Pasch of Christ’s cross and resurrection found its crowning moment in the Pentecost of Jerusalem. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, assembled in the upper room with Mary and the first community of Christ’s disciples, was the fulfillment of the promises and announcements made by Jesus to his disciples. Pentecost is the solemn public manifestation of the new covenant made between God and man “in the blood” of Christ: “this is the new covenant in my blood,” Jesus had said at the Last Supper (cf. 1 Cor 11:25). This is a new, definitive and eternal covenant, prepared by previous covenants spoken of in the Old Testament. Those already contained the announcement of the definitive pact which God would make with man in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. The revealed word in Ezekiel’s prophecy was an invitation to view the Pentecost event in this light: “And I will put my spirit within you” (Ez 36:27).

2. We have previously noted that whereas Pentecost had at one time been the feast of the harvest (cf. Ex 23:14), it was later celebrated also as a memorial and a renewal of the covenant made by God with Israel after the liberation from the Egyptian bondage (cf. 2 Cor 15:10-13). In any event we read in the Book of Exodus that Moses “took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words'” (Ex 24:7-8).

3. The covenant of Sinai had already been made between the Lord God and Israel. Before that there had been, according to the Bible, God’s covenants with the patriarch Noah and with Abraham.

In the covenant with Noah after the flood, God showed his intention to establish a covenant not only with humanity but also with the whole of creation in the visible world: “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you…with all animals that come from the ark” (Gen 9:9-10).

The covenant with Abraham had also another meaning. God chose a man and made a covenant with him because of his descendants: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Gen 17:7). The covenant with Abraham revealed God’s plan to choose a specific people, Israel, from which the promised Messiah would be born.

2. The divine law was given in the covenant of Sinai

The covenant with Abraham did not contain a law in the true and proper sense. The divine law was given later, in the covenant of Sinai. God promised it to Moses who had gone up the mountain in answer to God’s call: “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine…. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Ex 19:5). Moses informed the elders of Israel of the divine promise, “and all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord” (Ex 19:8).

This biblical description of the preparation of the covenant and of the mediating action of Moses sets out in relief the figure of this great leader and lawgiver of Israel, showing the divine origin of the code which he gave to the people. But it also wishes to make it understood that the covenant of Sinai involved commitments on both sides: the Lord chose Israel as his special possession, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). But it was on the condition that they would remain faithful to his law in the Ten Commandments, and to the other prescriptions and norms. The people of Israel on their part pledged themselves to this fidelity.

The history of the old covenant shows many instances of Israel’s infidelity to God. The prophets especially rebuked Israel for their infidelities, and they interpreted the mournful events of their history as divine punishment. They threatened further punishment, but at the same time they announced another covenant. For example, we read in Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke” (31:31-32).

The new and future covenant will involve man more intimately. Again we read: “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33).

This new initiative of God concerns especially the “interior” person. God’s law will be put in the depths of the human “being” (of the human “I”). This character of interiority is confirmed by the words, “I will write it upon their hearts.” It is therefore a law with which man is identified interiorly. Only then is God truly “their” God.

According to the prophet Isaiah the law constituting the new covenant will be established in the human spirit by means of the spirit of God. The Spirit of the Lord “shall rest upon a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Is 11:2), that is, on the Messiah. The words of the prophet shall be fulfilled in him: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me” (Is 61:1). Guided by the Spirit of God, the Messiah will fulfill the covenant and will make it new and eternal. This is what Isaiah foretold in prophetic words floating above the obscurity of history: “And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children, or out of the mouth of your children’s children, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore” (Is 59:21).

Whatever may be the historical and prophetic periods within which Isaiah’s vision is set, we can well say that his words are fully fulfilled in Christ, in the Word who is his own but also “of the Father who sent him” (cf. Jn 5:37); in his Gospel which renews, completes and vivifies the law; and in the Holy Spirit who is sent by virtue of Christ’s redemption through his cross and resurrection, thus fully confirming what God had already announced through the prophets in the old covenant. With Christ and in the Holy Spirit there is the new covenant, of which the prophet Ezekiel had prophesied as the mouthpiece of God: “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances…and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ez 36:26-28).

In the Pentecost event of Jerusalem the descent of the Holy Spirit definitively fulfilled God’s new and eternal covenant with humanity sealed in the blood of the only-begotten Son, as the crowning moment of the “Gift from on high” (cf. Jas 1:17). In that covenant the Triune God “gives himself,” no longer merely to the Chosen People, but to all humanity. Ezekiel’s prophecy, “you shall be my people and I will be your God” (Ez 36:28), acquires a new and definitive dimension: universality. It realizes to the full the dimension of interiority, because the fullness of the gift—the Holy Spirit—must fill all hearts, giving to all the necessary power to overcome all weakness and sin. It acquires the dimension of eternity: it is a “new and eternal” covenant (cf. Heb 13:20). In that fullness of the gift the Church has its beginning as the People of God of the new and eternal covenant. This fulfilled Christ’s promise concerning the Holy Spirit sent as “another Counselor” (Parakletos), “to be with you forever” (Jn 14:16).”

5- Preparation for the coming of the Holy Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 21 June 1989

“1. We know Jesus’ supreme promise and last order to the apostles before the ascension: “I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Lk 24:49; cf. Acts 1:4). We have spoken of this in a previous reflection, emphasizing the continuity and development of the pneumatological truth between the old covenant and the new. Today we learn from the Acts of the Apostles that that order was carried out by the apostles, who “when they had entered the city went up to the upper room, where they were staying…. All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:13-14). Not only did they remain in the city, but they assembled in the upper room as a community. They remained there in prayer together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, as an immediate preparation for the descent of the Holy Spirit. They also waited and for the first external manifestation, through the work of the Holy Spirit, of the Church born from the death and resurrection of Christ. The whole community as such was preparing for that, and each one personally.

2. It was a preparation made of prayer: “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14). It was a repetition or a prolongation of the prayer through which Jesus of Nazareth prepared for the descent of the Holy Spirit at the moment of his baptism in the Jordan, when he was to begin his messianic mission: “When Jesus…was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him” (Lk 3:21-22).

One might ask: why keep on praying for what has already been promised? Jesus’ prayer at the Jordan shows that it is indispensable to pray for the timely reception of “the perfect gift from above” (cf. Jas 1:17). The community of the apostles and of the first disciples had to prepare for the reception of this very gift which comes from above: the Holy Spirit who was to initiate the mission of Christ’s Church on earth.

In particularly important moments the Church acts in like manner. She joins herself to that assembly of the apostles in prayer together with Christ’s mother. In a certain sense she returns to the upper room. Thus it was, for example, at the beginning of the Second Vatican Council. Every year, moreover, the solemnity of Pentecost is preceded by a novena to the Holy Spirit, which reproduces the experience of the first Christian community awaiting in prayer the coming of the Holy Spirit.

3. The Acts of the Apostles emphasizes that the prayer was with “one accord.” This detail indicates that an important transformation had already taken place in the hearts of the apostles. Previously there had been differences and even rivalry (cf. Mk 9:34; Lk 9:46; 22:24). It was a sign that Jesus’ priestly prayer had begun to bear fruit. In that prayer Jesus had asked for the unity of his disciples: “that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us” (Jn 17:21). “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (Jn 17:23).

Throughout all ages and in every Christian generation, this prayer of Christ for the unity of the Church is always relevant. How appropriate are those words to our own times, characterized by ecumenical efforts on behalf of Christian unity! Perhaps never more than today have they had a significance closer to that very special meaning with which they were uttered by Christ at the moment when the Church was about to be launched into the world! Today also one gets the impression on all sides of a start toward a new world, one more united and drawn together.

4. Moreover, the prayer of the community of the apostles and disciples before Pentecost was persevering: “they devoted themselves to prayer.” It was not a prayer of momentary exaltation. The Greek word used by the author of the Acts of the Apostles suggests a patient assiduousness, in a certain sense even a “stubbornness,” implying sacrifice and the overcoming of difficulty. It was therefore a prayer of the most complete dedication, not only of the heart but also of the will. The apostles were aware of the task that awaited them.

5.That prayer was itself a fruit of the interior action of the Holy Spirit, for it is he who urges to prayer and helps one to be devoted to prayer. Again there comes to mind the analogy with Jesus himself who, before beginning his messianic mission, went into the wilderness. The Gospels stress that “the Spirit drove him” (Mk 1:12; cf. Mt 4:1), that “he was led by the Spirit in the wilderness” (Lk 4:1).

If the gifts of the Spirit are manifold, it must be said that during the period in the upper room at Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit was already at work in the secrecy of prayer. This was so that on the day of Pentecost they might be ready to receive this great and “decisive” gift, by means of which the life of Christ’s Church was to begin definitively on earth.

6. In the united community of prayer other persons were present besides the apostles, and some of them were women.

Christ’s recommendation, at the moment of his departure to return to the Father, concerned the apostles directly. We know that “he charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father” (Acts 1:4). To them he had entrusted a special mission in his Church.

If other persons, and in particular women, now take part in the preparation for Pentecost, this is simply a continuation of Jesus’ own way of acting, as is evident from different passages of the Gospels. Luke even tells us the names of some of these women who were followers, collaborators and benefactors of Jesus: Mary called Magdalene, Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, Susanna, and many others (cf. Lk 8:1-3). The gospel proclamation of the kingdom of God took place not only in the presence of the Twelve and of the disciples in general, but also of these women in particular. The evangelist speaks of them when he said that they “provided for them (Jesus and the apostles) out of their means” (Lk 8:3).

From this it follows that “women on a parity with men are called to share in the kingdom of God which Jesus announced, to be part of it and also to contribute to its growth among people,” as I explained at length in the Apostolic Letter, Mulieris Dignitatem.

7. From this viewpoint, the presence of women in the upper room at Jerusalem, during the preparation for Pentecost and the birth of the Church, takes on particular importance. Men and women, the simple faithful, took part in the entire event alongside the apostles and together with them. From the very beginning the Church has been a community both of apostles and disciples, of men and women alike.

There is no doubt that the presence of the mother of Christ had a great importance in the preparation of the apostolic community for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost. However, this is a subject for a separate reflection.”

6- Mary’s presence in the Upper Room at Jerusalem

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 28 June 1989

“1. “All these with one accord devoted themselves to prayer, together with the women and the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren” (Acts 1:14). In these simple words the author of Acts records the presence of Christ’s mother in the upper room during the days of preparation for Pentecost.

But in the previous catechesis we entered the upper room and saw that the apostles, in obedience to Jesus’ command prior to his departure to the Father, were assembled and “with one accord devoted themselves” to prayer. They were not alone, for other disciples, both men and women, were present with them. Among these persons pertaining to the original Jerusalem community, St. Luke, the author of Acts, also names Mary, Christ’s mother. He names her among those present without adding anything special in her regard. We know, however, that Luke in his Gospel wrote at length about Mary’s divine and virginal motherhood, on the basis of the information obtained by him in the Christian communities for a precise methodological motive (cf. Lk 1:1 ff.: Acts 1:1 ff.). This information was traced back at least indirectly to the earliest source of all data about Mary, namely, the mother of Jesus herself. Consequently, in Luke’s twofold narrative, just as the coming into the world of God’s Son is set in close relationship with the person of Mary, so now the birth of the Church is likewise linked with her. The simple statement that she was present in the upper room at Pentecost is sufficient to indicate to us the great importance attributed by Luke to this detail.

2. In the Acts of the Apostles Mary is as one of those taking part in the preparation for Pentecost as a member of the first community of the Church which was coming into being. On the basis of Luke’s Gospel and of other New Testament texts a Christian tradition on Mary’s presence in the Church was formed, which the Second Vatican Council summed up by hailing her as a preeminent and wholly unique member of the Church (cf. LG 53), inasmuch as she is the mother of Christ, the Man-God, and therefore the mother of God. The Council Fathers recalled in the introductory message the words of the Acts of the Apostles which we have reread. It was as though they wished to emphasize that just as Mary was present at the beginning of the Church, so likewise they desired her presence in the assembly of the apostles’ successors gathered together in the second half of the twentieth century in continuity with the community of the upper room. In coming together for the work of the Council, the Fathers also wished “to devote themselves with one accord to prayer with Mary the mother of Jesus” (cf. Acts 1:14).

3. At the annunciation Mary had experienced the descent of the Holy Spirit. The angel Gabriel had said to her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Through the Spirit’s coming down upon her, Mary was associated in a unique way with the mystery of Christ. In the encyclical Redemptoris Mater I wrote: “In the mystery of Christ she is present even ‘before the creation of the world’ (cf. Eph 1:4), as the one whom the Father ‘has chosen’ from eternity as mother of his Son in the Incarnation. And what is more, together with the Father, the Son has chosen her, entrusting her eternally to the Spirit of holiness” (RM 8).

4. In the upper room in Jerusalem, as the Paschal Mystery of Christ on earth reached its fulfillment, Mary together with the other disciples prepared for a new coming of the Holy Spirit which would mark the birth of the Church. It is true that she was already a “temple of the Holy Spirit” (LG 53) by her fullness of grace and by her divine motherhood. But she took part in the prayers for the Spirit’s coming so that through his power there should burst out in the apostolic community the impulse toward the mission which Jesus Christ, on coming into the world, had received from the Father (cf. Jn 5:36), and on returning to the Father, had transmitted to the Church (cf. Jn 17:18). From the very beginning Mary was united to the Church as a disciple of her Son and as the most outstanding image of the Church in her faith and charity (cf LG 53).

5. The Second Vatican Council emphasized this in the Constitution on the Church where we read: “By reason of the gift and role of divine maternity, by which she is united with her Son, the Redeemer, and with his singular graces and functions, the Blessed Virgin is also intimately united with the Church. As St. Ambrose taught, the mother of God is a type of the Church in the order of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ” (LG 63).

“For in the mystery of the Church…the Blessed Virgin stands out in eminent and singular fashion…. By her belief and obedience, not knowing man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit she brought forth on earth the very Son of the Father” (LG 63).

Mary’s prayer in the upper room in preparation for Pentecost has a special significance, precisely because of the bond with the Holy Spirit established at the moment of the mystery of the Incarnation. Now this bond comes up again, enhanced with a new reference point.

6. In affirming that Mary “stands out” in the order of faith, the Council seems to hark back to Elizabeth’s greeting to her cousin, the Virgin of Nazareth after the annunciation: “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45). The evangelist writes that “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk 1:41) in replying to Mary’s greeting and uttering those words. Moreover, according to the same Luke, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” in the upper room in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). Therefore she also who “was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit” (cf. Mt 1:18) received at Pentecost a new fullness of the Holy Spirit. From that day onward her pilgrimage of faith, charity and perfect union with Christ was linked with the Church’s own pilgrim journey.

The apostolic community needed her presence and that devotedness to prayer together with her, the mother of the Lord. It may be said that in that prayer with Mary, one perceives her special mediation deriving from the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. As his mystical spouse, Mary implores his coming upon the Church born from the pierced side of Christ on the cross, and now about to be revealed to the world.

7. As can be seen, Luke’s brief mention in Acts of the presence of Mary among the apostles and all those who “devoted themselves to prayer” in preparation for Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, has a very rich content.

In the Constitution Lumen Gentium the Second Vatican Council expressed this richness of content. According to this important conciliar text, she who in the midst of the disciples in the upper room devoted herself to prayer, is the mother of the Son, predestined by God to be “the first-born among many brethren” (cf. Rom 8:29). The Council however adds that she herself cooperated “in the regeneration and formation” of these “brethren” of Christ, with her motherly love. The Church in her turn from the day of Pentecost “by her preaching brings forth to a new and immortal life the sons who are born to her in baptism, who are conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of God” (LG 64). The Church, therefore, by becoming herself a mother in this way, looks to the mother of Christ as her model. The Church’s looking to Mary began in the upper room.”

7- Pentecost was originally a celebration of the first fruits of the harvest

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 5 July 1989

“1. From the foregoing catechesis on the article of the creeds on the Holy Spirit, one observes the rich biblical foundation of the pneumatological truth. At the same time, however, we must also note the difference of delineation, in divine revelation, of this truth in relation to the Christological truth. It is evident indeed from the sacred texts that the eternal Son, one in being with the Father, is the fullness of God’s self-revelation in human history. In becoming “son of man,” “born of woman” (cf. Gal 4:4), he was manifested and acted as true man. As such he also definitively revealed the Holy Spirit, announcing his coming and making known his relationship with the Father and the Son in the mission of salvation and therefore in the mystery of the Trinity. According to the announcement and promise of Jesus, the Church, the body of Christ (cf. 1 Cor 12:27) and sacrament of his presence “with us until the end of the world” (cf. Mt 28:20), has her beginning with the coming of the Paraclete.

However, the Holy Spirit, one in being with the Father and Son, remains the “hidden God.” While operating in the Church and in the world, he is not manifested visibly, unlike the Son. The Son assumed human nature and became like us, so that the disciples, during his mortal life, could see him and “touch him with (their) hands,” he, the Word of life (cf. 1 Jn 1:1).

On the other hand, the knowledge of the Holy Spirit, based on faith in Christ’s revelation, is not supported by the vision of a divine Person living among us in human form, but only by the observation of the effects of his presence and operation in us and in the world. The key point of this knowledge is the Pentecost event.

2. According to the religious tradition of Israel, Pentecost was originally the feast of the first fruits of the harvest. “Three times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel” (Ex 34:23). The first time was for the feast of the Pasch; the second for the harvest festival; the third for the so-called Feast of Tabernacles.

The “feast of harvest, of the first fruits of your labor, of what you sow in the field” (Ex 23:16), was called “Pentecost” in Greek, because it was celebrated fifty days after the feast of the Pasch. It was also called the feast of weeks, because it fell seven weeks after the Pasch. The feast of ingathering was celebrated separately, toward the end of the year (cf. Ex 23:16; 34:22). The books of the law contained detailed instructions for the celebration of Pentecost (cf. Lev 23:15ff.; Num 28:26-31), which later also became the feast of the renewal of the covenant (cf. 2 Chr 15:10-13), as we shall see in due course.

3. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles and on the first community of Christ’s disciples who, in the upper room of Jerusalem, “devoted themselves with one accord to prayer,” together with Mary the mother of Jesus (cf. Acts 1:14), is linked with the Old Testament meaning of Pentecost. The feast of harvest becomes the feast of the new “harvest” for which the Holy Spirit is responsible: the harvest in the Spirit.

This harvest is the fruit of the seed sown by Christ. We recall Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel: “I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest” (Jn 4:35). Jesus gave the apostles to understand that only after his death would they reap the harvest of the seed he had sown: “‘one sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their gain” (Jn 4:37-38). From the day of Pentecost, through the work of the Holy Spirit, the apostles will become the reapers of the seed sown by Christ. “He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together” (Jn 4:36). And indeed on the day of Pentecost, after Peter’s first discourse, there was an abundant harvest. “Some three thousand” were converted (Acts 2:41): a cause of great joy both for the apostles and their Master, the divine Sower.

4. The harvest is the fruit of Christ’s sacrifice. Jesus spoke of the sower’s “toil,” and this consists especially in his passion and death on the cross. Christ is that “other one” who has labored for this harvest. He is “another” who has opened the way for the Spirit of truth, who, from the day of Pentecost, begins to work effectively by means of the apostolic kerygma.

The way was opened through Christ’s self-offering on the cross: through his redemptive death, confirmed by the pierced side of the crucified. From his heart “there issued at once blood and water” (Jn 19:34), a sign of physical death. However, one can see in this fact the fulfillment of the mysterious words spoken by Jesus on one occasion on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles, concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit: “If any one thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.'” The evangelist comments: “He said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive” (Jn 7:37-39). This was as if to say that the believers would have received much more than the rain prayed for on the Feast of Tabernacles, drawing on a fountain from which would truly have come the living water of Sion, announced by the prophets (cf. Zech 14:8; Ez 47:1 f.).

5. Concerning the Holy Spirit Jesus had promised: “When I go away I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7). Truly, the water that issues from the pierced side of Christ (cf. Jn 19:34) is the sign of this sending. It will be an abundant outpouring: actually a “river of living water,” a metaphor expressing a special generosity and kindness in God’s self-giving to man.

That Pentecost at Jerusalem confirmed this divine abundance, promised and granted by Christ through the Spirit.

In Luke’s narrative the same circumstances of the feast seem to have a symbolic meaning. The descent of the Spirit occurs at the conclusion of the feast. The expression used by the evangelist suggests a fullness. He said, “When the day of Pentecost had come…” (Acts 2:1). On the other hand, St. Luke again recounts that “they were all together”: not only the apostles, but the entire original group of the nascent Church, men and women, together with the mother of Jesus. It is the first detail to be borne in mind. However, in the description of that event there are also other details which are no less important from the point of view of the “fullness.”

Luke writes: “Suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting…. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:2, 4). One should note that emphasis on fullness (“filled the house,” “they were all filled”). This observation can be taken in conjunction with what Jesus said when going to the Father: “Before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). “Baptized” means “immersed” in the Holy Spirit: this is expressed by the rite of immersion in water during Baptism. The “immersion” and the “being full” signify the same spiritual reality, caused in the apostles and in all present in the upper room by the descent of the Holy Spirit.

6. That “fullness” experienced by the small original community on the day of Pentecost can be considered a spiritual continuation of the fullness of the Holy Spirit that “dwells” in Christ, in whom there is “all fullness” (cf. Col 1:19). As we read in the encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, all that Jesus “says of the Father and of himself—the Son, flows from the fullness of the Spirit which is in him, which fills his heart, pervades his own ‘I,’ inspires and enlivens his action from the depths” (n. 21). For this reason the Gospel can say that Jesus “rejoiced in the Holy Spirit” (Lk 10:21). Thus “the fullness” of the Holy Spirit which is in Christ was manifested on the day of Pentecost by the “filling with the Holy Spirit” of all those assembled in the upper room. Thus there was instituted that Christ-Church reality to which the apostle Paul alludes: “You have come to fullness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Col 2:10).

7. It may be added that the Holy Spirit on Pentecost “becomes the master” of the apostles by demonstrating his power over their humanity. The manifestation of this power has the character of a fullness of the spiritual gift which is manifested as a power of the spirit, a power of mind, will and heart. St. John writes that “to him whom God has sent…he gives the Spirit without measure” (Jn 3:34). This applies in the first place to Christ; but it can also be applied to the apostles to whom Christ has given the Spirit, so that they in turn may transmit him to others.

8. Finally, we note that on Pentecost the prophecy of Ezekiel was fulfilled: “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you” (36:26). Truly this “breath” has brought joy to the reapers, so that it can be said with Isaiah: “They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest” (9:3).

Pentecost – the ancient feast of the harvest – is now presented in the center of Jerusalem with a new meaning, as a special “harvest” of the divine Paraclete. Thus is fulfilled the prophecy of Joel: “In those days I will pour out my spirit on all flesh” (Joel 2:28).”

8- Pentecost is a powerful manifestation of God

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 12 July 1989

“1. Our knowledge of the Holy Spirit is based on what Jesus tells us about him, especially when Jesus speaks about his own departure and his return to the Father. “When I shall have gone away…the Holy Spirit will come to you” (cf. Jn 16:7). Christ’s paschal “departure” through the cross, resurrection and ascension finds its culmination in Pentecost, that is, in the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. They were “of one accord devoted to prayer” in the upper room “together with the mother of Jesus” (cf. Acts 1:14) and the group of persons who formed the nucleus of the original Church.

In that event the Holy Spirit remains the mysterious God (cf. Is 45:15), and such he will remain throughout the entire history of the Church and of the world. It could be said that he is hidden in the shadow of Christ, the Son-Word, one in being with the Father, who in visible form “became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14).

2. In the event of the Incarnation the Holy Spirit was not manifested visibly – he remained the hidden God – and he enveloped Mary in the mystery. The angel said to the Virgin, the woman chosen for God’s definitive approach to man: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Lk 1:35).

Similarly at Pentecost the Holy Spirit “overshadows” the nascent Church, so that under his influence she may be empowered to “announce the mighty works of God” (cf. Acts 2:11). What took place in Mary’s womb in the Incarnation now finds a further fulfillment. The Spirit operates as the “hidden God,” invisible in his person.

3. However, Pentecost is a theophany, that is to say, a powerful divine manifestation. It completes the manifestation on Mount Sinai, after Israel had gone forth from the bondage of Egypt under the guidance of Moses. According to rabbinical tradition, the manifestation on Mount Sinai occurred fifty days after the Pasch of the Exodus, the day of Pentecost.

“Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire; and its smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain quaked greatly” (Ex 19:18). The absolute transcendence of “he who is” (cf. Ex 3:14) then manifested it. Already at the foot of Mount Horeb, Moses had heard from the midst of the burning bush the words: “Do not come near; put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground” (Ex 3:5). Now at the foot of Mount Sinai the Lord said to him: “Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to the Lord to gaze and many of them perish” (Ex 19:21).

4. The theophany of Pentecost is the last of the series of manifestations in which God progressively made himself known to man. With it God’s self-revelation reaches its culmination; through it he wished to infuse into his people faith in his majesty and transcendence and, at the same time, in his immanent presence of “Emmanuel,” of “God with us.”

At Pentecost there is a theophany which, together with Mary, directly touches the whole Church in its initial nucleus, thus completing the long process begun under the old covenant. If we analyze the details of the event in the upper room recorded in Acts (2:1-13), we find there different elements which recall previous theophanies, especially that of Sinai, which Luke seems to have in mind when describing the descent of the Holy Spirit. According to Luke’s description, the theophany in the upper room takes place by means of phenomena resembling those of Sinai: “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:1-4).

Three basic elements mark the event the sound of a mighty wind, tongues as of fire, and the charism of speaking in other languages. All these are rich in a symbolic value which must be borne in mind. In the light of these facts one understands better what the author of Acts had in mind when he said that those present in the upper room “were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

“5. A sound like the rush of a mighty wind.” From the linguistic point of view there is an affinity here between the wind (the breath of wind) and “the spirit.” In Hebrew, as in Greek, “wind” is a homonym of “spirit”: ruahâ pneuma. We read in the Book of Genesis (1:2): “The spirit (ruah) of God was moving over the face of the waters,” and in John’s Gospel: “The wind (pneuma) blows where it wills” (Jn 3:8).

In the Bible a strong wind “announces” the presence of God. It is the sign of a theophany. “He was seen upon the wings of the wind,” we read in the Second Book of Samuel (22:11). “Behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness round about it, and fire flashing forth continually,” is the theophany described at the beginning of the Book of the Prophet Ezekiel (1:4). In particular, the breath of wind is the expression of the divine power which draws forth from chaos the order of creation (cf. Gen 1:2). It is also the expression of the freedom of the Spirit: “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes” (Jn 3:8).

“A sound like the rush of a mighty wind” is the first element of the theophany of Pentecost, a manifestation of the divine power at work in the Holy Spirit.

6. The second element of the Pentecost event is fire: “There appeared to them tongues as of fire” (Acts 2:3).

Fire is always present in the manifestations of God in the Old Testament. We see this in the covenant between God and Abraham (cf. Gen 15:17); likewise when God revealed himself to Moses in the burning bush which was not consumed (cf. Ex 3:2); again, in the columns of fire which guided the people of Israel by night through the desert (cf. Ex 13:21-22). Fire is present particularly in the manifestation of God on Mount Sinai (cf. Ex 19:18), and also in the eschatological theophanies described by the prophets (cf. Is 4:5; 64:1; Dan 7:9 etc.). Fire, therefore, symbolizes the presence of God. On several occasions Sacred Scripture states that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb 12:29; Dt 4:24; 9:3). In the rites of holocaust the destruction of the thing offered was of less importance than the sweet perfume which symbolized the raising up of the offering to God, while fire, also called the “minister of God” (cf. Ps 104:4) symbolized man’s purification from sin, just as silver is refined and gold is tested in the fire (cf. Zech 13:8-9).

In the theophany of Pentecost there is the symbol of the tongues as of fire which rested on each of those present in the upper room. If fire symbolizes God’s presence, the tongues of fire distributed and resting on their heads seem to indicate the “descent” of God the Holy Spirit on those present, the gift of himself to each of them to prepare them for their mission.

7. The gift of the Spirit, the fire of God, assumes a particular form, that of “tongues.” Its meaning is immediately explained when the author adds: “They began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). The words that come from the Holy Spirit are “like fire” (cf. Jer 5:14; 23:29). They have an efficacy that mere human words do not possess. In this third element of the manifestation of God at Pentecost, God the Holy Spirit, in giving himself to men, produced in them an effect which was both real and symbolic. It was real in that it concerned the faculty of speech which is a natural property of man. However, it was also symbolic since these men “from Galilee,” while using their own language or dialect, spoke “in other languages,” so that in the multitude that speedily gathered each one heard “his own language,” although representatives of many different people were present (cf. Acts 2:6).

This symbolism of the “multiplication of languages” is very significant. According to the Bible the diversity of languages was the sign of the multiplication of peoples and of nations, and indeed of their dispersal following the construction of the tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11:5-9). Then the one common language understood by everyone was divided into many languages, thus causing a confusion of mutual incomprehension. Now the symbolism of the tower of Babel is succeeded by that of the languages of Pentecost, which indicates the opposite of that confusion of languages. One might say that the many incomprehensible languages have lost their specific character, or at least have ceased to be a symbol of division. They have given way to the new work of the Holy Spirit, who through the apostles and the Church brings to spiritual unity peoples of different origins, languages and cultures in view of the perfect communion in God announced and implored by Jesus (cf. Jn 17:11, 21-22).

8. We conclude with the words of Vatican Council II in the Constitution on Divine Revelation: “Christ established the kingdom of God on earth, manifested his Father and himself by deeds and words, and completed his work by his death, resurrection and glorious ascension and by the sending of the Holy Spirit. Having been lifted up from the earth, he draws all men to himself (cf. Jn 12:32), he who alone has the words of eternal life (cf. Jn 6:68). This mystery had not been manifested to other generations as it was now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Holy Spirit (cf. Eph 3:4-6), so that they might preach the Gospel, stir up faith in Jesus, Christ and Lord, and gather together the Church” (DViv 17). This is the great work of the Holy Spirit and of the Church in human hearts and in history.”

9- Pentecost: an outpouring of divine life

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Saturday 22 July 1989

“1. The event of Pentecost in the upper room of Jerusalem was a special divine manifestation. We have already considered its principal external elements: “the sound of a mighty wind,” the “tongues of fire” above those assembled in the upper room, and finally the “speaking in other languages.” All these elements indicate not only the presence of the Holy Spirit, but also his special descent on those present, his “self-giving,” which produced in them a visible transformation, as is evident from the text of the Acts of the Apostles (2:1-12). Pentecost closes the long cycle of divine manifestations in the Old Testament, among which the most important was that to Moses on Mount Sinai.

2. From the beginning of this series of pneumatological reflections, we have also mentioned the link between the Pentecost event and Christ’s Pasch, especially under the aspect of his departure to the Father through his death on the cross, his resurrection and ascension. Pentecost is the fulfilment of Jesus’ announcement to the apostles on the day before his passion, during his “farewell discourse” in the upper room of Jerusalem. On that occasion Jesus had spoken of the “new Paraclete”: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, to be with you forever, even the spirit of truth” (Jn 14:16). Jesus emphasized: “When I go, I will send him to you” (Jn 16:7).

Speaking of his departure through his redemptive death on the cross, Jesus had said: “Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me; because I live also” (Jn 14, 19).

Here we have a new aspect of the link between the Pasch and Pentecost: “I live.” Jesus was speaking of the resurrection. “You will live”: the life, which will be manifested and confirmed in my resurrection, will become your life. The transmission of this life, manifested in the mystery of Christ’s Pasch, is effected definitively at Pentecost. Indeed, Christ’s words echo the concluding part of Ezekiel’s prophecy in which God promised: “I shall put my Spirit within you, and you shall live” (37:14). Therefore Pentecost is linked organically to the Pasch. It pertains to Christ’s paschal mystery: “I live and you will live.”

3. By virtue of the coming of the Holy Spirit, Christ’s prayer in the upper room is also fulfilled: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (Jn 17:1-2).

In the paschal mystery, Jesus Christ is the principle of this life. The Holy Spirit gives this life, drawing on the redemption effected by Christ: “He will take what is mine” (Jn 16:14). Jesus himself had said: “It is the Spirit that gives life” (Jn 6:63). Similarly St. Paul proclaims that “the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3:6). Pentecost radiates the truth professed by the Church in the words of the creed: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.”

Together with the Pasch, Pentecost is the climax of the divine Trinity’s economy of salvation in human history.

4. The apostles were assembled on the day of Pentecost in the upper room of Jerusalem together with Mary, the mother of Jesus, and other “disciples” of the Lord, men and women. They were the first to experience the fruits of Christ’s resurrection.

For them Pentecost was the day of resurrection, of new life in the Holy Spirit. It was a spiritual resurrection which we can discern in the transformation of the apostles in the course of all those days; from the Friday of Christ’s passion, through Easter day, until the day of Pentecost. The capture of the Master and his death on the cross were a terrible blow for them, from which they found it difficult to recover. This explains their mistrust and doubts on receiving news of the resurrection, even when they met the risen one. The Gospels refer to it several times: “They would not believe” (Mk 16:11); “some doubted” (Mt 28:17). Jesus himself rebuked them gently: “Why are you troubled and why do questionings arise in your hearts?” (Lk 24:38). He tried to convince them about his identity, by showing them that he was not “a spirit” but had “flesh and bones.” It was for this reason that he even ate a piece of broiled fish before them (cf. Lk 24:37-43).

The event of Pentecost definitively leads the disciples to overcome this attitude of mistrust: the truth of the resurrection fully pervades their minds and wins over their wills. Truly then “out of their hearts flow rivers of living water” (cf. Jn 7:38), as Jesus himself had foretold in a metaphorical sense when speaking of the Holy Spirit.

5. Through the work of the Paraclete, the apostles and the other disciples became an “Easter people,” believers in and witnesses to Christ’s resurrection. Without reserve, they made the truth of that decisive event their own. From the day of Pentecost they were the heralds of “the mighty works of God” (magnalia Dei) (Acts 2:11).

They were made capable of it from within. The Holy Spirit effected their interior transformation by virtue of the new life that derived from Christ in his resurrection and now infused by the new Paraclete into his followers. We can apply to this transformation what Isaiah prophesied metaphorically: “until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest” (Is 32:15). Truly on Pentecost the gospel truth is radiant with light: God “is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mt 22:32), “for all live to him” (Lk 20:38).

6. The theophany of Pentecost opens to all men the prospect of newness of life. That event is the beginning of God’s new “self-giving” to humanity. The apostles are the sign and pledge not only of the “new Israel,” but also of the “new creation” effected by the paschal mystery. As St. Paul writes: “One man’s act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men…. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Rom 5:18-20). This victory of life over death, of grace over sin, achieved by Christ, works in humanity by means of the Holy Spirit. Through him it brings to fruition in our hearts the mystery of redemption (cf. Rom 5:5; Gal 5:22).

Pentecost is the beginning of the process of spiritual renewal, which realizes the economy of salvation in its historical and eschatological dimension, casting itself over all creation.

7. In the Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Dominum et Vivificantem, I wrote: “It is a new beginning in relation to the first original beginning of God’s salvific self-giving, which is identified with the mystery of creation itself. Here is what we read in the very first words of the Book of Genesis: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and the Spirit of God (ruah Elohim) was moving over the face of the waters’ (1:1f.). This biblical concept of creation includes not only the call to existence of the very being of the cosmos, that is to say, the giving of existence, but also the presence of the Spirit of God in creation, that is to say, the beginning of God’s salvific self-communication to the things he creates. This is true first of all concerning man, who has been created in the image and likeness of God” (n. 12). At Pentecost the “new beginning” of God’s salvific self-giving is united to the paschal mystery, source of new life.”

10- Pentecost: God’s gift of divine adoption

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 26 July 1989

“1. We have analyzed the external elements recorded in the Acts of the Apostles of the divine manifestation in the theophany of Pentecost in Jerusalem, namely, “the sound of a mighty wind,” “the tongues of fire” above those assembled in the upper room, and finally that psychological-vocal phenomenon whereby the apostles are understood even by those who speak “other languages.” We have also seen that among all those external manifestations the important and essential element is the interior transformation of the apostles. It is precisely this transformation that expresses the presence and action of the Spirit-Paraclete, whose coming had been promised to the apostles by Christ at the time of his return to the Father.

The descent of the Holy Spirit is closely connected with the paschal mystery, which is effected in the redemptive sacrifice of the cross and in Christ’s resurrection which generates new life. On the day of Pentecost the apostles by the work of the Holy Spirit fully partake in this life, and thus there matures within them the power of the witness which they will bear to the risen Lord.

2. At Pentecost the Holy Spirit is manifested as the giver of life. This is what we profess in the creed when we proclaim him “the Lord, the giver of life.” This completes the economy of God’s self-communication which began when he gave himself to man, created in his image and likeness. This divine gift of self which originally constituted the mystery of the creation of man and of his elevation to supernatural dignity, after sin is projected in history as a promise of salvation. It is fulfilled in the mystery of the redemption effected by Christ, the God-Man, through his sacrifice. Linked to Christ’s paschal mystery, “God’s self-giving” is fulfilled in Pentecost. The theophany of Jerusalem signifies the new beginning of God’s self-giving in the Holy Spirit. The apostles and all those present on that day with Mary, the mother of Christ, in the upper room, were the first to experience this new outpouring of divine life which – in them and through them, and therefore in the Church and through the Church – has been made available to everyone. It is universal, just as redemption is universal.

3. The beginning of the new life is acquired through the gift of divine adoption. This is obtained for all by Christ through the redemption and extended to all by the Holy Spirit. By grace, the Spirit remakes and as it were recreates man in the likeness of the only-begotten Son of the Father. In this way the incarnate Word renews and reinforces God’s “gift of self,” by offering man through the redemption that “participation in the divine nature” mentioned in the Second Letter of Peter (cf. 2 Pet 1:4). St. Paul also, in the Letter to the Romans, speaks of Jesus Christ as “designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead” (cf 2 Pet 1, 4).

The fruit of the resurrection, which realizes the fullness of the power of Christ, Son of God, is therefore shared with those who are open to the action of the Spirit as a new gift of divine adoption. After having spoken of the Word made flesh, St. John says in the prologue of his Gospel that “to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God” (1:12).

The two apostles John and Paul understood the concept of divine adoption as a gift to man of this new life, effected by Christ through the Holy Spirit.

The adoption is a gift coming from the Father, as we read in the First Letter of John: “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1). In the Letter to the Romans Paul expounds the same truth in the light of God’s eternal design: “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren” (8:29). The same apostle in the Letter to the Ephesians speaks of a sonship due to divine adoption, since God has predestined us “to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ” (1:5).

4. Moreover, in the Letter to the Galatians Paul speaks of the eternal design conceived by God in the depth of his trinitarian life. It was accomplished in the “fullness of time” with the coming of the Son in the Incarnation to make us his adopted sons: “God sent forth his Son, born of a woman…so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5). According to the Apostle, the mission of the Holy Spirit is closely connected with the Son’s “mission” (missio) in the trinitarian economy. He adds: “And because we are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Gal 4:6).

Here we touch the goal of the mystery expressed in Pentecost: the Holy Spirit descends “into our hearts” as the Spirit of the Son. Precisely because he is the Spirit of the Son, he enables us to cry out to God together with Christ: “Abba, Father.”

5. This cry expresses the fact that not only are we called to be sons of God, “but we are so indeed,” as the Apostle John emphasizes in his First Letter (3:1). Because of this gift, we truly share in the sonship proper to the Son of God, Jesus Christ. This is the supernatural truth of our relationship with Christ, a truth that can be known only by those who “have known the Father” (cf. 1 Jn 2:13).

This knowledge is possible only by virtue of the Holy Spirit, through the witness which he gives from within to the human spirit. There, he is present as the principle of truth and life. The Apostle Paul tells us: “The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ” (Rom 8:16-17). “You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship whereby we cry, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Rom 8:15).

6. The Spirit reproduces in man the image of the Son, thus establishing the intimate fraternal bond with Christ which leads us to “cry out with him, ‘Abba! Father!'” Hence the Apostle writes that “all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God” (Rom 8:14). The Holy Spirit “breathes” in the hearts of believers as the Spirit of the Son, establishing in man the divine sonship in the likeness of Christ and in union with Christ. The Holy Spirit forms the human spirit from within according to the divine exemplar which is Christ. Thus, through the Spirit, the Christ known in the pages of the Gospel becomes the “life of the soul.” In thinking, loving, judging, acting and even in feeling, man is conformed to Christ, and becomes “Christlike.”

This work of the Holy Spirit has its new beginning at Pentecost in Jerusalem, at the apex of the paschal mystery. From then onward Christ is with us and works in us through the Holy Spirit, putting into effect the eternal design of the Father, who has predestined us “to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ” (Eph 1:5). Let us never tire of repeating and meditating on this marvelous truth of our faith.”

11- Pentecost is the fulfillment of the New Covenant

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 2 August 1989

“1. The Pasch of Christ’s cross and resurrection found its crowning moment in the Pentecost of Jerusalem. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, assembled in the upper room with Mary and the first community of Christ’s disciples, was the fulfillment of the promises and announcements made by Jesus to his disciples. Pentecost is the solemn public manifestation of the new covenant made between God and man “in the blood” of Christ: “this is the new covenant in my blood,” Jesus had said at the Last Supper (cf. 1 Cor 11:25). This is a new, definitive and eternal covenant, prepared by previous covenants spoken of in the Old Testament. Those already contained the announcement of the definitive pact which God would make with man in Christ and in the Holy Spirit. The revealed word in Ezekiel’s prophecy was an invitation to view the Pentecost event in this light: “And I will put my spirit within you” (Ez 36:27).

2. We have previously noted that whereas Pentecost had at one time been the feast of the harvest (cf. Ex 23:14), it was later celebrated also as a memorial and a renewal of the covenant made by God with Israel after the liberation from the Egyptian bondage (cf. 2 Cor 15:10-13). In any event we read in the Book of Exodus that Moses “took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words'” (Ex 24:7-8).

3. The covenant of Sinai had already been made between the Lord God and Israel. Before that there had been, according to the Bible, God’s covenants with the patriarch Noah and with Abraham.

In the covenant with Noah after the flood, God showed his intention to establish a covenant not only with humanity but also with the whole of creation in the visible world: “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you…with all animals that come from the ark” (Gen 9:9-10).

The covenant with Abraham had also another meaning. God chose a man and made a covenant with him because of his descendants: “I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Gen 17:7). The covenant with Abraham revealed God’s plan to choose a specific people, Israel, from which the promised Messiah would be born.

2. The divine law was given in the covenant of Sinai

The covenant with Abraham did not contain a law in the true and proper sense. The divine law was given later, in the covenant of Sinai. God promised it to Moses who had gone up the mountain in answer to God’s call: “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine…. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel” (Ex 19:5). Moses informed the elders of Israel of the divine promise, “and all the people answered together and said, ‘All that the Lord has spoken we will do.’ And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord” (Ex 19:8).

This biblical description of the preparation of the covenant and of the mediating action of Moses sets out in relief the figure of this great leader and lawgiver of Israel, showing the divine origin of the code which he gave to the people. But it also wishes to make it understood that the covenant of Sinai involved commitments on both sides: the Lord chose Israel as his special possession, “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). But it was on the condition that they would remain faithful to his law in the Ten Commandments, and to the other prescriptions and norms. The people of Israel on their part pledged themselves to this fidelity.

The history of the old covenant shows many instances of Israel’s infidelity to God. The prophets especially rebuked Israel for their infidelities, and they interpreted the mournful events of their history as divine punishment. They threatened further punishment, but at the same time they announced another covenant. For example, we read in Jeremiah: “Behold, the days are coming says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke” (31:31-32).

The new and future covenant will involve man more intimately. Again we read: “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33).

This new initiative of God concerns especially the “interior” person. God’s law will be put in the depths of the human “being” (of the human “I”). This character of interiority is confirmed by the words, “I will write it upon their hearts.” It is therefore a law with which man is identified interiorly. Only then is God truly “their” God.

According to the prophet Isaiah the law constituting the new covenant will be established in the human spirit by means of the spirit of God. The Spirit of the Lord “shall rest upon a shoot from the stump of Jesse” (Is 11:2), that is, on the Messiah. The words of the prophet shall be fulfilled in him: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me” (Is 61:1). Guided by the Spirit of God, the Messiah will fulfill the covenant and will make it new and eternal. This is what Isaiah foretold in prophetic words floating above the obscurity of history: “And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit which is upon you, and my words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children, or out of the mouth of your children’s children, says the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore” (Is 59:21).

Whatever may be the historical and prophetic periods within which Isaiah’s vision is set, we can well say that his words are fully fulfilled in Christ, in the Word who is his own but also “of the Father who sent him” (cf. Jn 5:37); in his Gospel which renews, completes and vivifies the law; and in the Holy Spirit who is sent by virtue of Christ’s redemption through his cross and resurrection, thus fully confirming what God had already announced through the prophets in the old covenant. With Christ and in the Holy Spirit there is the new covenant, of which the prophet Ezekiel had prophesied as the mouthpiece of God: “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances…and you shall be my people, and I will be your God” (Ez 36:26-28).

In the Pentecost event of Jerusalem the descent of the Holy Spirit definitively fulfilled God’s new and eternal covenant with humanity sealed in the blood of the only-begotten Son, as the crowning moment of the “Gift from on high” (cf. Jas 1:17). In that covenant the Triune God “gives himself,” no longer merely to the Chosen People, but to all humanity. Ezekiel’s prophecy, “you shall be my people and I will be your God” (Ez 36:28), acquires a new and definitive dimension: universality. It realizes to the full the dimension of interiority, because the fullness of the gift the Holy Spirit must fill all hearts, giving to all the necessary power to overcome all weakness and sin. It acquires the dimension of eternity: it is a “new and eternal” covenant (cf. Heb 13:20). In that fullness of the gift the Church has its beginning as the People of God of the new and eternal covenant. This fulfilled Christ’s promise concerning the Holy Spirit sent as “another Counselor” (Parakletos), “to be with you forever” (Jn 14:16).”

12- Pentecost: the law of the Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 9 August 1989

“1. The descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost was the definitive completion of the paschal mystery of Jesus Christ. It was the full realization of the announcements of the Old Testament, especially those of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel, concerning a new, future covenant which God would establish with man in Christ and an “outpouring” of God’s Spirit “on all mankind” (Joel 3:1). However, this also means a new inscription of God’s law in the depths of man’s being, or, as the prophet says in the “heart” (cf. Jer 31:33). Thus we have a new law, or a law of the spirit, which we must now consider for a more complete understanding of the mystery of the Paraclete.

2. We have already highlighted the fact that the old covenant between God and the people of Israel, established by means of the theophany of Sinai, was based on the law. At its center we find the Decalogue. The Lord exhorted his people to observe the commandments: “If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 9:5-6).

Since that covenant had not been faithfully kept, God announced through the prophets that he would establish a new covenant: “This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts.” These words of Jeremiah, already quoted in the previous catechesis, are joined to the promise: “and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31:33).

3. Therefore the new (future) covenant announced by the prophets was to be established by means of a radical change in man’s relationship with God’s law. Instead of being an external rule, written on tablets of stone, the law was to become, thanks to the action of the Holy Spirit on the human heart, an interior guideline established “in the depths of man’s being.”

According to the Gospel, this law is summarized in the commandment of love for God and neighbor. When Jesus stated that “on these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:40), he made it clear that they were already contained in the Old Testament (cf. Dt 6:5; Lev 19:18). Love for God is “the great and first commandment”; love for our neighbor is “the second (which) is like the first” (Mt 22:37-39). It is also a condition for observing the first: “for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law” (Rom 13:8).

4. The commandment of love for God and neighbor is the essence of the new law established by Christ by word and example (even to giving “his life for his friends”: cf. Jn 15:13). It is written in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. For this reason it becomes the “law of the Spirit.”

As the Apostle writes to the Corinthians: “You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts” (2 Cor 3:3). Therefore the law of the Spirit is man’s interior imperative. Rather, it is the same Holy Spirit who thus becomes man’s teacher and guide in the depths of his heart.

5. A law thus understood is far removed from every form of external constraint to which man may be subjected in his actions. The law of the Gospel, contained in the word and confirmed by the life and death of Christ, consists in a divine revelation which includes the fullness of the truth about the good of human actions. At the same time it heals and perfects man’s inner freedom, as St. Paul writes: “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2). According to the Apostle, the Holy Spirit who gives life, because through him the human spirit shares in God’s life, becomes at the same time the new principle and source of human activity: “in order that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Rom 8:4).

In this teaching St. Paul would have been able to appeal to Jesus himself, who in the Sermon on the Mount had pointed out: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). This fulfillment of God’s law by Jesus Christ through word and example constitutes the model of walking according to the Spirit. In this sense, the law of the spirit, written by him on tablets of human hearts, exists and operates in those who believe in Christ and share in his Spirit.

6. As we see from the Acts of the Apostles, the whole life of the primitive Church was a demonstration of the truth expressed by St. Paul. According to him, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Spirit who has been given to us” (Rom 5:5). In spite of the limitations and defects of its members, the community of Jerusalem shared in the new life which “is given by the Spirit”; it lived out of God’s love. We also have received this life as a gift from the Holy Spirit, who fills us with love love for God and neighbor the essential content of the greatest commandment. Thus the new law, stamped in human hearts by love as a gift of the Holy Spirit, is the law of the Spirit within them. It is the law which gives freedom, as St. Paul writes: “The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:2).

7. For this reason, insofar as it is “the pouring into our hearts” of God’s love (cf. Rom 5:5), Pentecost marks the beginning of a new human morality based on the law of the Spirit. This morality is more than mere observance of the law dictated by reason or by revelation itself. It derives from and at the same time reaches something more profound. It derives from the Holy Spirit and makes it possible to live in a love which comes from God. It becomes a reality in our lives by means of the Holy Spirit who “has been poured into our hearts.”

The Apostle Paul was the greatest proclaimer of this higher morality, rooted in the law of the spirit. He who had been a zealous Pharisee, an expert, a meticulous observer and a fanatical defender of the letter of the old law, and who later became an apostle of Christ, could write about himself: “God…has qualified us to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit: for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life” (2 Cor 3:6).”

13- Pentecost: People of God, a holy people

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 16 August 1989

“1. On the day of Pentecost at Jerusalem, the apostles received the Holy Spirit, together with the first community of Christ’s disciples, assembled in the upper room with Mary, the mother of the Lord. Thus the promise which Christ made to them when he left this world to return to the Father was fulfilled for them. On that day the Church, which had her origins in the Redeemer’s death, was revealed to the world. I shall speak about this in the next catechesis.

Now I would like to show that the coming of the Holy Spirit, as the fulfillment of the new covenant in Christ’s blood, gives rise to the new People of God. This is the community of those who have been “sanctified in Christ Jesus” (1 Cor 1:2); those from whom Christ has made “a kingdom of priests to his God and Father” (Rev 1:6; cf. 5:10; 1 Pet 2:9). All this happened by virtue of the Holy Spirit.

2. So as to grasp fully the significance of this truth, announced by the Apostles Peter and Paul and by the Book of Revelation, we must return for a moment to the establishing of the old covenant between the Lord God and Israel. It was represented by its leader, Moses, after the liberation from the slavery of Egypt. The texts which speak of it indicate clearly that the strict covenant was not reduced to a mere pact founded on bilateral duties. It was the Lord God who chose Israel as his people, so that the people became his property, while he himself would be their God from then onward.

Thus we read: “Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my own possession among all peoples; for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:5-6). The Book of Deuteronomy repeats and confirms what God proclaims in Exodus. “For you (Israel) are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, out of all the peoples that are on the face of the earth” (Dt 7:6; cf. 26:18). (Incidentally, we may note that the expression sequllah means “the king’s personal treasure.”)

3. Such a choice on God’s part derives totally and exclusively from his love, a completely gratuitous love. We read: “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his love upon you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples; but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath which he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage” (Dt 7:7-8). The Book of Exodus expresses the same thing in picturesque language: “You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Ex 19:4).

God acts out of gratuitous love. This love binds Israel to the Lord God in a particular and exceptional way. Through it Israel became God’s property. Yet such love requires a return, and therefore a response of love on Israel’s part: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart” (Dt 6:5).

4. Thus in the covenant a new people, the People of God, came into being. Being the “property” of the Lord God means being consecrated to him, being a holy people. It is what the Lord God makes known to the entire community of the Israelites through Moses: “You shall be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev 19:2). By that very choice God gave himself to his people in that which is most characteristic of him, holiness, and he asked it from Israel as a quality of life.

As a people consecrated to God, Israel is called to be a priestly people: “You shall be called the priests of the Lord; men shall speak of you as ministers of our God” (Is 61:6).

5. The new covenant, new and eternal, comes strictly “in Christ’s blood” (cf. 1 Cor 11:25). By virtue of this sacrifice, the “new Counselor” (Parakletos) (cf. Jn 14:16) the Holy Spirit is given to those who are “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1 Cor 1:2). “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints” (Rom 1:7), St. Paul addressed his letter to the Christians of Rome. He expressed himself similarly to the Corinthians: “To the Church of God which is at Corinth, with all the saints who are in the whole of Achaia” (2 Cor 1:1); to the Philippians: “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi” (Phil 1:1); to the Colossians: “To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae” (Col 1:2); and to those of Ephesus: “To the saints who are at Ephesus” (Eph 1:1).

We find the same mode of expression in the Acts of the Apostles: “Peter…came down also to the saints that lived at Lydda” (Acts 9:32; cf. 9:41; also 9:13 “to your saints at Jerusalem”).

All these cases refer to Christians, or to the faithful, that is, to the brethren who have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the direct builder of that holiness upon which, through participation in the holiness of God himself, the whole Christian life is built: “You were sanctified…in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor 6:11; cf. 2 Thess 2:13; 1 Pet 1:2).

6. The same must be said of the consecration which, in virtue of the Holy Spirit, causes the baptized to become “a kingdom of priests to his God and Father” (cf. Rev 1:6; 5:10; 20:6). The First Letter of Peter fully develops this truth: “Like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).

“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet 2:9). We know that “it was revealed to them” with the voice of the Gospel “through the Holy Spirit sent from heaven” (1 Pet 1:12).

7. The Constitution Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council expressed this truth in the following words: “Christ the Lord, high priest taken from among men (cf. Heb 5:1-5), made the new people ‘a kingdom of priests to God, his Father’ (Rev 1:6; cf. 5:9-10). The baptized, by regeneration and the anointing of the Holy Spirit, are consecrated to be a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, that through all those works which are those of the Christian they may offer spiritual sacrifices and proclaim the power of him who has called them out of darkness into his marvelous light (cf. 1 Pet 2:4-10)” (n. 10).

Here we arrive at the very essence of the Church as People of God and community of saints, to which we shall return in the next catechesis. However, the texts quoted clarify already that the unction, that is, the power and action of the Holy Spirit, is expressed in the condition of holiness and consecration of the new people.”

14- The birth of the Church

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Castel Gondolfo, Wednesday 30 August 1989

“1. The Church, which originated in Christ’s redemptive death, was manifested to the world on Pentecost Day by the work of the Holy Spirit. This is the theme of today’s catechesis, introduced by the previous one on the descent of the Holy Spirit, which gave rise to the new People of God. We have seen how, in reference to the old covenant between the Lord God and Israel as his “chosen” people, the people of the new covenant made “in Christ’s blood” (cf. 1 Cor 11:25) are called in the Holy Spirit to holiness. It is the people consecrated through “the anointing of the Holy Spirit” in the sacrament of Baptism. It is the “royal priesthood” called to offer “spiritual gifts” (cf. 1 Pet 2:9).

By forming the people of the new covenant in this way, the Holy Spirit manifests the Church which flowed from the Redeemer’s heart wounded on the cross.

2. In the Christological cycle of catecheses, we have already shown that Jesus Christ, by “transmitting to the apostles the kingdom received from the Father” (cf. Lk 22:2; Mk 4:11), laid the foundations for building his Church. He did not limit himself to attracting listeners and disciples by means of the words of the Gospel and the signs worked by him. He clearly stated that he wished “to build the Church” on the apostles, and in particular on Peter (cf. Mt 16:18). When the hour of his passion, the evening of the previous day, arrived, he prayed for their “consecration in the truth” (cf. Jn 17:17); he prayed for their unity: “That they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you…so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (cf. Jn 17:21-23). Finally, he gave his life “as a ransom for many” (Mk 10:45), “to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad” (Jn 11:52).

3. The conciliar Constitution Lumen Gentium emphasizes the connection between the Paschal mystery and Pentecost: “When Jesus, who had suffered the death of the cross for mankind, had risen, he appeared as the one constituted as Lord, Christ and eternal Priest, and he poured out on his disciples the Spirit promised by the Father” (n. 5). This happened in accordance with what Jesus announced during the supper before his passion, and repeated before his final departure from this earth to return to the Father: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem…and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

This fact is culminating and decisive for the Church’s existence. Christ announced and instituted her, and then finally “generated” her on the cross through his redemptive death. However, the Church’s existence became evident on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended and the apostles began to “bear witness” to Christ’s paschal mystery. We can speak of this event as a birth of the Church, as we speak of a person’s birth at the moment when he comes forth from his mother’s womb and “is manifested” to the world.

4. In the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem I wrote: “The era of the Church began with the ‘coming,’ that is to say, with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, together with Mary, the Lord’s mother. The time of the Church began at the moment when the promises and predictions that so explicitly referred to the Counselor, the Spirit of truth, began to be fulfilled in complete power and clarity upon the apostles, thus determining the birth of the Church…. The Holy Spirit assumed the invisible but in a certain way ‘perceptible’ guidance of those who after the departure of the Lord Jesus felt deeply that they had been left orphans. With the coming of the Spirit they felt capable of fulfilling the mission entrusted to them. They felt full of strength. It is precisely this that the Spirit worked in them, and this is certainly at work in the Church, through their successors” (n. 25).

5. The birth of the Church is like a “new creation” (cf. Eph 2:15). We can make an analogy with the first creation, when “the Lord formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen 2:7). To this breath of life man owes the spirit which makes him a human person. We must refer back to this creative breath when we read that the risen Christ, appearing to the apostles assembled in the upper room, “breathed on them, and said to them: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained'” (Jn 20:22-23). This event, which took place the very evening of the Pasch, can be considered as a Pentecost in anticipation, not yet public. Then followed the day of Pentecost, the public manifestation of the gift of the Spirit. Jesus Christ, “exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out this Spirit” (Acts 2:33). Therefore through the work of the Holy Spirit there has been “the new creation” (cf. Ps 104:30).

6. Besides the analogy with the Book of Genesis, we can find another in a passage from the Book of Ezekiel where we read: “Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live” (Ez 37:9). “Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your grave, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of Israel” (Ez 37:12). “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live…you shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken” (Ez 37:14). “…and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet” (Ez 37:10).

This magnificent and penetrating prophetic vision concerns the messianic restoration of Israel after the exile, announced by God after the long period of suffering (cf. Ez 37:11-14). The same announcement of revival and new life was given by Hosea (cf. 6:2; 13; 14) and by Isaiah (26:19). Yet the symbolism used by the prophet gave Israel the desire for an individual resurrection, perhaps already foreseen by Job (cf. 19:25). As other passages show, this idea would develop gradually in the Old Testament (cf. Dan 12:2; 2 Macc 7:9-14; 23-36; 12:43-46) and in the New (Mt 22:29-32; 1 Cor 15). However, that idea prepared for the concept of the new life which would be revealed in Christ’s resurrection and would come down on those who would believe, through the work of the Holy Spirit. We believers in Christ can also read a certain paschal analogy in the text of Ezekiel.

7. Here is a final aspect of the mystery of the Church’s birth at Pentecost through the Spirit’s action. In it Christ’s priestly prayer in the upper room is realized: “that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (Jn 17:21). Descending upon the apostles assembled with Mary, Christ’s mother, the Holy Spirit transforms and unites them, “filling them” with the fullness of the divine life. They become “one,” an apostolic community, ready to bear witness to the crucified and risen Christ. This is the new creation which flowed from the cross and was given life by the Holy Spirit, who gave it its historical beginning at Pentecost.”

15- Baptism in the Holy Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Castel Gondolfo, Wednesday 6 September 1989

“1. When the Church, originating in the sacrifice of the cross, began her early journey by means of the descent of the Holy Spirit in the upper room at Pentecost, “her time” began. “It was the time of the Church” as collaborator of the Spirit in the mission of making the redemption by Christ fruitful among humanity from generation to generation. In this mission and in collaboration with the Spirit, the Church realizes the sacramentality which the Second Vatican Council attributes to her when it teaches: “The Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race” (LG 1). This sacramentality has a deep significance in relation to the mystery of Pentecost, which gives the Church the strength and the charisms to work visibly among the whole human family.

2. In this catechesis we wish to consider principally the relationship between Pentecost and the sacrament of Baptism. We know that the coming of the Holy Spirit had been announced at the Jordan together with the coming of Christ. John the Baptist was to link the two comings, and indeed to show their intimate connection when speaking of baptism: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mk 1:8). “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Mt 3:11). This link between the Holy Spirit and fire is found in the context of biblical language, which already in the Old Testament showed fire as the means adopted by God to purify consciences (cf. Is 1:25; 6:5-7; Zech 13:9; Mal 3:2-3; Sir 2:5 etc.). In its turn, the baptism practiced in Judaism and in other ancient religious was a ritual immersion, which signified a regenerating purification. John the Baptist had adopted this practice of baptizing with water, while emphasizing that its value was not merely ritual but oral, because it was “for conversion” (cf. Mt 3:2, 6, 8, 11; Lk 3:10-14). Besides, it was a kind of initiation through which those who received it became the Baptist’s disciples and formed around him a community characterized by its eschatological expectation of the Messiah (cf. Mt 3:2, 11; Jn 1:13-14). Nevertheless, it was a baptism with water. It therefore did not have the power of sacramental purification. Such power would have been characteristic of the baptism of fire in itself an element much more powerful than water brought by the Messiah. John proclaimed the preparatory and symbolic function of his baptism in relation to the Messiah, who was to baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Mt 3:11; cf. 3, 7, 10, 12: Jn 1:33). He added that the Messiah would thoroughly purify with the fire of the Spirit those who were well disposed, gathered like “wheat in the granary.” Yet he would burn “the chaff…with unquenchable fire” (Mt 3:12), like the “hell of fire” (cf. Mt 18:8-9), a symbol of the end destined for all who did not let themselves be purified (cf. Is 66:24; Jdt 16:17; Sir 7:17; Zeph 1:18; Ps 21:10, etc.).

3. While developing his role as prophet and precursor along the lines of Old Testament symbolism, the Baptist one day met Jesus by the Jordan. He recognized him as the Messiah, proclaimed that he is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29), and baptized him at his request (cf. Mt 3:14-15). Yet at the same time he testified to the messiahship of Jesus, whose mere announcer and precursor he claimed to be. This testimony of John was supplemented by his own statement to his disciples and hearers concerning the experience which he had on that occasion, and which perhaps had reminded him of the Genesis narrative about the end of the flood (cf. Gen 8:10): “I saw the Spirit descend as a dove from heaven, and it remained on him. I myself did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me: ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, this is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit…'” (Jn 1:32-33; cf. Mt 3:16; Mk 1:8; Lk 3:22).

“Baptizing in the Holy Spirit” means regenerating humanity with the power of God’s Spirit. That is what the Messiah does. As Isaiah had foretold (11:2; 42:1), the Spirit rests on him, filling his humanity with divine strength, from his Incarnation to the fullness of the resurrection after his death on the cross (cf. Jn 7:29; 14:26; 16:7, 8; 20:22; Lk 24:49). Having acquired this fullness, Jesus the Messiah can give the new baptism in the Spirit of whom he is full (cf. Jn 1:33; Acts 1:5). From his glorified humanity, as from a fountain of living water, the Spirit will flow over the world (cf. Jn 7:37-39; 19:34; cf. Rom 5:5). This is the announcement which the Baptist made when bearing witness to Christ on the occasion of his baptism, in which are found the symbols of water and fire, expressing the mystery of the new life-giving energy which the Messiah and the Spirit have poured out on the world.

4. During his ministry, Jesus also spoke of his passion and death as a baptism which he himself must receive: a baptism, because he must be totally immersed in the suffering symbolized by the cup which he must drink (cf. Mk 10:38; 14:36). But it was a baptism which Jesus connected to the other symbol of fire. In this it is easy enough to glimpse the Spirit who “pours out” his humanity, and who one day, after the fire of the cross, would flow over the world. He would spread the baptism of fire which Jesus so longed to receive that he was in anguish until it was accomplished in him (cf. Lk 12:50).

5. In the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem I wrote: “The Old Testament on several occasions speaks of fire from heaven which burnt the oblations presented by men. By analogy one can say that the Holy Spirit is the fire from heaven which works in the depths of the mystery of the cross. The Holy Spirit as Love and Gift comes down, in a certain sense, into the very heart of the sacrifice which is offered on the cross. Referring here to the biblical tradition we can say: he consumes this sacrifice with the fire of the love which united the Son with the Father in the trinitarian communion. And since the sacrifice of the cross is an act proper to Christ, also in this sacrifice he receives the Holy Spirit. He receives the Holy Spirit in such a way that afterward and he alone with God the Father can give him to the apostles, to the Church, to humanity. He alone sends the Spirit from the Father. He alone appears to the apostles in the upper room, breathes on them and says: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit; if you forgive the sons of any, they are forgiven’ (cf. Jn 20:23)” (n. 41).

6. Thus John’s messianic announcement at the Jordan is fulfilled: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Mt 3:11; cf. Lk 3:16). Here also is found the realization of the symbolism by which God himself is shown as a column of fire which guides the people through the desert (cf. Ex 13:21-22); as the word of fire through which “the mountain (Sinai) burned with fire to the heart of heaven” (Dt 4:11); as a fire of ardent glory with love for Israel (cf. Dt 4:24). What Christ himself promised when he said that he had come to cast fire on the earth (cf. Lk 12:49) is fulfilled, while the Book of Revelation would say of him that his eyes are blazing like a fire (cf. Rev 1:14; 2:18; 19-12). Thus it is clear that the Holy Spirit is represented by the fire (cf. Acts 2:3). All this happens in the paschal mystery, when Christ “received the baptism with which he himself was to be baptized” (cf. Mk 10:38) in the sacrifice on the cross, and in the mystery of Pentecost, when the risen and glorified Christ pours his Spirit on the apostles and on the Church.

According to St. Paul, by that “baptism of fire” received in his sacrifice, Christ in his resurrection became the “last Adam,” “a life-giving spirit” (cf. 1 Cor 15:45). For this reason the risen Christ announced to the apostles: “John baptized with water but before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5). By the work of the “last Adam,” Christ, “the life-giving Spirit” (cf. Jn 6:83) would be given to the apostles and to the Church.

7. On the day of Pentecost this baptism is revealed. It is the new and final baptism which purifies and sanctifies through a new life. It is the baptism in virtue of which the Church is born in the eschatological perspective which extends “to the close of the age” (cf. Mt 28:20); not merely the Church of Jerusalem of the apostles and the Lord’s immediate disciples, but the entire Church, taken in her universality, realized through the times and in the places where she is established on earth.

The tongues of fire which accompanied the Pentecost event in the upper room at Jerusalem are the sign of that fire which Jesus Christ brought and enkindled on earth (cf. Lk 12:43): the fire of the Holy Spirit.

8. In the light of Pentecost we can also understand better the significance of Baptism as a first sacrament, insofar as it is a work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus himself had referred to it in his conversation with Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (Jn 3:5). In this same conversation Jesus referred also to his future death on the cross (cf. Jn 3:14-15) and to his heavenly glory (cf. Jn 3:13). It is the baptism of the sacrifice, from which the baptism by water, the first sacrament of the Church, received power to effect her birth from the Holy Spirit and to open to humanity the “entrance to God’s kingdom.” Indeed, as St. Paul writes to the Romans, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death? We are buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:3-4). This baptismal walk in newness of life began on Pentecost day at Jerusalem.

9. Several times in his letters the Apostle points out the significance of Baptism (cf. 1 Cor 6:11; Tit 3:5; 2 Cor 1:22; Eph 1:13). He sees it as a “washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit” (Tit 3:5); a portent of justification “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 6:11; cf. 2 Cor 1:22); as a “seal of the promised Holy Spirit” (cf. Eph 1:13); as “a guarantee of the Spirit in our hearts” (cf. 2 Cor 1:22). Given this presence of the Holy Spirit in the baptized, the Apostle recommends to the Christians of that time and also repeats to us today: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30).”

16- The intrinsic link between the Eucharist and the gift of the Holy Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Castel Gondolfo, Wednesday 13 September 1989

“1. Jesus’ promise “…before many days you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 1:5), indicates the special link between the Holy Spirit and baptism. We saw in the previous reflection that beginning with John’s baptism of penance at the Jordan when he announced the coming of Christ, we are brought close to him who will baptize “with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” We are also brought close to that unique baptism with which he himself was to be baptized (cf. Mk 10:38): the sacrifice of the cross offered by Christ “through the eternal Spirit” (Heb 9:14). He became “the last Adam who became a life-giving spirit,” according to the statement of St. Paul (cf. 1 Cor 15:45). We know that on the day of the resurrection Christ granted to the apostles the Spirit, the giver of life (cf. Jn 20:22), and also later at Pentecost when all were “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 2:4).

2. There is therefore an objective relationship between Christ’s paschal sacrifice and the gift of the Spirit. Since the Eucharist mystically renews Christ’s redemptive sacrifice, one can easily see the intrinsic link between this sacrament and the gift of the Spirit. In founding the Church through his coming on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit established it in objective relationship to the Eucharist, and ordered it toward the Eucharist. Jesus had said in one of his parables: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son” (Mt 22:2). The Eucharist is the sacramental anticipation and, in a certain sense, a “foretaste” of that royal feast which the Book of Revelation calls “the marriage supper of the Lamb” (cf. Rev 19:9). The bridegroom who is at the center of that marriage feast and of its Eucharistic foreshadowing and anticipation is the Lamb who “took away the sins of the world,” the Redeemer.

3. In the Church born of the baptism of Pentecost, when the apostles and with them the other disciples and followers of Christ, were “baptized with the Spirit,” the Eucharist is and remains until the end of time the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ.

In it is present “the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God” (Heb 9:14); the blood “poured out for many” (Mk 14:24) “for the forgiveness of sins” (Mt 26:28); the blood “which purifies your conscience from dead works” (cf. Heb 9:14); the “blood of the covenant” (Mt 26:28). When instituting the Eucharist, Jesus himself said: “This cup…is the new covenant in my blood” (Lk 22:20; cf. 1 Cor 11:25), and he told the apostles: “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19).

In the Eucharist – on each occasion – there is re-presented the sacrifice of the Body and Blood offered by Christ once for all on the cross to the Father for the redemption of the world. The Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem states: “In the sacrifice of the Son of Man the Holy Spirit is present and active…. The same Christ Jesus in his own humanity opened himself totally to this action…[which] from suffering enables salvific love to spring forth” (n. 40).

4. The Eucharist is the sacrament of this redemptive love, closely connected with the Holy Spirit’s presence and action. At this point how can we fail to recall Jesus’ words in the synagogue of Capernaum, after the multiplication of the bread (cf. Jn 6:27), when he proclaimed the necessity of being nourished on his body and blood? Many of his hearers thought his discourse “on eating his body and drinking his blood” (cf. Jn 6:53) “a hard saying” (Jn 6:60). Realizing their difficulty, Jesus said to them: “Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending where he was before?” (Jn 6:61-62). That was an explicit allusion to his future ascension into heaven. At that very point he added a reference to the Holy Spirit which would be fully understood only after the ascension. He said: “It is the Spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn 6:63).

Jesus’ hearers understood that first announcement of the Eucharist in a “material” sense. The Master immediately explained that his words would be clarified and understood only through the “Spirit, the giver of life.” In the Eucharist Christ gives us his body and blood as food and drink, under the appearance of bread and wine, just as during the paschal meal at the Last Supper. Only through the Spirit, the giver of life, can the Eucharistic food and drink produce in us “communion,” that is to say, the salvific union with Christ crucified and glorified.

5. A significant fact is linked to the Pentecost event: from the earliest times after the descent of the Holy Spirit the apostles and their followers, converted and baptized, “devoted themselves to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). It was as if the Holy Spirit himself had directed them toward the Eucharist.

In the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem I stated: “Guided by the Holy Spirit, the Church from the beginning expressed and confirmed her identity through the Eucharist” (n. 62).

The primitive Church was a community founded on the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42). It was completely animated by the Holy Spirit who enlightened the believers to understand the Word, and gathered them together in charity around the Eucharist. Thus the Church grew into a multitude of believers who “were of one heart and soul” (Acts 4:32).

6. In the same encyclical already quoted we read: “Through the Eucharist, individuals and communities, by the action of the Paraclete-Counselor, learn to discover the divine sense of human life” (n. 62). They discover the value of the interior life, realizing in themselves the image of the Triune God. This is always presented to us in the books of the New Testament and especially in St. Paul’s letters, as the alpha and omega of our lives. That is to say, it is the principle according to which man is created and modeled, and the last end to which he is directed and led by the will and plan of the Father, reflected in the Son-Word and in the Spirit-Love. It is a beautiful and profound interpretation which patristic tradition has given of the key principle of Christian spirituality and anthropology. It was summarized and formulated in theological terms by St. Thomas (cf. Summa Theol., I, q. 93, a. 8). This is how it is expressed in the Letter to the Ephesians: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:14-19).

7. It is Christ who gives us this divine fullness (cf. Col 2:9 f.) through the action of the Holy Spirit. Thus, filled with divine life, Christians enter and live in the fullness of the whole Christ, which is the Church, and through the Church, in the new universe which is gradually being constructed (cf. Eph 1:23; 4:12-13; Col 2:10). At the center of the Church is the Eucharist, where Christ is present and active in humanity and in the whole world by means of the Holy Spirit.

17- Pentecost marks the beginning of the Church’s mission

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Castel Gondolfo, Wednesday 20 September 1989

“1. In the Council’s Decree Ad Gentes, on the Church’s missionary activity, the Pentecost event and the historical beginning of the Church are closely connected: “On the day of Pentecost (the Holy Spirit) came down upon the disciples…. For it was from Pentecost that the ‘acts of the apostles’ took origin” (AG 4). If, therefore, from the moment of her birth, by going out into the world on the day of Pentecost, the Church is manifested as “missionary,” this was through the work of the Holy Spirit. We can also add that the Church always remains such: she remains “in a state of mission” (in statu missionis). The missionary character belongs to her very essence. It is a constitutive property of the Church of Christ, because the Holy Spirit has made her missionary from her origin.

2. An analysis of the text of the Acts of the Apostles which records the event of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-13), indicates the truth of this conciliar assertion which pertains to the common patrimony of the Church.

We know that the apostles and the other disciples, assembled with Mary in the upper room, heard “a sound like the rush of a mighty wind,” and there appeared to them “tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them” (cf. Acts 2:2-3). In the Jewish tradition fire was a sign of a special manifestation of God who spoke for the instruction, guidance and salvation of his people. The memory of the marvelous experience of Sinai was alive in the soul of Israel and disposed her to understand the meaning of the new communications contained under that symbolism, as is evident also from the Jerusalem Talmud (cf. Hag 2, 77b, 32; cf. also the Midrash Rabbah 5, 9 on Exodus 4:27). The same Jewish tradition had prepared the apostles to understand that the “tongues” signified the mission of proclamation, witness and preaching which Jesus himself had enjoined on them. The “fire” was in relation not only to the law of God, which Jesus had confirmed and brought to completion, but also to himself, to his person, and to his life, death and resurrection, since he was the new Torah to be proclaimed in the world. Under the action of the Holy Spirit, the “tongues of fire” became the word on the lips of the apostles: “They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4).

3. Already in the history of the Old Testament there had been similar manifestations in which the spirit of the Lord was given for prophetic utterance (cf. Mic 3:8; Is 61:1; Zech 7:12; Neh 9:30). Isaiah tells us that one of the seraphim flew to him, “having in his hand a burning coal which he had taken with tongs from the altar.” With it he touched his lips to cleanse him from all guilt, before the Lord entrusted him with the mission of speaking to his people (cf. Is 6:6-9 ff.). The apostles were aware of this traditional symbolism and were therefore able to grasp the meaning of what was happening to them on that Pentecost, as Peter testified in his first discourse, by linking the gift of tongues to Joel’s prophecy about the future outpouring of the divine Spirit which was to enable the disciples to prophesy (Acts 2:17 ff.; Joel 3:1-5).

4. With the “tongues of fire” (Acts 2:3) each apostle received the multiform gift of the Spirit, just as the servants in the gospel parable had all received a certain number of talents to make fruitful (cf. Mt 25:14 ff.). That “tongue” was a sign of the awareness which the apostles had and kept alive concerning the missionary task to which they were called and dedicated. As soon as they were “filled with the Holy Spirit, they began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Their power came from the Spirit, and they carried out the task consigned to them under an interior impulse from on High.

5. This happened in the upper room, but very soon the missionary proclamation and glossolalia or gift of tongues went beyond the place where they dwelt. Two extraordinary events took place, and they are described in the Acts of the Apostles. First of all, it describes the gift of tongues by which they spoke words pertaining to a multiplicity of languages and used to sing the praises of God (cf. Acts 2:11). The multitude summoned by the sound and amazed by that fact was made up of “devout Jews” who were in Jerusalem for the paschal feast. They belonged to “every nation under heaven” (Acts 2:5) and they spoke the languages of the peoples into whom they were civilly and administratively integrated, even though ethnically they were still Jews. Now that multitude assembled around the apostles “was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. They were amazed and wondered, saying, ‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that each of us hears in his own native language?'” (Acts 2:6-8). At this point Luke does not hesitate to trace a kind of map of the Mediterranean world from which those devout Jews came. It was as though he placed that world of converts to Christ in opposition to the babel of languages and peoples described in Genesis (11:1-9), without failing to mention among the others, “visitors from Rome,” “Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontius and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians” (Acts 2:11-19). In the mouths of them all Luke, as though reliving the event that had happened at Jerusalem and had been handed down in the early Christian tradition, places the words: “We hear from [the apostles, Galileans by origin] telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11).

6. The event of that day was certainly mysterious, and also very significant. We can discover in it a sign of the universality of Christendom and of the Church’s missionary character. The sacred writer presents it to us, knowing well that the message is destined for the people of every nation. It is the Holy Spirit who intervenes to ensure that each one understands at least something in his own language: “Each of us hears in his own native language” (Acts 2:8). Today we would speak of an adaptation to the linguistic and cultural conditions of each one. One can therefore see in all this a primary form of inculturation, effected by the work of the Holy Spirit.

7. The other extraordinary fact is the courage with which Peter and the eleven “stood up” and began to explain the messianic and pneumatological meaning of what was happening before the eyes of that bewildered multitude (Acts 2:14 ff.). We shall return to this matter in due course. Here we may make a final reflection on the contrast (a kind of analogy from contraries) between what happens at Pentecost and what we read in the Book of Genesis on the subject of the Tower of Babel (cf. Gen 11:1-9). There we are witnesses of the dispersion of the languages, and therefore of the people who, in speaking different languages, cannot understand one another. At Pentecost, on the contrary, under the action of the Spirit who is the “Spirit of truth” (cf. Jn 15:26), the diversity of languages no longer impedes the understanding of what is proclaimed in the name and to the praise of God. Thus there is a relationship of interhuman union which goes beyond the boundaries of languages and cultures, and this union is brought about in the world by the Holy Spirit.

8. It is an initial fulfillment of the words addressed by Christ to the apostles before ascending to the Father: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

The Second Vatican Council comments: “The Church, which the Spirit guides in the way of all truth and which he unified in communion and in works of ministry, he both equips and directs with hierarchical and charismatic gifts” (LG 4), “giving life, soul-like, to ecclesiastical institutions and instilling into the hearts of the faithful the same mission spirit which impelled Christ himself” (AG 4). From Christ, to the apostles, to the Church, to the whole world: under the action of the Holy Spirit the process of the universal unification in truth and love can and must unfold.”

18- Peter’s discourse after the descent of the Holy Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 25 October 1989

“1. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the apostles began to speak in various languages, “all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?'” (Acts 2:12). The Acts enables us to discern the meaning of that extraordinary fact, because the book has already described what took place in the upper room, when Christ’s apostles and disciples men and women assembled together with Mary, his mother, and were “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). In this event the Spirit-Paraclete himself remains invisible. However, the activity of those in whom and through whom the Spirit acts is visible. From the moment the apostles left the upper room, their unusual behavior was noted by the crowd that came running and gathered around them. They all asked themselves: “What does this mean?” The author of Acts does not fail to add that among the witnesses of the event there were also some who scoffed at the apostles’ behavior, suggesting that they were probably “filled with new wine” (Acts 2:13).

Such a situation required a word of explanation to clarify the true meaning of what had happened. It was also necessary to make known to those who had gathered outside the upper room the Holy Spirit’s action experienced by those assembled within when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

2. It was a fitting occasion for Peter’s first discourse. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he spoke also in the name of, and in communion with, the other apostles. Peter exercised for the first time his function of herald of the Gospel, preacher of divine truth and witness to the Word. It may be said that he initiated the mission of the Popes and bishops who were to succeed him and the other apostles down the centuries. “Then Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice” (Acts 2:14).

In this discourse of Peter one observes the Church’s apostolic structure such as it was from the beginning. The eleven shared with Peter the same mission, the vocation to bear the same authoritative witness. Peter spoke as the first among them by virtue of the mandate received directly from Christ. No one called into question his duty and right to speak first and in the name of the others. This manifested the action of the Holy Spirit who, according to the Second Vatican Council, guides the Church in the way of truth and bestows upon her varied hierarchical and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs her (cf. LG 4).

3. Peter’s words at Jerusalem, in communion with the eleven, remind us that the Church’s primary pastoral task is proclaiming the Gospel: evangelization. This is what Vatican II teaches us: “For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock” (LG 25). Also “priests, as co-workers with their bishops, have the primary duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God to all. In this way they fulfill the command of the Lord: ‘Going therefore into the whole world preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mk 16:15) and they establish and build up the People of God” (PO 4).

4. It may also be noted, according to that passage from Acts, that the spontaneous charismatic witnessing of individuals to Christ does not suffice for evangelization. These charismatic transports proceed from the Holy Spirit and under some aspects they provide the first witness to his work. This was seen in the “glossolalia” on the day of Pentecost. However, an authoritative, motivated and systematic evangelization is also essential. This took place in apostolic times and in the first community of Jerusalem with the kerygma and catechesis, which, under the action of the Holy Spirit, enabled the mind to discover in its unity and to comprehend in its meaning the divine plan of salvation. This is precisely what happened on the day of Pentecost. It was necessary that the event which had just taken place should be made known and explained to the people of different nations who had gathered outside the upper room. It was necessary to instruct them about God’s salvific plan, expressed in what had happened.

5. Peter’s discourse is also important from this point of view. For this very reason, before proceeding to examine its content, we should dwell for a moment on the person of the speaker.

On two occasions before the passion, Peter had already professed his faith in Christ.

On one occasion, after the announcement of the Eucharist in the neighborhood of Capernaum, Jesus, on seeing many of his disciples turn their backs on him, asked the apostles: “Will you also go away?” (Jn 6:67). Peter replied with those words inspired from on high: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:68-69).

On another occasion Peter’s profession of faith took place near Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asked the apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” According to Matthew, “Simon Peter replied: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'” (Mt 16:15-16).

Now, on the day of Pentecost, Peter, by this time freed from the crisis of fear that had led him to deny Jesus on the eve of the passion, professed that same faith in Christ. Strengthened by the paschal event, he proclaimed openly before all those people that Christ was risen! (cf. Acts 2:24 ff.)

6. Moreover, in being the first to speak out, Peter revealed his own awareness and that of the other eleven that he bore the chief responsibility for preaching and teaching the faith in Christ, even though the eleven shared with him in the task and responsibility. Peter was aware of what he was doing when, in his first discourse, he exercised the mission of teacher deriving from his apostolic office.

On the other hand, Peter’s discourse was in a certain way an extension of Jesus’ own teaching. Just as Christ exhorted his hearers to believe, so likewise did Peter. Jesus carried out his ministry in the pre-paschal period one might say, in the perspective of his resurrection, while Peter spoke and acted in the light of the Pasch which was already a fact. That confirmed the truth of the mission and Gospel of Christ. He spoke and acted under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, recalling Christ’s words and deeds which shed light on the Pentecost event itself.

7. Finally, we read in the Acts of the Apostles that “Peter…lifted up his voice” (2:14). Here the author seems to want to refer not only to the strength of Peter’s voice, but also and especially to the force of conviction and authority with which he spoke. Something happened similar to what the Gospels tell us about Jesus, namely, that when he taught, those who heard him “were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority” (Mt 1:22; cf. also Mt 7:29), “because he spoke with authority” (Lk 4:32).

On the day of Pentecost Peter and the other apostles, having received the Spirit of truth, could by his power speak after the manner of Christ. From his very first discourse Peter expressed in his words the authority of revealed truth itself.”

19- Peter’s discourse after the descent of the Holy Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 25 October 1989

“1. We read in the Acts of the Apostles that, after the descent of the Holy Spirit, when the apostles began to speak in various languages, “all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, ‘What does this mean?'” (Acts 2:12). The Acts enables us to discern the meaning of that extraordinary fact, because the book has already described what took place in the upper room, when Christ’s apostles and disciples men and women assembled together with Mary, his mother, and were “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). In this event the Spirit-Paraclete himself remains invisible. However, the activity of those in whom and through whom the Spirit acts is visible. From the moment the apostles left the upper room, their unusual behavior was noted by the crowd that came running and gathered around them. They all asked themselves: “What does this mean?” The author of Acts does not fail to add that among the witnesses of the event there were also some who scoffed at the apostles’ behavior, suggesting that they were probably “filled with new wine” (Acts 2:13).

Such a situation required a word of explanation to clarify the true meaning of what had happened. It was also necessary to make known to those who had gathered outside the upper room the Holy Spirit’s action experienced by those assembled within when the Holy Spirit descended upon them.

2. It was a fitting occasion for Peter’s first discourse. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he spoke also in the name of, and in communion with, the other apostles. Peter exercised for the first time his function of herald of the Gospel, preacher of divine truth and witness to the Word. It may be said that he initiated the mission of the Popes and bishops who were to succeed him and the other apostles down the centuries. “Then Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice” (Acts 2:14).

In this discourse of Peter one observes the Church’s apostolic structure such as it was from the beginning. The eleven shared with Peter the same mission, the vocation to bear the same authoritative witness. Peter spoke as the first among them by virtue of the mandate received directly from Christ. No one called into question his duty and right to speak first and in the name of the others. This manifested the action of the Holy Spirit who, according to the Second Vatican Council, guides the Church in the way of truth and bestows upon her varied hierarchical and charismatic gifts, and in this way directs her (cf. LG 4).

3. Peter’s words at Jerusalem, in communion with the eleven, remind us that the Church’s primary pastoral task is proclaiming the Gospel: evangelization. This is what Vatican II teaches us: “For bishops are preachers of the faith, who lead new disciples to Christ, and they are authentic teachers, that is, teachers endowed with the authority of Christ, who preach to the people committed to them the faith they must believe and put into practice, and by the light of the Holy Spirit illustrate that faith. They bring forth from the treasury of Revelation new things and old, making it bear fruit and vigilantly warding off any errors that threaten their flock” (LG 25). Also “priests, as co-workers with their bishops, have the primary duty of proclaiming the Gospel of God to all. In this way they fulfill the command of the Lord: ‘Going therefore into the whole world preach the Gospel to every creature’ (Mk 16:15) and they establish and build up the People of God” (PO 4).

4. It may also be noted, according to that passage from Acts, that the spontaneous charismatic witnessing of individuals to Christ does not suffice for evangelization. These charismatic transports proceed from the Holy Spirit and under some aspects they provide the first witness to his work. This was seen in the “glossolalia” on the day of Pentecost. However, an authoritative, motivated and systematic evangelization is also essential. This took place in apostolic times and in the first community of Jerusalem with the kerygma and catechesis, which, under the action of the Holy Spirit, enabled the mind to discover in its unity and to comprehend in its meaning the divine plan of salvation. This is precisely what happened on the day of Pentecost. It was necessary that the event which had just taken place should be made known and explained to the people of different nations who had gathered outside the upper room. It was necessary to instruct them about God’s salvific plan, expressed in what had happened.

5. Peter’s discourse is also important from this point of view. For this very reason, before proceeding to examine its content, we should dwell for a moment on the person of the speaker.

On two occasions before the passion, Peter had already professed his faith in Christ.

On one occasion, after the announcement of the Eucharist in the neighborhood of Capernaum, Jesus, on seeing many of his disciples turn their backs on him, asked the apostles: “Will you also go away?” (Jn 6:67). Peter replied with those words inspired from on high: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God” (Jn 6:68-69).

On another occasion Peter’s profession of faith took place near Caesarea Philippi, when Jesus asked the apostles: “Who do you say that I am?” According to Matthew, “Simon Peter replied: ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God'” (Mt 16:15-16).

Now, on the day of Pentecost, Peter, by this time freed from the crisis of fear that had led him to deny Jesus on the eve of the passion, professed that same faith in Christ. Strengthened by the paschal event, he proclaimed openly before all those people that Christ was risen! (cf. Acts 2:24 ff.)

6. Moreover, in being the first to speak out, Peter revealed his own awareness and that of the other eleven that he bore the chief responsibility for preaching and teaching the faith in Christ, even though the eleven shared with him in the task and responsibility. Peter was aware of what he was doing when, in his first discourse, he exercised the mission of teacher deriving from his apostolic office.

On the other hand, Peter’s discourse was in a certain way an extension of Jesus’ own teaching. Just as Christ exhorted his hearers to believe, so likewise did Peter. Jesus carried out his ministry in the pre-paschal period one might say, in the perspective of his resurrection, while Peter spoke and acted in the light of the Pasch which was already a fact. That confirmed the truth of the mission and Gospel of Christ. He spoke and acted under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, recalling Christ’s words and deeds which shed light on the Pentecost event itself.

7. Finally, we read in the Acts of the Apostles that “Peter…lifted up his voice” (2:14). Here the author seems to want to refer not only to the strength of Peter’s voice, but also and especially to the force of conviction and authority with which he spoke. Something happened similar to what the Gospels tell us about Jesus, namely, that when he taught, those who heard him “were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority” (Mt 1:22; cf. also Mt 7:29), “because he spoke with authority” (Lk 4:32).

On the day of Pentecost Peter and the other apostles, having received the Spirit of truth, could by his power speak after the manner of Christ. From his very first discourse Peter expressed in his words the authority of revealed truth itself.”

20- The initial apostolic preaching

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Wednesday Audience, Wednesday 8 November 1989

“1. Before his return to the Father, Jesus had promised the apostles: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). As I wrote in the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, “On the day of Pentecost this prediction was fulfilled with total accuracy. Acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, who had been received by the apostles while they were praying in the upper room, Peter comes forward and speaks before a multitude of people of different languages, gathered for the feast. He proclaims what he certainly would not have had the courage to say before” (n. 30). It is the first witness given publicly and one might say solemnly to the risen Christ, to Christ victorious. It is also the beginning of the apostolic preaching.

2. We already spoke about it in the previous reflection, examining it from the point of view of the teacher: “Peter with the eleven” (cf. Acts 2:14). Today we wish to analyze the content of that first sermon, as a model or schema of the many other proclamations which will follow in the Acts of the Apostles, and later in the history of the Church.

Peter addressed those who had assembled near the upper room: “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem” (Acts 2:14). They were the same people who had witnessed the phenomenon of the glossolalia, and heard in their own languages the apostles speaking of “the mighty works of God” (cf. Acts 2:11). In his discourse Peter began by defending or at least explaining the condition of those who, “filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4), were suspected of being drunk because of their unusual behavior. From the opening words he gave the answer: “These men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day: but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel” (Acts 2:15-16).

3. The passage from Joel is extensively quoted in Acts: “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” (Acts 2:17). This “outpouring of the Spirit” on both young and old, on menservants and maidservants, will have therefore a universal character. And it will be confirmed by signs: “I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below” (Acts 2:19). These will be the signs of the “day of the Lord” which is approaching (cf. Acts 2:20). “And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21).

4. In the mind of the speaker, the text from Joel aptly explains the meaning of the event of which those present saw the signs: “the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” It was a supernatural act of God joined to signs typical of the coming of God, foretold by the prophets and identified by the New Testament with the coming of Christ. This is the context in which Peter concentrated the essential content of his discourse, which is the very nucleus of the apostolic “kerygma”: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:22-24).

Perhaps not all those present at Peter’s discourse, having come from many regions for the Pasch and Pentecost, had taken part in the events in Jerusalem which ended with Christ’s crucifixion. But Peter addressed them also as “men of Israel,” belonging to an ancient world in which, by that time, the signs of the Lord’s new coming were clear for everyone.

5. The signs and wonders to which Peter referred were certainly still within the recollection of the people of Jerusalem, but also of many others of his hearers. They must have at least heard Jesus of Nazareth spoken about. In any case, having recalled all that Jesus had done, Peter passed to the fact of Jesus’ death on the cross, and spoke directly of the responsibility of those who had consigned him to death. However, he added that Christ “was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God” (cf. Acts 2:23). Peter therefore introduced his hearers into the vision of God’s salvific plan which was fulfilled precisely by means of Christ’s death. And he hastened to give the decisive confirmation of God’s action through and beyond what had been done by men. This confirmation is Christ’s resurrection: “God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24).

It is the culminating point of the apostolic kerygma concerning Christ the Savior who had vanquished death.

6. At this point Peter again had recourse to the Old Testament. He cited the messianic psalm 16 vv. 8-11:

“I saw the Lord always before me,

for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken;

therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;

moreover my flesh will dwell in hope.

For you will not abandon my soul to Hades

not let your Holy One see corruption.

You have made known to me the ways of life;

You will make me full of gladness with your presence” (Acts 2:25-28).

It is a legitimate adaptation of the Davidic Psalm which the author of Acts quotes according to the Greek text of the Septuagint. It emphasizes the aspiration of the Jewish soul to escape death, in the sense of a hope of liberation from death even after it has taken place.

7. Doubtlessly Peter was at pains to stress that the words of the psalm do not refer to David, whose tomb, he remarked, was with them to that day. They refer, rather, to his descendant, Jesus Christ: David “foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ” (Acts 2:31). The prophetic words are therefore fulfilled: “This Jesus Christ God raised up, and of that we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear…. Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:32-33, 36).

8. On the day before his passion Jesus had told the apostles in the upper room, in reference to the Holy Spirit: “He will bear witness to me…and you also are witnesses” (Jn 15:26-27). As I wrote in the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, “In the first discourse of Peter in Jerusalem this ‘witness’ finds its clear beginning: it is the witness to Christ crucified and risen, the witness of the Spirit-Paraclete and of the apostles” (n. 30).

In this testimony Peter wished to remind his hearers of the mystery of the risen Christ. But he also wished to explain the facts of Pentecost at which they were present, by showing that they were signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete really came by virtue of Christ’s Pasch. He came and transformed those men of Galilee, to whom was entrusted the witness concerning Christ, “exalted at the right hand of the Father” (cf. Acts 2:33), that is to say, exalted by his victory over death. His coming was therefore a confirmation of the divine power of the risen Christ. “Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36). In writing to the Romans Paul also proclaimed: “Jesus is Lord” (Rom 10:9).”

21- The effect of Peter’s discourse at Pentecost

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 15 November 1989

“1. After recording Peter’s first discourse on the day of Pentecost, the author of Acts informs us that those present “were cut to the heart” (Acts 2:37). These eloquent words indicate the action of the Holy Spirit in the souls of those who heard from Peter the first apostolic preaching, his witness concerning Christ crucified and risen, and his explanation of the extraordinary events which had taken place that day. In particular, that first public presentation of the paschal mystery reached the core of the expectations of the people of the old covenant, when Peter said: “God has made both Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified” (Acts 2:36).

The same Holy Spirit who had descended upon the apostles was now at work in the hearts of those who heard the apostolic preaching. Peter’s words touched their hearts, awakening in them “a conviction of their sinfulness,” the beginning of conversion.

2. Filled with remorse, “…they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles: ‘Brethren, what shall we do?'” (Acts 2:37). The question, “what shall we do?” shows their readiness of will. It was the interior good predisposition of Peter’s listeners that made them aware that it was necessary to change their lives when they heard his words. They addressed Peter and the other apostles. They knew that Peter spoke for the eleven also, and that the eleven therefore (that is to say, all the apostles) were witnesses of the same truth and were charged with the same mission. It is also significant that they called them “brethren,” echoing Peter who had spoken in a fraternal spirit in his discourse, in the latter part of which he addressed those present as “brethren.”

3. Peter himself then replied to the question of those present. It was a simple reply which could well be described as lapidary: “Repent” (Acts 2:38). Jesus had begun his messianic mission with this exhortation (cf. Mk 1:15). Peter repeated it on the day of Pentecost, in the power of the Spirit of Christ who descended on him and on the other apostles.

Repentance, as I emphasized in the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, is the crucial step in the process of conversion which the Holy Spirit works within us: “By becoming ‘the light of hearts,’ that is, the light of consciences, the Holy Spirit ‘convinces concerning sin,’ which is to say, he makes man realize his own evil [i.e. the evil committed by himself], and at the same time directs him toward what is good…. Thus the conversion of the human heart, which is an indispensable condition for the forgiveness of sins, is brought about by the influence of the Counselor” (n. 42).

4. On the lips of Peter “repent” means: change from the rejection of Christ to faith in the Risen One. The crucifixion had been the definitive expression of the rejection of Christ, sealed by an ignominious death on Golgotha. Peter exhorted those who crucified Jesus to have faith in the risen one: “God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death” (Acts 2:24). Pentecost, then, was the confirmation of Christ’s resurrection.

The exhortation to conversion implies above all faith in Christ the Redeemer. Indeed, the resurrection is the revelation of that divine power which, by means of Christ’s crucifixion and death, effects man’s redemption and his liberation from sin.

If through Peter’s preaching the Holy Spirit “convinces concerning sin,” he does so “by virtue of the redemption accomplished by the blood of the Son of Man….” The Letter to the Hebrews says that this “blood purifies the conscience” (cf. 9:14). It therefore, so to speak, opens to the Holy Spirit the door into man’s inmost being, namely, into the “sanctuary of human consciences” (DViv 42).

In his Pentecost discourse, Peter proclaimed and testified that this profound and inmost level is reached by the action of the Holy Spirit in virtue of Christ’s redemption.

5. Peter went on to complete his message as follows: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). Here we have the echo of what Peter and the other apostles heard from Jesus after his resurrection, when “he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, ‘Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise from the dead… and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem'” (Lk 24:45-47).

Following faithfully what Christ had laid down (cf. Mk 16:16; Mt 28:19), Peter called not only for repentance but also for baptism in Christ’s name “for the forgiveness of…sins” (Acts 2:38). On the day of Pentecost the apostles were “baptized in the Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 2:4). Therefore, in passing on the faith in Christ the Redeemer, they urged people to be baptized, for baptism is the first sacrament of this faith. Since it effects the forgiveness of sins, the faith should find in baptism its own sacramental expression so that man may share in the gift of the Holy Spirit.

This is the ordinary way of conversion and grace. Other ways are not excluded, for “the Spirit blows where it wills” (cf. Jn 3:8). The Spirit can accomplish the work of salvation by sanctifying man apart from the sacrament, when its reception is not possible. It is the mystery of the meeting between divine grace and the human soul. Let this reference suffice for the moment, for we shall speak about it again, God willing, in the reflections on Baptism.

6. In the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem I analyzed the victory over sin won by the Holy Spirit in reference to the action of Christ the Redeemer. There I wrote: “The convincing concerning sin, through the ministry of the apostolic kerygma in the early Church, is referred under the impulse of the Spirit poured out at Pentecost to the redemptive power of Christ crucified and risen. Thus the promise concerning the Holy Spirit made before Easter is fulfilled: ‘He will take what is mine and declare it to you.’ When therefore, during the Pentecost event, Peter speaks of the sin of those who ‘have not believed’ and have sent Jesus of Nazareth to an ignominious death, he bears witness to victory over sin: a victory achieved, in a certain sense, through the greatest sin that man could commit: the killing of Jesus, the Son of God, consubstantial with the Father! Similarly, the death of the Son of God conquers human death: ‘I will be your death, O death,’ as the sin of having crucified the Son of God ‘conquers’ human sin: that sin which was committed in Jerusalem on Good Friday and also every human sin. For the greatest sin on man’s part is matched, in the heart of the Redeemer, by the oblation of supreme love that conquers the evil of all the sins of man” (n. 31).

It is therefore a victory of love! This is the truth contained in Peter’s exhortation to conversion through Baptism.

7. By virtue of Christ’s victorious love the Church also is born in sacramental Baptism through the work of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, when the first conversions to Christ took place.

We read that “those who received his word (that is, the truth contained in Peter’s words) were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41), that is, “they were added” to those who had been previously “baptized in the Holy Spirit,” the apostles. Having been baptized “with water and the Holy Spirit,” they become the community “of the adopted sons of God” (cf. Rom 8:15). As “sons in the Son” (cf. Eph 1:5) they become “one” in the bond of a new brotherhood. Through the action of the Holy Spirit they become the Church of Christ.

8. In this regard one must recall the event concerning Simon Peter which took place on the lake of Gennesaret. The evangelist Luke tells us that Jesus “said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.’ And Simon answered, ‘Master, we toiled all night and took nothing. But at your word I will let down the nets.’ And when they had done this, they enclosed a great catch of fish, and their nets were breaking…and they filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord….’ And Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men.’ And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him” (Lk 5:4-8; 10-11).

That event-sign contained the announcement of the future victory over sin through faith, repentance and baptism, preached by Peter in Christ’s name. That announcement became reality on the day of Pentecost, when it was confirmed by the work of the Holy Spirit. Peter the fisherman and his companions on the lake of Gennesaret found in this reality the paschal expression of Christ’s power, and at the same time the meaning of their apostolic mission. They found the fulfillment of the announcement: “From now on you will be a fisher of men.””

22- The presence of Christ’s Kingdom in human history

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

Castel Gondolfo, Wednesday 22 November 1989

“1. As we have seen in the progressive unfolding of the pneumatological reflections, the Holy Spirit revealed himself in his salvific power on the day of Pentecost. He was revealed as “another Counselor” (cf. Jn 14:16), who “proceeds from the Father” (Jn 15:26), whom “the Father sends in the Son’s name” (cf. Jn 14:26). He was revealed as “Someone” distinct from the Father and the Son, and at the same time consubstantial with them. He is revealed through the Son, even though he remained invisible. He was revealed through the power and action attributed to him, distinct from that of the Son, and at the same time intimately united to him. Such is the Holy Spirit according to Christ’s statement on the day before his passion: “He will glorify me for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:14). “He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come” (Jn 16:13).

The Paraclete-Counselor does not replace Christ. He comes after him in virtue of Christ’s redemptive sacrifice. He comes so that Christ can remain in the Church and work in her as Redeemer and Lord.

2. I wrote in the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem: “Between the Holy Spirit and Christ there thus subsists, in the economy of salvation, an intimate bond whereby the Spirit works in human history as ‘another Counselor,’ permanently ensuring the transmission and spreading of the Good News revealed by Jesus of Nazareth. Thus in the Holy Spirit Paraclete, who in the mystery and action of the Church unceasingly continues the historical presence on earth of the Redeemer and his saving work, the glory of Christ shines forth, as the following words attest: ‘He (the Spirit of truth) will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you'” (n. 7).

3. The truth contained in this promise of Jesus became evident at Pentecost: The Holy Spirit fully “reveals” the mystery of Christ, his messianic and redemptive mission. The primitive Church was aware of this fact, as is clear from Peter’s first preaching and from many later episodes recorded in the Acts of the Apostles.

On the day of Pentecost it is significant that in replying to his hearers’ question, “What shall we do?” Peter exhorted them: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). In sending his apostles into the whole world, Jesus had ordered them to administer baptism “in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt 28:19). Peter echoed faithfully the Master’s word and the result was that, on that occasion, “about three thousand persons” (Acts 2:41) were baptized “in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). This expression, “in the name of Jesus Christ,” represents the key for entering with faith into the fullness of the Trinitarian mystery and thus becoming Christ’s possession as persons consecrated to him. In this sense, the Acts speaks of the invocation of the name of Jesus in order to be saved (cf. 2:21; 3:16; 4:10-12; 8:16; 10:48; 19:5; 22:16). In his letters St. Paul insists on the same requirement in the order of salvation (cf. Rom 6:3; 1 Cor 6:11; Gal 3:27; cf. also James 2:7). During the Last Supper Jesus promised the trinitarian gift when he said to the apostles: “The Spirit of truth…will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:13-15). This trinitarian gift becomes a reality through baptism “in the Holy Spirit,” conferred “in the name of Christ.”

4. In all their activities carried out after Pentecost under the influence of the Holy Spirit, the apostles referred to Christ as the reason, the principle and the operative power. Thus in the cure of the lame man “near the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful” (Acts 3:2), Peter said to him: “I have no silver and gold, but I give you what I have; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk!” (Acts 3:6). This miracle drew many people to Solomon’s portico, and Peter spoke to them, as on Pentecost day, of Christ crucified “whom God raised from the dead, and to this we are witnesses” (Acts 3:15). It was faith in Christ that cured the lame man: “Faith in his name has made this man strong whom you see and know; and the faith which is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of all of you” (Acts 3:16).

5. When the apostles were summoned for the first time before the Sanhedrin, “Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit,” in the presence of the “rulers of the people and elders” (Acts 4:8) bore witness yet again to Christ crucified and risen. He concluded his reply to the Sanhedrin as follows: “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). When they were released, the author of Acts tells us, “they went to their friends” and with them praised the Lord (Acts 4:23-24). Then there was a kind of minor Pentecost: “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). Later, in the first Christian community and before the people, “with great power the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33).

The deacon Stephen was a special example of this fearless witness to Christ. He was the first martyr, and we read in the account of his death: “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and he said, ‘Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together upon him” (Acts 7:55-59).

6. From these and other accounts in Acts it is clear that the apostles’ teaching under the influence of the Holy Spirit has its reference point and keystone in Christ. The Holy Spirit enabled the apostles and their disciples to penetrate the truth of the Gospel proclaimed by Christ, and particularly his paschal mystery. He enkindled in them love for Christ to the point of sacrificing their lives. He ensured that the Church brought into being, from the very beginning, the kingdom brought by Christ. Under the action of the Holy Spirit and with the collaboration of the apostles, of their successors and of the entire Church, this kingdom will develop in history until the end of time. There is no trace in the Gospels, in the Acts or in the letters of the apostles of any kind of pneumatological utopianism whereby the kingdom of the Father (Old Testament) and of Christ (New Testament) should be succeeded by the kingdom of the Holy Spirit, represented by the claims of the “spirituals,” exempt from all law, even from the evangelic law preached by Jesus. As St. Thomas Aquinas writes, “the old law was not only of the Father, but also of the Son, since the old law prefigures Christ…. So likewise the new law is not only of Christ, but also of the Holy Spirit, according to the words of St. Paul: ‘The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus…’ (Rom 8:2). Therefore we are not to expect another law which would be that of the Holy Spirit” (Summa Theol., I, II, q. 106, a. 4, ad 3). During the Middle Ages there were some who, under the influence of the apocalyptic speculations of the pious Calabrian monk Joachim of Fiore (d. 1202), dreamed and predicted the coming of a “third kingdom” in which the universal renewal in preparation for the end of the world, foretold by Jesus, would be verified (cf. Mt 14:4). But St. Thomas further notes that “from the very beginning of the Gospel preaching Christ had stated: ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand’ (Mt 4:17). Hence it is very stupid to say that Christ’s Gospel is not the Gospel of the kingdom” (Summa Theol., I, II, q. 106, a. 4, ad 4). It is one of the very few cases in which the holy Doctor used harsh words in judging an erroneous opinion, because in the thirteenth century the controversy engendered by the ravings of the “spirituals” was very much alive. They distorted Joachim’s teaching, and St. Thomas saw the danger of the claims of independence and innovation founded on the presumption of charisms. They were to the detriment of the cause of the Gospel and of the true kingdom of God. Therefore he harked back to the necessity of the “fully successful preaching of the Gospel in the whole world, that is to say, with the foundation of the Church in every nation. And in this sense…the Gospel has not been preached in the whole world; the end of the world will come after this preaching” (Summa Theol., I, II, q. 106, a. 4 ad 4).

This has been the Church’s own line of thought from the very beginning, on the basis of the preaching of Peter and the other apostles. There one finds not even the shadow of a dichotomy between Christ and the Holy Spirit. Rather, their preaching confirms what Jesus had said of the Paraclete during the Last Supper: “He will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:13-14).

7. At this point we cannot but rejoice at the amount of space devoted by the theology of our Eastern brothers to reflection on the relation between Christ and the Holy Spirit. This relation finds its most intimate expression in the Christ-Pneuma after the resurrection and Pentecost, in line with the words of St. Paul, “the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). It is an open field for the study and contemplation of the mystery which is both Christological and Trinitarian. The Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem states: “The supreme and complete self-revelation of God, accomplished in Christ and witnessed to by the preaching of the apostles, continues to be manifested in the Church through the mission of the invisible Counselor, the Spirit of truth. How intimately this mission is linked with the mission of Christ, how fully it draws from this mission of Christ, consolidating and enveloping in history its salvific results, is expressed by the verb ‘take’: ‘he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’ As if to explain the words ‘he will take’ by clearly expressing the divine and trinitarian unity of the source, Jesus adds: ‘All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.’ By the very fact of taking what is ‘mine’ he will draw from ‘what is the Father’s'” (n. 7).

Let us recognize it frankly: this mystery of the trinitarian presence in humanity through the kingdom of Christ and of the Holy Spirit is the most beautiful and joyous truth that the Church could give to the world.”

23- The Holy Spirit in the life of the primitive Church

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 29 November 1989

“1. The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was a unique event, but it did not end there. Rather, it was the beginning of a lasting process, whose first phases are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. They concern first of all the life of the Church at Jerusalem. After having borne witness to Christ and to the Holy Spirit and having obtained the first conversions, the apostles had to defend themselves before the Sanhedrin. They defended the right to existence of the first community of Christ’s disciples and followers. The Acts of the Apostles tells us that even before the elders, the apostles were assisted by the same power they received at Pentecost: they were “filled with the Holy Spirit” (cf. e.g., Acts 4:8).

This power of the Spirit was manifested in some moments and aspects of the life of the Jerusalem community, which are particularly mentioned in Acts.

2. Let us summarize them briefly, beginning with the common prayer of the community. On returning from the Sanhedrin, the apostles reported to the brethren what had been said by the chief priests and elders. “Then they lifted their voices together to God…” (Acts 4:24). In their beautiful prayer recorded by Luke they recognized the divine plan in the persecution, recalling that God had spoken “through the Holy Spirit” (4:25). They quoted the words of Psalm 2 (vv. 1-2) on the rage unleashed by the kings and peoples of the earth “against the Lord and against his Anointed.” They applied these words to Jesus’ death: “Truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:25-29).

It was a prayer full of faith and abandonment to God, at the end of which there was a new manifestation of the Spirit and a new Pentecost event, as it were.

3. “When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken” (Acts 4:31). There was then a new manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power, perceptible to the senses, as had happened on the first Pentecost. Moreover, the reference to the place in which the community was gathered together confirms the analogy to the upper room. It indicates that the Holy Spirit wished to involve the whole community with his transforming action. Then “all were filled with the Holy Spirit”: not only the apostles who had confronted the leaders of the people, but all the “brethren” (4:23) gathered with them, who constituted the central and most representative nucleus of the first community. With the enthusiasm aroused by the new fullness of the Holy Spirit, we are told by Acts, “they spoke the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31). It was the answer to their prayer to the Lord: “Grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness” (Acts 4:29).

The “little” Pentecost therefore made a new beginning of the evangelizing mission after the Sanhedrin had judged and imprisoned the apostles. The power of the Holy Spirit was manifested especially in the boldness which the members of the Sanhedrin had already noticed to their amazement in Peter and John, “for they perceived that they were uneducated, common men” (Acts 4:13). Now Acts again emphasizes that “they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.”

4. Moreover, the whole life of the primitive community at Jerusalem bore the signs of the Holy Spirit who was its invisible guide and inspirer. The overall view of it given by Luke enables us to see in that community the model of the Christian communities formed throughout the centuries. This includes parishes and religious congregations, in which the fruit of the “fullness of the Holy Spirit” is given tangible form in some basic forms of organization, codified in part in the law of the Church.

They are principally the following: “communion” (koinonia) in fraternity and love (cf. Acts 2:42), so that it could be said of the Christians that they were “of one heart and soul” (Acts 2:32); the community spirit in handing over their goods to the apostles for distribution to each according to his need (Acts 4:34-37), or in their use, while retaining their ownership, so that “no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own” (4:32; cf. 2:44-45; 4:34-37); communion in “devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching” (Acts 2:42) and their “testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33); communion in the “breaking of the bread” (Acts 2:42), that is, in the common meal according to the Jewish custom, into which the Christians, however, inserted the Eucharistic rite (cf. 1 Cor 11:16; 11:24; Lk 22:19; 24:35); communion in the prayers (Acts 2:42; 46-47). The word of God, the Eucharist, prayer and fraternal charity constituted the quadrilateral within which the community lived, grew and became strong.

5. On their part the apostles “with great power gave testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (4:33). They worked “many signs and wonders” (5:12), as they had asked in the prayer in the upper room: “Stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus” (Acts 4:30). They were signs of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, to whom the entire life of the community was referred. Even the guilt of Ananias and Sapphira, who pretended to bring to the apostles and the community the whole price of the property they had sold while holding back part of the proceeds, was regarded by Peter as a fault against the Holy Spirit: “You have lied to the Holy Spirit” (5:3); “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?” (Acts 5:9). It was not a case of a “sin against the Holy Spirit” in the sense in which the Gospel speaks (cf. Lk 12:10) and which would be handed down in the Church’s moral and catechetical texts. Rather, it was a failure to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, as St. Paul would say (Eph 4:3). It was therefore a pretense in professing that Christian community in charity, whose soul is the Holy Spirit.

6. The awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence and action is found in the choice of the seven deacons, men “full of the Spirit and of wisdom” (Acts 6:3), and in particular of Stephen “a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 6:5). Very soon he began to preach Jesus Christ with zeal, enthusiasm and boldness, working “great wonders and signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). Having aroused the anger and jealousy of some of the Jews who rose up against him, Stephen did not cease to preach and he did not hesitate to accuse his opponents of being heirs to their fathers in “resisting the Holy Spirit” (Acts 7:51). He thus went serenely to his martyrdom, as we read in Acts: “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God…” (Acts 7:55). In that attitude he was put to death by stoning.

Thus the primitive Church, under the action of the Holy Spirit, added martyrdom to the experience of communion.

7. The community of Jerusalem was composed of men and women of Jewish origin, like the apostles themselves and Mary. We cannot forget this fact, even though later those Jewish Christians, gathered around James when Peter set out for Rome, were dispersed and gradually disappeared. However, what we learn from Acts should inspire us with respect and gratitude for those distant “elder brothers and sisters,” inasmuch as they belonged to those people of Jerusalem who showed their favor to the apostles (cf. Acts 2:47) who gave “their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 4:33). No less can we forget that after Stephen’s stoning and Paul’s conversion, the Church which had developed from that first community “had peace and was built up throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied” (Acts 9:31).

So the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles attest to the fulfillment of the promise made by Jesus to the apostles in the upper room before his passion: “I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth” (Jn 14:16-17). As we have seen before, “Counselor” (in Greek Parakletos) also means Advocate or Defender. Both as Advocate or Defender and as Counselor the Holy Spirit is revealed as present and at work in the Church from her beginnings in the heart of Judaism. Soon we shall see that the same Spirit will lead the apostles and their collaborators to extend the experience of Pentecost to all nations.”

24- The Pentecost of the Gentiles

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 6 December 1989

“1. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost brought Christ’s paschal mystery to its fulfillment with his “departure” through the sacrifice of the cross. It completed God’s revelation of himself through his Incarnate Son.

In this way “there is accomplished in its entirety the mission of the Messiah, that is to say of the one who has received the fullness of the Holy Spirit for the Chosen People of God and for the whole of humanity. ‘Messiah’ literally means ‘Christ,” that is, ‘Anointed One,’ and in the history of salvation it means ‘the one anointed with the Holy Spirit.’ This was the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. Following this tradition, Simon Peter will say in the house of Cornelius: ‘You must have heard about the recent happenings in Judaea…after the baptism which John preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power” (Acts 10:37 f.) (DViv 15). Peter continued with a brief summary of the Gospel story, which is also a rudimentary creed, bearing witness to Christ crucified and risen, Redeemer and Savior of mankind, in the way of “all the prophets” (Acts 10:43).

2. On the one hand, Peter connected the descent of the Holy Spirit with the Old Testament tradition. On the other, he knew and proclaimed that on the day of Pentecost a new process began which would last down the centuries, bringing to complete fulfillment the history of salvation. The first stages of this process are described in the Acts of the Apostles. Peter himself was involved in a decisive moment of that process: the entrance of the first pagan into the Church, under the evident influence of the Holy Spirit who guided the action of the apostles. It was the case of the Roman centurion stationed at Caesarea. Peter had introduced him into the community of the baptized. He was aware of the decisive importance of that act which was undoubtedly not in conformity with existing religious practices. But at the same time he knew with certainty that God had willed it. On entering the centurion’s house he “found many persons gathered; and he said to them, ‘You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit any one of another nation; but God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean” (Acts 10:28).

It was a great moment in the history of salvation. By that decision Peter made the primitive Church leave the ethnic-religious confines of Jerusalem and Judaism. He became the instrument of the Holy Spirit in launching it toward all peoples, according to Christ’s command (cf. Mt 28:19). The prophetic tradition on the universality of God’s kingdom in the world was thus fulfilled in a complete and higher way, far beyond the view of the Israelites attached to the old law. Peter had opened the way of the new law, in which the Gospel of salvation should reach all people without any distinction of nation, culture or religion, so that all might enjoy the fruits of redemption.

3. The Acts of the Apostles contains a detailed account of this event. In the first part we are informed about the interior process which made Peter aware of the step to be taken. We read that Peter, who was lodging for some days at the house of “Simon, a tanner” (Acts 10:6) at Joppa, “went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. And he became hungry and desired something to eat; but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance and saw the heaven opened, and something descending, like a great sheet, let down by four corners upon the earth. In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. And then came a voice to him, ‘Rise, Peter; kill and eat.’ But Peter said, ‘No, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.’ And the voice came to him again a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, you must not call common.’ This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven” (Acts 10:9-16).

It was a vision which perhaps brought to the surface questions and uncertainties which had been fermenting in Peter’s mind under the influence of the Holy Spirit in light of the experience gained during his early preaching. It was linked to the recollection of Christ’s teaching and command about universal evangelization. It was a pause for reflection on that roof terrace at Joppa, opening on to the Mediterranean, which prepared Peter for the decisive step he had to take!

4. Indeed, “Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision he had seen might mean” (Acts 10:17). Then while he “was pondering the vision, the Spirit said to him, ‘Behold, three men are looking for you. Rise and go down, and accompany them without hesitation: for I have sent them'” (Acts 10:19-20). It is the Holy Spirit, therefore, who prepared Peter for the new task. He worked especially through the vision whereby he urged Peter to reflection, arranged the meeting with the three men two servants and a devout solider (cf. Acts 10:7) sent from Caesarea to seek and invite him. When the interior process was accomplished the Spirit gave Peter an explicit order. Obeying it, Peter decided to go to Caesarea to the house of Cornelius. He was received by the centurion and the members of his household with the respect due to a divine messenger. Peter recalled his vision and asked those present: “Why have you sent for me?” (Acts 10:29).

Cornelius, “an upright and God-fearing man” (Acts 10:22), explained how he got the idea of inviting him, an invitation also due to divine inspiration. And he concluded, saying: “Now therefore we are all here present in the sight of God, to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord” (Acts 10:33).

5. Peter’s reply, recorded in Acts, is full of theological and missionary significance. We read: “Peter opened his mouth and said: ‘Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the word which he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace by Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), the word which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism which John had preached: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses to all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and made him manifest; not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him all the prophets bear witness that every one who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name'” (Acts 10:34-43).

6. It was well to quote this text in full, for it is a further condensation of the apostolic preaching and a first synthesis of catechesis which would later receive definitive form in the creed. It is the preaching and catechesis of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, repeated at Caesarea in the house of the pagan Cornelius. The event of the upper room was renewed in what may be called the Pentecost of the pagans, similar to that of Jerusalem, as Peter himself observed (cf. Acts 10:47; 11:15; 15:8). We read that “while Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles” (Acts 10:44-45).

7. “Then Peter declared, ‘Can any one forbid water for baptizing these people who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?'” (Acts 10:47).

He said this before “the believers from among the circumcised,” that is to say, the converts from Judaism, who were amazed because they heard Cornelius’ relatives and friends “speaking in tongues and extolling God” (cf. Acts 10:46), just as had happened at Jerusalem on the day of the first Pentecost. It was an analogy of events full of significance: indeed, it was as if it were the same event, a single Pentecost verified in different circumstances.

The conclusion is the same: Peter “commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 10:48). We have, then, the baptism of the first pagans. By his apostolic authority and guided by the light of the Holy Spirit, Peter thus began the spreading of the Gospel and the extension of the Church beyond the frontiers of Israel.

8. The Holy Spirit, who descended on the apostles by virtue of Christ’s redemptive sacrifice, had confirmed that the salvific value of this sacrifice extends to all humanity. Peter had heard the interior voice saying: “What God has cleansed, you must not call common” (Acts 10:15). He knew very well that the cleansing had taken place by means of the blood of Christ, the Son of God, who, as we read in the Letter to the Hebrews (9:14), “through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God.” We are assured that that blood “will purify our consciences from dead works to serve the living God.” Peter had come to understand better that the new times had arrived when, as the prophets had foretold, even the sacrifices of the pagans would be pleasing to Yahweh (cf. Is 56:7; Mal 1:11; and also Rom 15:16; Phil 4:18; 1 Pet 2:5). Therefore he said with full awareness to the centurion Cornelius: “Truly I perceive that God shows no partiality,” as Israel had already learned from Deuteronomy, echoed in Peter’s words: “The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the terrible God who is not partial…” (Dt 10:17). The Acts testifies that Peter was the first to grasp the new sense of that old idea which was incorporated into the apostles’ teaching (cf. 1 Pet 1:17; Gal 2:6; Rom 2:11).

Such is the interior genesis of those beautiful words spoken to Cornelius on the human relationship with God: “…in every nation any one who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:35).”

25- The Holy Spirit in the mission to the Gentiles

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 13 December 1989

“1. After the Baptism of the first pagans, carried out at Peter’s command in the house of the centurion Cornelius at Caesarea, Peter remained for some days with the new Christians in response to their invitation (cf. Acts 10:48). This did not please the brethren at Jerusalem, and they criticized him for this on his return (cf. Acts 11:3). Rather than defend himself from the accusation, Peter preferred “to explain to them what had happened” (Acts 11:4), so that the converts from Judaism could appreciate the full importance of the fact that the “Gentiles also had received the word of God” (Acts 11:1).

He then told them of the vision he had at Joppa, of Cornelius’ invitation, of the interior prompting of the Spirit that dispelled his hesitation (cf. Acts 11:12), and finally of the descent of the Holy Spirit on those in the centurion’s house (cf. Acts 11:16). He concluded his account as follows: “I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?” (Acts 11:16-17).

This, according to Peter, was the real question, not the fact of his having accepted hospitality from a pagan converted from paganism, an unusual case and regarded as unlawful by the Christians of Jewish origin at Jerusalem. It is interesting to note the effect of Peter’s words, for we read in Acts that “when they heard this, they were silenced. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance until life'” (Acts 11:18).

It was the first victory over the temptation to socio-religious particularism which threatened the primitive Church inasmuch as it had its origin in the Jewish community at Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul, with Peter’s help, would achieve another victory, in a still more striking manner. We shall speak of this later.

2. Let us pause now to consider how Peter continued on the way begun with Cornelius’ baptism. Once again it will be seen that it was the Holy Spirit who guided the apostles in this direction.

The Acts tell us that the converts at Jerusalem, “scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen,” continued the work of evangelization wherever they happened to be. But “they spoke the word to none except Jews” (Acts 11:19). Some of them, however, citizens of Cyprus and Cyrene, on coming to Antioch, the capital of Syria, began to speak also to the Greeks (that is, to the non-Jews), preaching the Good News of the Lord Jesus. “And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch” (Acts 11:21-22).

It was a kind of inspection decided upon by the community which, as the original one, claimed the right of vigilance over the other churches (cf. Acts 8:14; 11:1; Gal 2:2).

Barnabas went to Antioch. When he arrived there and “saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were called Christians for the first time” (Acts 11:23-26).

It was another decisive moment for the new faith based on the covenant in Christ, crucified and risen. Moreover, the new name “Christians” manifested the strength of the bond that united the members of the community among themselves. The “Pentecost of the pagans” illumined by Peter’s preaching and behavior brought progressively to fulfillment Christ’s prediction about the Holy Spirit: “He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (Jn 16:14). Christianity’s assertion of itself under the influence of the Holy Spirit realizes with increasing evidence the glorification of the “Lord Jesus.”

3. In the context of the relations between the Church of Antioch and that of Jerusalem, Saul of Tarsus appeared upon the scene; he was brought to Antioch by Barnabas. The Acts tells us that “for a whole year they remained in that community and taught a large company of people” (Acts 11:26). A little later we are told that one day “while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’ Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus” (Acts 13:2-4), the homeland of Barnabas (cf. Acts 4:36). Saul’s vocation and mission in the company of Barnabas was indicated as willed by the Holy Spirit who thus initiated a new phase of development in the life of the primitive Church.

4. We all know the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and its importance for the evangelization of the ancient world, which he undertook with all the drive and enthusiasm of his Herculean soul, when Saul became Paul, the Apostle of the nations (cf. Acts 13:9).

Here we shall recall only the words addressed to him by the disciple Ananias of Damascus, when by the Lord’s command he went to find “in the house of Judas, in the street called Straight” (Acts 9:10), the persecutor of the Christians, who was spiritually transformed after his meeting with Christ.

According to Acts, “Ananias departed and entered the house. After laying his hands on him he said, ‘Brother, Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit'” (Acts 9:17). Saul regained his sight and immediately began to bear witness in the synagogues first at Damascus “by proving that Jesus was the Christ” (Acts 9:22), and then at Jerusalem where, presented by Barnabas, he went in and out, “preaching boldly in the name of the Lord” and “disputing against the Hellenists” (Acts 9:29). These Greek-speaking Jews, violently opposed to all the Christian preachers (cf. Acts 6:9 f.; 7:58; 9:1; 21:27; 24:19), were particularly ferocious against Saul, even to the point of trying to kill him (cf. Acts 9:29). “And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus” (Acts 9:30). It was there that Barnabas went to look for him to bring him to Antioch (cf. Acts 11:25-26).

5. We already know that the development of the Church of Antioch was due in large part to the influx of the Greeks who were converted to the Gospel (cf. Acts 11:20). This had aroused the interest of the Church at Jerusalem. However, even after Barnabas’ inspection, there remained some perplexity about the procedure followed in admitting pagans into the Church without following the Mosaic observance. Indeed, on a certain occasion “some men came down from Judea [to Antioch] and were teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.’ And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question” (Acts 15:1-2).

It was a fundamental problem which touched the very essence of Christianity as a doctrine and as a life based on faith in Christ, and its originality and independence from Judaism.

The problem was resolved in the “council of Jerusalem” (as it is usually called), by the apostles and elders, but under the action of the Holy Spirit. The Acts tells us that “after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the Gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faith'” (Acts 15:7-9).

6. It was the outstanding moment of the awareness of the “Pentecost of the pagans” on the part of the mother community in Jerusalem, where the highest representatives of the Church were gathered together. The whole community felt that it was living and acting “filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31). It knew that not only the apostles but also other brethren had taken this decision and acted under the movement of the Spirit, as for example, Stephen (Acts 6:5; 7:55), Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:2, 4, 9).

It would soon have learned of a fact that happened at Ephesus, where Saul, who had now become Paul, had arrived. It is narrated by Acts as follows: “While Apollos [another preacher of the Gospel] was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit….’ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied” (Acts 19:1-2, 5-6). The Jerusalem community knew therefore that that kind of epic of the Holy Spirit was unfolding by means of many endowed with charisms and apostolic ministries. That first council, however, presented an ecclesiastical-institutional fact recognized as decisive for the evangelization of the whole world, in intimate connection between the assembly presided over by Peter and the Holy Spirit.

7. The apostles communicated in a significant formula the conclusions arrived at and the decisions taken: “It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28). This expressed their complete awareness of acting under the guidance of this Spirit of truth which Christ had promised them (cf. Jn 14:16-17). They knew that they derived from him the authority to make that decision, and the certainty of the decision taken. It was the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who at that moment ensured that the Pentecost of Jerusalem should become to an ever greater extent the “Pentecost of the pagans.” Thus God’s new covenant with humanity “in the blood of Christ” (cf. Lk 22:20) was opened to all peoples and nations, to the very ends of the earth.”

26- The fruitfulness of Pentecost

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 20 December 1989

“1. The previous catecheses on the Holy Spirit were linked especially to the Pentecost event. We saw that from the day on which the apostles assembled in the upper room of Jerusalem were “baptized with the Holy Spirit” (cf. Acts 2:4), a process began. By various stages described in the Acts of the Apostles, it revealed the action of the Holy Spirit as that of the “other Paraclete” promised by Jesus (cf. Jn 14:16), who came to complete his saving work. He always remains the invisible “hidden God,” and yet the apostles were fully aware that it was precisely he who was at work in them and in the Church. It was he who guided them and strengthened them to bear witness to Christ crucified and risen, even to the point of martyrdom, as in the case of the deacon Stephen. It was he who indicated to them how to approach the people, and it was he who by means of them converted all those who opened their hearts to his action. Many of them came also from outside Israel. The first was the Roman soldier Cornelius at Caesarea. Many others would follow at Antioch and in other places, and the Jerusalem Pentecost was spread far and wide and gradually reached people everywhere.

2. It may be said that in this whole process described by the Acts of the Apostles, one sees the fulfillment of Christ’s prediction to Peter on the occasion of the miraculous catch of fish: “Do not be afraid; henceforth you will be catching men” (Lk 5:10; cf. also Jn 21:11, 15-17).

Moreover, in the trance at Joppa (cf. Acts 11:5), Peter had the idea of abundance impressed on him when he saw the great sheet coming down toward him and being drawn up to heaven. In it he saw “animals and beasts of prey and reptiles and birds of the air” while a voice said to him: “Rise, kill and eat” (Acts 11:6-7). That abundance could well represent the abundant fruits of the apostolic ministry which the Holy Spirit would produce through the action of Peter and the other apostles, as Jesus had foretold on the day before his passion: “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I go to the Father” (Jn 14:12). Certainly the source of that abundance was not merely the human words of the apostles, but the Holy Spirit’s direct action in the hearts and consciences of the people. The whole spiritual fruitfulness of the apostolic mission came from the Holy Spirit.

3. The Acts of the Apostles notes the progressive widening of the circle of those who believed and joined the Church, sometimes specifying their number, and at other times speaking of them more generically.

Thus regarding what happened on Pentecost day at Jerusalem, we read that “there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). After Peter’s second discourse we are informed that “many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to about five thousand” (Acts 4:4).

Luke makes a point of emphasizing this numerical increase of believers, on which he also insists later, though without specifying numbers: “And the word of God increased; and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7).

Naturally what was most important was not the number, which might suggest mass conversions. Luke stresses the converts’ relationship with God: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47). “And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Acts 5:14). However, the number has an importance of its own, as a proof or sign of the fruitfulness coming from God. Therefore Luke again informs us that “the increase in the number of the disciples” (cf. Acts 6:1) was the reason for the institution of the seven deacons. He tells us further that “the Church…was multiplied” (Acts 9:31). In another passage he informs us that “a large company was added to the Lord” (Acts 11:24), and “The churches were strengthened in the faith and they increased in numbers daily” (Acts 16:5).

4. In this numerical and spiritual increase the Holy Spirit showed himself as the Paraclete announced by Christ. Luke tells us that “the Church…was full of the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31). This comfort did not abandon Christ’s witnesses and confessors in the midst of persecutions and the difficulties of evangelization. We think of the persecutions of Paul and Barnabas when they were driven out of Antioch of Pisidia. This did not deprive them of their apostolic zeal and enthusiasm; rather, “they shook off the dust from their feet, and went to Iconium. And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 13:51-52).

This joy from the Holy Spirit strengthened the apostles in their trials, so that without giving way to discouragement they continued to bear Christ’s saving message from place to place.

5. Thus, from the very day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was revealed as the source of interior strength (gift of fortitude). At the same time he helps in the making of opportune choices (gift of counsel), especially in matters of decisive importance, as in the question of the baptism of the centurion Cornelius, the first pagan admitted to the Church by Peter, or in the council of Jerusalem, when the conditions were established for the admission of pagan converts among the Christians.

6. The signs or miracles spoken of in previous reflections also derive from the fruitfulness of Pentecost. They accompanied the apostles’ activity, as repeatedly reported in Acts: “Many signs and wonders were done among the people by the hands of the apostles” (Acts 5:12). As in the case of Christ’s teaching, these signs were intended to confirm the truth of the saving message. This is stated expressly in the case of the activity of the deacon Philip: “The multitudes with one accord gave heed to what was said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs which he did” (Acts 8:6). The author specifies that it was a question of freeing those possessed by unclean spirits and of healing the paralyzed and the lame. Then he concludes: “So there was much joy in that city” (Acts 8:6-8).

He thinks it worth noting that it was a city of Samaria (cf. Acts 8:9), a region inhabited by a population which, though of the same race and religion as Israel, was separated from it because of historical and doctrinal reasons (cf. Mt 10:5-6; Jn 4:9). However, the Samaritans also expected the Messiah (cf. Jn 4:25). The deacon Philip, led by the Spirit, was brought there to proclaim that the Messiah had come. He confirmed the Good News with miracles. This therefore explains the joy of the people.

7. The Acts adds an episode to which we should at least refer, because it demonstrates the high regard in which the Gospel preachers held the Holy Spirit.

In that city of Samaria, before the coming of Philip, there was “a man named Simon who had previously practiced magic and amazed the people, saying that he himself was somebody great. They all gave heed to him from the least to the greatest…” (Acts 8:9-10). Always the same story! “But when they believed Philip as he preached the Good News about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, both men and women were baptized. Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed” (Acts 8:12-13).

When it became known at Jerusalem that “Samaria had received the word of God” preached by Philip, the apostles “sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit: for it had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:14-17).

It was then that Simon, desiring to acquire the power to “confer the Spirit,” like the apostles through the laying on of hands, offered them money to obtain that supernatural power. (Hence the origin of the word “simony” signifying commerce in sacred things). But Peter responded with indignation for that attempt to acquire with money “the gift of God,” which is precisely the Holy Spirit (Acts 8:20; cf. 2:38; 10:45; 11:17; Lk 11:9, 13), and then threatened Simon with divine retribution.

The two apostles then returned to Jerusalem, evangelizing the villages through which they passed. Philip, however, went to Gaza, and prompted by the Holy Spirit, he joined a minister of the queen of Ethiopia who was passing along the road seated in his chariot, and “he told him the Good News of Jesus” (Acts 8:25-26, 27, 35). This was followed by his Baptism. “And when they came up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught up Philip…” (Acts 8:39).

As can be seen, Pentecost spread and bore abundant fruit, stirring up many to accept the Gospel and to be converted in the name of Jesus Christ. The Acts of the Apostles is the history of the fulfillment of Christ’s promise, namely, that the Holy Spirit sent by him would descend upon his disciples and complete his work when he, having ended his “day of work” (cf. Jn 5:17) with the night of his death (cf. Lk 13:33; Jn 9:4), would have returned to the Father (cf. Jn 13:1; 16:28). This second phase of Christ’s redemptive work began with Pentecost.”

27- The meaning of “Spirit” in the Old Testament

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 3 January 1990

“1. In our catecheses dedicated to the person and mission of the Holy Spirit, we have sought first of all to listen to the announcement and promise concerning him made by Jesus, especially at the Last Supper. We have sought to take up again the account of his coming that is given in the Acts of the Apostles. We have re-examined the texts of the New Testament that tell of the early Church’s preaching concerning him and faith in him. Yet in our analysis we have often come upon the Old Testament. It is the apostles themselves who in their early preaching just after Pentecost expressly presented the coming of the Holy Spirit as the fulfillment of the ancient promises and prophecies. They considered the old covenant and the history of Israel as a time of preparation for receiving the fullness of truth and grace that was to come with the Messiah.

Certainly, Pentecost was an event thrusting into the future. This is because it marked the beginning of the time of the Holy Spirit, whom Jesus himself had indicated as a protagonist, together with the Father and the Son, in the work of salvation work destined to be diffused from the cross into the whole world. Nevertheless, to understand all the more fully the revelation of the Holy Spirit, it is necessary to go back in time, that is, to the Old Testament, in order to find there the signs of the long preparation for the mystery of Easter and Pentecost.

2. We must reflect again, therefore, on the biblical facts concerning the Holy Spirit and on the process of revelation which rises gradually from the shadows of the Old Testament to the clear affirmations of the New. This is first expressed within creation and then in the work of redemption, first in the history and prophecy of Israel and then in the life and mission of Jesus the Messiah, from the moment of the incarnation up to that of the resurrection.

In the first place, among the facts to be examined is the name that first suggests the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament and the different meanings that this name conveys.

We know that in the Hebrew mentality a name has the powerful significance of representing a person. We may recall on this point the importance that is given to the way of naming God in Exodus and in the whole tradition of Israel. Moses had asked the Lord God what his name was. The revelation of a name was considered a manifestation of the person himself: the sacred name established a relationship between the people and the transcendent yet present being of God himself (cf. Ex 3:13-14).

The name that serves to suggest the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament will help us to understand his properties, even though we only learn of his reality as a divine person, of one substance with the Father and the Son, through the revelation of the New Testament. It is legitimate to think that the term was chosen with accuracy by the sacred authors, and, what is more, that the Holy Spirit himself, who inspired them, guided the conceptual and literary process which led to the elaboration of an apt expression for signifying his person even in the Old Testament.

3. In the Bible, the Hebrew term for the Spirit is ruah. The first meaning of this term, and that of its Latin translation spiritus, is “breath.” (In English the relationship between spirit and respiration is still apparent.) A breath is the most immaterial reality we perceive. It cannot be seen; it is intangible; it cannot be grasped by the hand; it seems to be nothing, and yet it is vitally important. The person who does not breathe cannot live. The difference between a living person and a dead one is that the former has breath and the latter no longer does. Life comes from God. Hence breath, too, comes from him, and he can take it away (cf. Ps 104:29-30). Seeing breath in this way, they came to understand that life depends on a spiritual principle, which was called by the same Hebrew word, ruah. Man’s breath bears a relationship to a much more powerful external breath, the wind.

The Hebrew ruah, just as the Latin spiritus , also designates the blowing of the wind. No one sees the wind, yet its effects are impressive. It drives the clouds and shakes the trees. When it is violent, it can whip up the sea and sink ships (Ps 107:25-27). To the men of old the wind appeared to be a mysterious power that God had at his disposal (Ps 104:3-4). It could be called “God’s breath.”

In the Book of Exodus, a prose narrative says: “Yahweh drove back the sea with a strong easterly wind all night, and he made dry land of the sea. The waters parted and the sons of Israel went on dry ground right into the sea…” (Ex 14:21-22). In the next chapter the same events are described in a poetic manner and the blowing of the easterly wind is called “a blast from the nostrils” of God. Addressing God, the poet says: “A blast from your nostrils and the waters piled high…. One breath of yours you blew, and the sea closed over them” (Ex 15:8-10). This expresses in a very suggestive way the conviction that the wind was God’s instrument in these circumstances.

From observations on the invisible and powerful wind one came to conceive the existence of the “spirit of God.” In the texts of the Old Testament one passes easily from one meaning to the other, and even in the New Testament we see that the two meanings are present. To help Nicodemus understand the way the Holy Spirit acts, Jesus used the comparison of the wind, and he employed the same term in both cases: “The wind blows wherever it pleases…. That is how it is with all who are born of the Wind [i.e. of the Holy Spirit]” (Jn 3:8).

4. The fundamental idea expressed in the biblical name of the Spirit is, therefore, not that of an intellectual power, but that of a dynamic impulse, similar to the force of the wind. In the Bible, the primary function of the spirit is not to give understanding, but to give movement; not to shed light, but to impart dynamism.

This aspect is not exclusive, however. Other aspects are expressed and they pave the way for the revelation to follow. First and foremost, there is the aspect of interiority. Indeed, breath enters into man. In biblical terms, this could be expressed by saying that God puts the spirit into people’s hearts (cf. Ez 36:26; Rom 5:5). Since air is so tenuous, it penetrates not only into our body, but all of its spaces and clefts. This helps to understand that “the spirit of the Lord fills the whole world” (Wis 1:7) and that it penetrates especially “all intelligent, pure and most subtle spirits” (7:23), as the Book of Wisdom says.

Related to the aspect of interiority is the aspect of knowledge. “Who can know the depths of man,” asks St. Paul, “if not his own spirit?” (1 Cor 2:11). Only our spirit knows our intimate reactions and thoughts not yet communicated to others. Similarly, and with stronger reason, the Spirit of the Lord present within all the beings of the universe knows all from within (Wis 1:7). Indeed, “the Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God…. The depths of God can only be known by the Spirit of God” (1 Cor 2:10-11).

5. When it is a matter of knowledge and communication between persons, breath has a natural connection with the word. To speak we use our breath. The vocal chords make our breath vibrate, and it thus transmits the sounds of the words. Inspired by this fact, the Bible draws a comparison between the word and the breath (cf. Is 11:4), or the word and the spirit. Thanks to our breath, the word is propagated; from our breath it derives strength and dynamism. Psalm 33 uses this comparison with regard to the primordial event of creation and says: “By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made, their whole array by the breath of his mouth…” (v. 6).

In texts of this kind we can perceive a distant preparation of the Christian revelation of the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. God the Father is the origin of creation. He has brought it about by his Word, that is, by the Son, and by his Breath, the Holy Spirit.

6. The multiplicity of meanings of the Hebrew term ruah, used in the Bible to designate the Spirit, seem to give rise to some confusion. Indeed, in a given text, it is often not possible to determine the exact meaning of the word. One might waver between wind and breath, between breath and spirit, or between created spirit and the divine Spirit.

This multiplicity, however, has a certain wealth, for it establishes a fruitful communication between so many realities. In this regard it is better to give up in part the pretenses of neat reasoning in order to embrace broader perspectives. When we think of the Holy Spirit, it is useful to remember that his biblical name means “breath,” and that it is related to the powerful blowing of the wind and to our own intimate breathing. Rather than clinging to an over-intellectual and arid concept, we will find it helpful to take in this wealth of images and facts. Unfortunately, translations are unable to convey them to us completely, for they are often obliged to choose other terms. To render the Hebrew word ruah, the Greek translation of the Septuagint uses twenty-four different terms, and so does not permit one to see all the connections between the texts of the Hebrew Bible.

7. To end this terminological analysis of the Old Testament texts concerning ruah, we can say that the breath of God appears in them as the power that gives life to creatures. It appears as a profound reality of God which works deep within man. It appears as a manifestation of God’s dynamism which is communicated to creatures.

Though not yet understood as a distinct Person in the context of the divine being, the “breath” or “Spirit” of God is distinguishable in some way from the God who sends it to operate in creatures. Thus, even from the literary point of view, the human mind is gradually prepared to receive the revelation of the Person of the Holy Spirit, who will appear as the expression of God’s intimate life and omnipotence.”

28- The creative action of the divine Spirit

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 10 January 1990

“1. In biblical language, the emphasis given to ruah as “the breath of God” seems to demonstrate that the analogy between the invisible, spiritual, penetrating, omnipotent divine action, and the wind, was rooted in the psychology and tradition on which the sacred authors drew. At the same time it provided new food for thought. Despite the variety of derived meanings, the term always served to express a vital force at work from outside or within man and the world. Even when it did not denote directly a divine person, the term in reference to God “Spirit (or breath) of God” implanted and caused to grow in the mind of Israel the idea of a spiritual God who intervenes in history and human life. It prepared the ground for the future revelation of the Holy Spirit.

Thus we can say that already in the creation narrative of the Book of Genesis, the presence of the “spirit (or wind) of God,” which was moving over the face of the waters while the earth was formless and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep (cf. Gen 1:2), is a remarkably striking reference to that vital force. It suggests that the breath or spirit of God had a role in creation: a life-giving power, together with the “word” which imparts being and order to things.

2. The connection between the spirit of God and the waters, which we observe at the beginning of the creation account, is found in another form in different passages of the Bible and becomes still closer, because the Spirit himself is presented as a fruitful water, a source of new life. In the Book of Consolation, Deutero-Isaiah expresses this promise of God: “For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon your descendants, and my blessings on your offspring. They shall spring up like grass amid waters, like willows by flowing streams” (Is 44:3-4). The water which God promises to pour is his Spirit, which he will “pour out” on his people. Likewise the prophet Ezekiel announces that God “will pour out” his Spirit upon the house of Israel (Ez 39:29), and the prophet Joel takes up again the same expression which compares the spirit to water poured out: “I will pour out my spirit on all flesh” (Joel 3:1 in the Hebrew text).

The symbolism of water, with reference to the Spirit, will be taken up again in the New Testament and enriched with new shades of meaning. We shall have occasion to speak of them later.

3. In the account of creation, after the initial mention of the spirit or breath of God that hovered over the waters (Gen 1:2), we do not again find the word ruah, the Hebrew word for spirit. However, the way in which the creation of man is described suggests a relationship with the spirit or breath of God. We read that, after having formed man from the dust of the ground, the Lord God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being” (Gen 2:7). The word “breath” (in Hebrew neshama) is a synonym of “wind” or “spirit” (ruah), as is evident from the parallelism with other texts. On the other hand, the action of “breathing” attributed to God in the creation account is ascribed to the Spirit in the prophetic vision of the resurrection (Ez 37:9).

Sacred Scripture therefore gives us to understand that God has intervened by means of his breath or spirit to make man a living being. In man there is a “breath of life,” which comes from the “breathing” of God himself. In man there is a breath or spirit similar to the breath or spirit of God.

When the Book of Genesis speaks in chapter two of the creation of the animals (v. 19), it does not hint at such a close relationship with the breath of God. From the previous chapter we know that man was created “in the image and likeness of God” (1:26-27).

4. Other texts, however, admit that the animals also have a vital breath or wind and that they received it from God. Under this aspect man, coming forth from the hands of God, appears in solidarity with all living beings. Thus Psalm 104 makes no distinction between men and animals when it says, addressing God the Creator: “These all look to you, to give them their food in due season. When you give to them, they gather it up” (vv. 27-28). The Psalmist then adds: “When you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the earth” (vv. 29-30). The creatures’ existence therefore depends on the action of the breath-spirit of God, who not only creates but also conserves and continually renews the face of the earth.

5. The first creation was devastated by sin. But God did not abandon it to destruction, but prepared for its salvation, which was to constitute a “new creation” (cf. Is 65:17; Gal 6:15; Rev 21:5). The action of God’s Spirit for this new creation is suggested by Ezekiel’s famous prophecy on the resurrection. In a striking vision the prophet has before his eyes a vast valley “full of bones,” and is ordered to prophesy to these bones and say to them: “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live…'” (Ez 37:1-5). The prophet carries out the divine command and “there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone” (37:7). Then there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; and finally, at the command of the prophet, breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet (cf. 37:8-10).

The primary meaning of this vision was to announce the restoration of the people of Israel after the devastation and exile: “These bones are the whole house of Israel,” says the Lord. The Israelites were regarded as lost, without hope. God promises them: “I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live” (37:14). However, in the light of Jesus’ paschal mystery, the prophet’s words acquire a higher meaning, that of announcing a real resurrection of our mortal bodies thanks to the action of God’s Spirit.

The Apostle Paul expresses this certainty of faith in the words: “If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Rom 8:11).

The new creation had its beginning through the Holy Spirit’s action in Christ’s death and resurrection. In his passion Jesus fully received the action of the Holy Spirit in his human nature (cf. Heb 9:14). He thus passed from death to a new life (cf. Rom 6:10), which he can now communicate to all believers by transmitting to them this same Spirit, initially in baptism, and then fully in the final resurrection.

On the evening of Easter, appearing to the disciples in the upper room, the risen Christ repeated over them the action of God the Creator over Adam. God had “breathed” on the body of the man to give him life. Jesus “breathed” on his disciples and said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22).

Jesus’ human breath thus serves to produce a divine work still more marvelous than the initial one. It is not merely the creation of a living man, as in the first creation, but the introduction of human beings into the divine life.

6. Rightly, therefore, does St. Paul establish a parallelism and an antithesis between Adam and Christ, between the first and second creation, when he writes: “If there is a physical body there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being’ (Gen 2:7), the last Adam became a life-giving spirit” (1 Cor 15:44-45). The risen Christ, the new Adam, is so permeated in his humanity by the Holy Spirit, that he himself can be called “spirit.”

His humanity not only possesses of itself the fullness of the Holy Spirit, but it also has the capacity to communicate the life of the Spirit to all humanity. “If anyone is in Christ,” St. Paul also writes, “he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17).

The creative and renewing action of God’s Spirit is thus fully manifested in the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection. The Church invokes the Spirit when she prays: “Veni Creator Spiritus,” “Come, Creator Spirit.””

29- The guiding action of the Spirit of God

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 17 January 1990

“1. The Old Testament gives us valuable examples of the acknowledged role of the Spirit of God – as “breeze,” “breath,” “life force,” symbolized by wind. These examples are found not only in the books collecting the religious and the literary output of the sacred writers, which mirror both the psychology and the vocabulary of Israel, but also in the very lives of the personages who led the people in their historic journey toward the messianic future.

According to the sacred writers, it is God’s Spirit who acts upon the leaders. The Spirit sees to it that they not only work in God’s name, but also that their actions truly serve to carry out God’s plan. They should look not so much toward building up and increasing their own personal or dynastic power, seen from a monarchical or aristocratic point of view, but rather toward giving valuable service to others, and especially to the people. It can be said that, through the mediation of these leaders, God’s Spirit enters into and guides Israel’s history.

2. Already in the story of the patriarchs one can note that they are being guided and led in their journey, in their travels and in their experiences by a divine hand which is fashioning a plan regarding their descendants. One of them is Joseph in whom the Spirit of God lives as a spirit of wisdom. He is discovered by pharaoh who asks his officials: “Could we find another like him, a man so endowed with the spirit of God?” (Gen 41:38). God’s spirit makes Joseph capable of administering the country and accomplishing extraordinary tasks not only for his family and its various genealogical branches, but also on the plane of the whole future history of Israel.

God’s spirit acts on Moses as well, the mediator between Yahweh and the people. The spirit sustains him and leads him during the exodus which will bring Israel to a homeland and make it an independent people, capable of accomplishing its messianic role. When the families encamped in the desert experienced a tense moment and Moses lamented before God that he did not feel up to carrying “the weight of all this people” (Num 11:14), God ordered him to choose seventy men. With them he was to set up an initial governing structure for those wandering tribes, and God announced to him: “I will also take some of the spirit that is on you and will bestow it on them, that they may share the burden of the people with you, and you will then not have to bear it by yourself” (Num 11:17). And thus, with the seventy elders gathered around the meeting tent, “the Lord took some of the spirit that was on Moses and bestowed it on the seventy elders” (Num 11:25).

When at the end of his life Moses had to be concerned about leaving the community a leader so that “it might not become a flock without a shepherd,” the Lord pointed out Joshua to him; he was a “man in whom the spirit was present” (Num 27:17-18). Moses laid “hands on him,” with the result that he, too, was “full of the spirit of wisdom” (Dt 34:9). These are typical cases of the Spirit’s presence and action in the lives of the shepherds of the people.

3. At times the gift of the Spirit is conferred on a person who, while not a leader, is called by God to give a service of some importance in special times and circumstances. For example, when it was time to construct the meeting tent and the ark of the covenant, God told Moses: “See, I have called Bezalel by name…I have filled him with a divine spirit of skill and understanding and knowledge in every craft” (Ex 31:3; cf. 35:31). And furthermore, God adds even in regard to the workmates of this artisan: “I have also endowed all the experts with the necessary skill to make all the things I have ordered you to make: the meeting tent, the ark of the commandments” (Ex 31:6-7).

The Book of Judges celebrates the lives of persons who were called at first “hero liberators,” but later were also governors of cities and districts during the time of settlement between the tribal and monarchical periods. According to the usage of the verb shafat, “to judge,” in Semitic languages related to Hebrew, these people were considered to be not only administrators of justice, but also leaders of their people. They were raised up by God who communicated to them his spirit (breath—ruah) in answer to pleas made to him during moments of crisis. Several times in the Book of Judges their appearance and their victorious deeds are attributed to a gift of the spirit. Thus in the case of Othniel, the first of the great judges whose history is summarized, it is said that “when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a savior, Othniel…and he rescued them. The spirit of the Lord came upon him and he judged Israel” (Jgs 3:9-10).

In Gideon’s case, emphasis is placed on the power of divine action: “The spirit of the Lord enveloped Gideon” (Jgs 6:34). It is also said of Jephthah that “the spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah” (Jgs 11:29). And regarding Samson: “The spirit of the Lord began to stir him” (Jgs 13:25). In these cases the spirit of God is the giver of extraordinary strength, of courage in decision-making, and at times of strategic prowess, by which a person was made capable of carrying out a mission entrusted to him for the liberation and leadership of the people.

4. When the historical leap is made from judges to kings, when the Israelites ask to have “a king to govern us, as other nations have” (1 Sam 8:5), the elderly judge and liberator Samuel acts so as not to mar Israel’s sense of belonging to God as the chosen people and to assure the essential element of theocracy, that is, recognition of God’s rights over the people. The anointing of kings as an inaugural rite is a sign of divine investiture which places political power at the service of a religious and messianic purpose. In this sense Samuel tells Saul, after having anointed him and having foretold the meeting at Gibeath with a group of psalm-singing prophets: “The spirit of the Lord will rush upon you and you will join them in their prophetic state and you will be changed into another man” (1 Sam 10:6). Also when the first initiatives of war became evident, “The spirit of God rushed upon Saul” (1 Sam 11:16). The promise of protection and of God’s covenant which Samuel had made to Saul was realized in him: “God will be with you” (1 Sam 10:7). When the spirit of God abandoned Saul, he was terrified by an evil spirit (cf. 1 Sam 16:14). David had already appeared on the scene, consecrated by the aged Samuel with oil by which “the spirit of the Lord, from that day on, rushed upon David” (1 Sam 16:13).

5. With David, even more than with Saul, the ideal of the king anointed by the Lord, a type of the future Messiah-King, who would be the real liberator and saviour of his people, took hold. Although David’s successors did not reach his stature in realizing messianic kingship, and not a few of them abused Yahweh’s covenant with Israel, the ideal of the King-Messiah did not die. It was projected into the future in terms of expectation, rekindled by prophetic announcements.

Especially Isaiah emphasizes the relationship between God’s spirit and the Messiah: “The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him” (Is 11:2). Again it will be a spirit of strength, but, above all, a spirit of wisdom: “a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord,” that spirit which will drive the Messiah to act with justice on behalf of the afflicted, the poor and the oppressed (Is 11:2-4).

The Holy Spirit of the Lord (cf. Is 42:1; 61:1 f.; 63:10-13; Ps 50; 51:13; Wis 1:5; 9:17), his “life breath” (ruah) which runs throughout Bible history will thus be given to the Messiah in full. That very spirit which breathed upon the chaos prior to creation (cf. Gen 1:2), the spirit which gives life to all that is (cf. Ps 104:29-30; 33:6; Gen 2:7; Ez 37:5-6, 9-10), which raises up judges (cf. Jgs 3:10; 6:34; 11:29) and kings (cf. 1 Sam 11:6), which makes artisans capable of doing their work in the sanctuary (cf. Ex 31:3; 35:31), which gives Joseph wisdom (cf. Gen 41:38), and Moses and the prophets inspiration (cf. Num 11:17, 25-26; 24:2; 1 Sam 23:2), will fall upon the Messiah with the abundance of its gifts (cf. Is 11:2). It will enable him to accomplish his mission of justice and peace. He upon whom God will have “placed his Spirit” “shall bring forth justice to the nations” (Is 42:1). “He will not retreat or be disheartened until he establishes justice on the earth” (42:4).

6. In what way will he “establish justice” and free the oppressed? Will it be perhaps by strength of arms as the judges did, under the impetus of the spirit, and as the Maccabees did many centuries later? The Old Testament did not allow for a clear response to this question. Certain passages told of violent interventions, as, for example, the Isaian text which says: “I trampled down the peoples in my anger, I crushed them in my wrath, and I let their blood run out upon the ground” (Is 63:6). Others, however, insisted on abolishing all struggle: “One nation shall not raise the sword against another nor shall they train for war again” (Is 2:4).

The answer had to be revealed by the way in which the Holy Spirit led Jesus into his mission: from the Gospel we know that the Spirit prompted Jesus to reject the use of arms and any human ambition and carry out a divine victory by means of unlimited generosity, shedding his own blood to free us from our sins. Thus the directing action of the Holy Spirit was manifested in a decisive way.”

30- “Spirit lifted me …”

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 14 February 1990

“1. By referring to the last catechesis, we can draw from the Biblical data already cited the prophetic aspect of the activity exercised by God’s Spirit over the leaders of the people, the kings and the Messiah. This aspect requires further reflection, because prophecy is the course along which the history of Israel runs, dominated by the prominent figure of Moses, the prophet par excellence, “with whom the Lord spoke face to face” (Dt 34:10). Through the centuries the Israelites became more and more familiar with the dual concept of “the law and the prophets,” as an expressive synthesis of the spiritual patrimony which God entrusted to his people. And it is through his spirit that God spoke and acted in the fathers, and from generation to generation prepared a new day.

2. Without doubt the prophetic phenomenon which is seen in history is linked to the word. The prophet is a person who speaks in the name of God and delivers to his or her hearers and readers what God wants to make known concerning the present and future. God’s spirit animates the word and gives it life. It gives to the prophet and the prophet’s word a certain divine pathos, by which the prophet becomes vibrant and at times passionate, sometimes laden with suffering, and always dynamic.

Often the Bible describes significant episodes where it becomes evident that God’s spirit rests on someone, and this person immediately pronounces a prophetic utterance. That is what happened with Balaam: “God’s spirit came upon him” (Num 24:2). Then “he gave voice to his oracle and said: ‘The utterance of one who hears what God has to say, and knows what the Most High knows, of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured and with eyes unveiled…'” (Num 24:3-4). It is the famous prophecy, which although referring immediately to Saul (cf. 1 Sam 15:8) and to David (cf. 1 Sam 30:1 ff.) in the war against the Amalekites, evokes the Messiah as well: “I see him, though not now; I behold him, though not near; a star shall advance from Jacob, a staff shall arise from Israel…” (Num 24:17).

3. Another aspect of the prophetic spirit in service to the word is that it is able to be communicated and almost divided as the needs of the people dictated. This happened in the case of Moses who worried that the number of Israelites to lead and govern totaled at that time “600,000 adult men” (Num 11:12). The Lord commanded him to choose and gather together “seventy men among the elders of Israel, known by him to be elders of the people and their authorities” (Num 11:16). That done, the Lord “took some of the spirit that was on Moses and bestowed it on the seventy elders; and as the spirit came to rest on them they prophesied…” (Num 11:25).

In the succession of Elisha to Elijah, the former wished to be given no less than “two thirds of the spirit” of the great prophet, a kind of double portion of the inheritance due to the eldest son (cf. Dt 21:17). This was so that he might be recognized as the principal spiritual heir among the multitude of prophets and “sons of the prophets” grouped into guilds (2 Kgs 2:3). But the spirit is not passed on from prophet to prophet like an earthly inheritance: it is God who grants it. However, it did happen so, and the “sons of the prophets” admitted it: “The spirit of Elijah rests on Elisha” (2 Kgs 2:15; cf 6:17).

4. In Israel’s contact with neighboring peoples there was no lack of false prophecy, which led to the formation of ecstatic groups who substituted music and movements for the spirit which came from God. They belonged to the Baal cult. Elijah waged a decisive battle against such prophets (1 Kgs 18:25-29), and emerged from it alone in his greatness. For his part, Elisha had further contact with some of these groups who seemed to have come to their senses (cf. 2 Kgs 2:3).

In genuine Biblical tradition the true concept of the prophet is defended and insisted on as being a man of God’s word, appointed by God, on a par with and in a line from Moses (cf. Dt 18:15 f.). God promised Moses: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you in the midst of their brethren and I will put my words in his mouth. He will speak what I command him” (Dt 18:18). This promise is accompanied with a warning against the abuses of prophecy: “If a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods he shall die. If you say to yourselves, ‘How can we recognize an oracle which the Lord has spoken?’ know that even though a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if his oracle is not fulfilled or verified, it is an oracle which the Lord did not speak” (Dt 18:20-21).

Another aspect of this criterion for judging is fidelity to the doctrine of God given to Israel through resistance to the seduction of idolatry (cf. Dt 13:2 f.). This explains the hostility shown toward the false prophets (cf. 1 Kgs 22:6 ff.; 2 Kgs 3:13; Jer 2:26; 5:13; 23:9-40; Mi 3:11; Zech 13:2). The duty of the prophet, as a man of God’s word, is to fight the “spirit of lies” which is found on the lips of the false prophets (cf. 1 Kgs 22:23), in order to protect the people from their influence. It is a mission received from God, as Ezekiel proclaimed: “Thus the word of the Lord came to me: ‘son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, prophesy! Say to those who prophesy their own thought: Hear the word of the Lord: Woe to those prophets who are fools, who follow their own spirit and have seen no vision'” (Ez 13:2-3).

5. Man of the word, the prophet must also be “a man of the spirit,” as Hosea once called him (9:7). He must have the spirit of God, and not only his own spirit, if he is to speak in the name of God.

This concept was developed by Ezekiel above all, who allowed the awareness which already took place about the deep meaning of prophecy to be seen. To speak in God’s name requires the presence of God’s spirit in the prophet. This presence is manifested in a contact which Ezekiel calls “vision.” In those who are granted it, the activity of God’s spirit guarantees the truth of the words pronounced. We find here a new indication of the link between word and spirit, which linguistically and conceptually prepares the way for the link which in the New Testament is placed between the Word and the Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel was aware of being personally led by the spirit: “Spirit entered into me” (he writes), “it set me on my feet and I heard the one who spoke to me” (Ez 2:2). The spirit enters into the person of the prophet. It makes him stand up: therefore it makes of him a witness to God’s word. It lifts him up and puts him into motion: “Spirit lifted me up…and carried me away” (Ez 3:12-14). Thus does the dynamism of the spirit manifest itself (cf. Ez 8:3; 11:1, 5, 24; 43:5). Furthermore, Ezekiel specifies that he is speaking of “the Lord’s Spirit” (11:5).

6. The dynamic aspect of the prophetic action of the divine Spirit comes through strongly in the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah who, after the return from the Exile, vigorously pushed the repatriated Hebrews to get to work rebuilding the Temple of Jerusalem. The result of the first prophecy of Haggai was that “the Lord stirred up the spirit of the governor of Judah, Zerubbabel…and the spirit of the high priest Joshua…and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, so that they came and set to work on the house of the Lord of hosts” (Hg 1:14). In a second prophecy the prophet Haggai intervened once again and promised the powerful help of the Lord’s spirit: “Courage Zerubbabel…. Courage, Joshua…. Courage, all people of the land, says the Lord…my spirit will be with you, do not fear” (Hg 2:4-5). Likewise the prophet Zechariah proclaimed: “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: neither by an army nor with might, but with my spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zech 4:6).

In the days immediately preceding the birth of Jesus, there were no longer prophets in Israel and no one knew how long that situation would last (cf. Ps 74:9; 1 Macc 9:27). Yet one of the last prophets, Joel, had announced a universal outpouring of God’s spirit which was to take place “before the coming of the day of the Lord, the great and terrible day” (Joel 3:4). It was to be manifested with an extraordinary spreading of the gift of prophecy. The Lord had proclaimed through his agent: “I will pour out my spirit upon all mankind; your sons and daughters will prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams and your young men shall see visions” (3:1).

Thus finally the wish expressed many centuries previously by Moses would be fulfilled: “Would that all were prophets among the Lord’s people and would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all” (Num 11:29). Prophetic inspiration would thus reach even “the slaves, both men and women” (Joel 3:2), overcoming all distinctions of cultural level or social condition. Then salvation would be offered to all: “Whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved” (Joel 3:5).

As we saw in a previous catechesis, this prophecy of Joel found its fulfillment on the day of Pentecost. Turning to the amazed crowd, the Apostle Peter was able to declare: “What the prophet Joel prophesied has come to pass”; and he repeated the oracle of the prophet (cf. Acts 2:16-21), explaining that Jesus, “exalted at the right hand of God, had received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and had poured it out” abundantly (cf. Acts 2:33). From that day on, the prophetic activity of the Holy Spirit has been continually manifested in the Church to give her light and comfort.”

31- The Holy Spirit as sanctifier

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Wednesday 21 February 1990

“1. According to the Bible, the divine spirit is not only a light which illumines by giving knowledge and prompting prophecy, but also a force which sanctifies. God’s spirit communicates holiness, because he himself is “a spirit of holiness,” “holy spirit.” This title is attributed to the divine spirit in chapter 63 of the Book of Isaiah when, in the long poem or psalm devoted to praising the benefits of Yahweh and deploring the people’s strayings during Israel’s history, the sacred author says that “they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit” (Is 63:10). But he adds that, after God’s punishment, “they remembered the days of old and Moses his servant,” and they wondered: “Where is he who put his holy spirit in their midst?” (Is 63:11).

This title is echoed also in Psalm 51 where, in asking pardon and mercy of the Lord (Miserere mei Deus, secundum, misericordiam tuam), the author pleads: “Do not cast me out from your presence nor take your holy spirit from me” (Ps 51:13). This is a reference to the intimate principle of good which operates within, leading one to holiness (“spirit of holiness”).

2. The Book of Wisdom affirms the incompatibility of the Holy Spirit with all lack of sincerity and justice: “The holy spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsel; and when injustice occurs, it is rebuked” (Wis 1:5). This expresses a very close relationship between wisdom and the spirit. In wisdom, the inspired author says, “there is an intelligent and holy spirit” (7:22), which is therefore “unstained” and “loving the good.” This spirit is the very spirit of God, because he is “all-powerful and all-seeing” (7:23). Without this “holy spirit of God” (cf. 9:17), which God “sends from on high,” human beings cannot discern the holy will of God (9:13-17) and much less carry it out faithfully.

3. The necessity of holiness is strongly linked in the Old Testament to the cultural and priestly dimension of Israel’s life. Worship must be carried out in a “holy” place, a place of the dwelling of God thrice holy (cf. Is 6:1-4). The cloud is the sign of the Lord’s presence (cf. Ex 40:34-35; 1 Kgs 8:10-11). Everything, within the tent, in the Temple, on the altar and on the priests, starting with Aaron, the first to be consecrated (cf. Ex 29:1 ff.), must respond to the demands of the “holy.” The holy is like a halo of respect and veneration created around persons, rites and places privileged by a special relationship with God.

Some Biblical texts affirm God’s presence in the tent in the desert and in the Jerusalem Temple (Ex 25:8; 40:34-35; 1 Kgs 8:10-13; Ez 43:4-5). Still, in the account of the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, a prayer is recounted in which the king places this claim in doubt, saying: “Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this Temple which I have built” (1 Kgs 8:27). In the Acts of the Apostles, St. Stephen expresses the same conviction regarding the Temple: “Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands” (Acts 7:48). The reason for that is explained by Jesus himself in his conversation with the Samaritan woman: “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn 4:24). A house made of materials cannot fully receive the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot be truly “the dwelling of God.” The true house of God must be a “spiritual house,” as St. Peter will say, formed of “living stones,” that is, of men and women sanctified interiorly by God’s Spirit (cf. 1 Pet 2:4-10; Eph 2:21-22).

4. For that reason God promised the gift of the Spirit in hearts, in Ezekiel’s famous prophecy which says: “I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it…. I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols; I will give you new heart and place a new spirit within you…. I will put my spirit within you…” (Ez 36:23-27). The result of this wonderful gift is holiness in the concrete, lived with sincere attachment to God’s holy will. Thanks to the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit, hearts will be finally docile to God and the life of the faithful will conform to the Lord’s law.

God says: “I will put my spirit within you and I will make you live according to my statutes and will make you observe my laws and put them into practice” (Ez 36:27). Thus the Spirit sanctifies the entire existence of the human person.

5. The “spirit of lies” fights against the spirit of God (cf. 1 Kgs 22:21-23); the “unclean spirit” overpowers persons and peoples, making them bow to idolatry. In the oracle on Jerusalem’s liberation found in the Book of Zechariah, within the messianic perspective the Lord himself promises to effect the conversion of the people, making the unclean spirit vanish: “On that day…I will destroy the names of the idols from the land…. I will also take away the prophets and the spirit of uncleanliness from the land…” (Zech 13:1-2; cf. Jer 23:9 f.; Ex 13:2 ff.).

Jesus fought the “unclean spirit” (cf. Lk 9:42; 11:24). In this regard, Jesus spoke of the intervention of the spirit of God and said: “If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt 12:28). To his disciples Jesus promised the help of the “Consoler,” who “will convict the world…in regard to condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned” (Jn 16:8-11). In his turn, Paul will speak of the spirit which justifies by faith and love (cf. Gal 5:5-6), and will put in the place of the “works of the flesh” the “fruits of the spirit” (cf. Gal 5:19 ff.), teaching the new life “according to the Spirit”: the new Spirit of which the prophets spoke.

6. All those individuals or peoples who follow the spirit that is in conflict with God, “grieve” God’s spirit. That is an expression used by Isaiah which we have already cited and which is timely to repeat in this context. It is found in the meditation of the so-called Trito-Isaiah on the history of Israel: “It was not a messenger nor an angel, but he himself [God] saved them. Because of his love and pity he redeemed them himself, lifting them and carrying them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit” (Is 63:9-10). The prophet contrasts the generosity of the saving love of God for his people with their ingratitude. In his anthropomorphic description, the attribution to God’s spirit of the sadness caused by the abandonment of the people conforms to human psychology. But in the language of the prophet one can say that the sin of the people saddens the spirit of God especially because this spirit is holy: the sin offends the divine holiness. The offense is more serious because the holy spirit of God has been not only placed by God within Moses his servant (cf. Is 63:11), but also given as a guide to his people during their Exodus from Egypt (cf. Is 63:14) as a sign and pledge of future salvation: “and they rebelled…” (Is 63:10).

Paul, also, as an heir of this concept and this vocabulary, will recommend to the Christians of Ephesus: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with which you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30; 1:13-14).

7. The expression “sadden the Holy Spirit” shows well how the people of the Old Testament had passed gradually from a concept of sacral holiness, a rather external one, to the desire for interiorized holiness under the influence of God’s Spirit.

The more frequent use of the title “Holy Spirit” indicates this evolution. Nonexistent in the most ancient books of the Bible, this title takes over little by little, precisely because it suggested the Spirit’s role in sanctifying the faithful. The hymns of Qumran in various sections thank God for the interior purification which he has wrought by means of his Holy Spirit (e.g. Hymns from the First Cave of Qumran, 16:12; 17:26). The intense desire of the faithful was no longer only to be freed from oppressors, as in the time of the judges, but above all to be able to serve the Lord “in holiness and justice, before him all our days” (Lk 1:75). For this to happen the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit was needed.

The Gospel message answers this expectation. It is significant that, in all four Gospels, the word “holy” appears for the first time in relation to the Spirit, both in speaking of the birth of John the Baptist and that of Jesus (Mt 1:18-20; Lk 1:15, 35), and in announcing the baptism in the Holy Spirit (Mk 1:8; Jn 1:33). In the account of the annunciation, the Virgin Mary hears the words of the angel Gabriel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you…because he who will be born will be holy and called the Son of God” (Lk 1:35). Thus the crucial sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit, destined to spread among all people, had its beginning.”

32- The Spirit of God purifies

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Ash Wednesday, 28 February 1990

“1. In the preceding catechesis, we quoted a verse of Psalm 51 in which the Psalmist, repentant after his serious sin, implores God’s mercy and asks the Lord: “Do not deprive me of your holy spirit” (v. 13). The Psalm is the Miserere, a very well-known psalm which is often repeated in the liturgy, as well as in the devotion and penitential practices of Christian people. It expresses feelings of repentance, trust and humility which easily arise in a “heart contrite and humbled” (Ps 51:19) after sinning. The Psalm merits study and meditation, in the tradition of the Fathers and writers of Christian spirituality; it offers us new dimensions of the concept “divine spirit” in the Old Testament. It helps us to translate doctrine into spiritual and ascetical practice.

2. Those who followed the references to the prophets made in the preceding catechesis will find it easy to discover the strong kinship of the Miserere with those texts, especially those of Isaiah and Ezekiel. The sense of standing in the sight of God in a sinful condition itself, found in the penitential passage of Isaiah (59:12; cf. Ez 6:9), and the sense of personal responsibility instilled by Ezekiel (18:1-32) are already present in this Psalm. Within the context of the experience of sin and the strongly felt need for conversion, the Psalm asks God for a purification of the heart together with a renewed spirit. The action of God’s spirit thus takes on more concrete aspects and a more precise commitment on the level of a person’s existential condition.

3. “Have pity on me, O God!” The Psalmist implores divine mercy to win purification from sin: “Wipe out my offense, thoroughly wash me of my guilt, and of my sin cleanse me!” (Ps 51:3-4). “Cleanse me of my sin with hyssop that I may be purified; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow” (v. 9). But he knows that God’s pardon cannot be reduced to a simply external withholding of accusation, without there being an interior renewal: the human being, all alone, is incapable of that. Therefore he asks: “Create in me, O God, a clean heart, and a steadfast spirit renew within me. Cast me not out from your presence, and your holy spirit take not from me. Give me back the joy of your salvation and a willing spirit sustain in me” (vv. 12-14).

4. The language of the Psalmist is extremely expressive: he asks for a creation, that is, the exercise of God’s almighty power with the intention of creating a new being. Only God can create (bara’), that is, bring something new into existence (cf. Gen 1:1; Ex 34:10; Is 48:7; 65:17; Jer 31:21-22). Only God can give a pure heart, a heart which is completely transparent in its total desire to conform to God’s will. Only God can renew the intimate part of the human being, change the person from within, set aright the basic direction of his conscious life and his religious and moral life. Only God can justify the sinner, according to the vocabulary of theology and dogma itself (cf. DS 1521-1522; 1560), which translates in just that way the prophet’s phrase: “to give a new heart” (Ps 51:12).

5. “A steadfast spirit” (Ps 51:12) is asked for next, or the injection of God’s strength into the human spirit, freed from the moral weakness felt in and shown by sin. This strength, this steadfastness, can come only from the active presence of God’s spirit, and therefore the Psalmist implores: “Do not deprive me of your holy spirit.” It is the only time in the Psalms that this expression is found: “God’s holy spirit.” In the Hebrew Bible it is used only in the Isaian text which, in meditating on Israel’s history, laments to God about the rebellion by which “they grieved his holy spirit” (Is 63:10), and recalls Moses for whom God “put his holy spirit within him” (Is 63:11). The Psalmist is already aware of the intimate presence of God’s spirit as a continuing source of holiness, and therefore prays: “Do not deprive me of it!” Thus the juxtaposition of this request with the other one: “Cast me not out from your presence,” lets us understand the Psalmist’s conviction that the possession of God’s Holy Spirit is linked to the divine presence in a person’s inner being. To be deprived of that presence would be the real misfortune. If the Holy Spirit remains in him, man stands in a relationship with God that is no longer just “face to face,” as before a face to contemplate: no, he possesses in himself a divine strength which inspires his behaviour.

6. After having asked not to be deprived of God’s Holy Spirit, the Psalmist asks for the restitution of joy. Earlier he had already prayed for the same thing, when he asked God for his purification, hoping to become “whiter than snow”: “Make me feel joy and gladness; the bones you have crushed will exalt for joy” (Ps 51:10). But in the psychological-reflective process in which prayer is born, the Psalmist feels that in order to enjoy this joy fully, it is not enough for all guilt to be wiped away. The creation of a new heart is needed, with a steadfast spirit linked to the presence of God’s holy spirit. Only then can he ask: “Give me the joy of your salvation!”

Joy is part of the renewal included in the phrase “creation of a clean heart.” It is the result of birth into a new life, as Jesus will explain in the parable of the prodigal son. The father who pardons is the first to rejoice and wants to communicate the joy of his heart to all (cf. Lk 15:20-32).

7. Along with joy, the Psalmist asks for a “willing spirit,” that is, a spirit of courageous commitment. He asks it of him who, according to the Book of Isaiah, had promised salvation for the weak: “On high I dwell in holiness and with the crushed and dejected in spirit, to revive the spirits of the dejected, to revive the hearts of the crushed” (Is 57:15).

Once this request is made, the Psalmist immediately adds a declaration of his commitment to work with God on behalf of sinners, for their conversion: “I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall return to you” (Ps 51:15). This is another characteristic element of the interior process of a sincere heart, which has won pardon for its own sins. Such a heart wishes to win the same gift for others, prompting their conversion. It has the intention of working and promises to work toward this goal. This “spirit of commitment” in such a person flows out of the presence of the “holy spirit of God” and is the sign of that presence. In the enthusiasm of conversion and in the fervor of commitment, the Psalmist expresses to God his conviction concerning the effectiveness of his own actions. For him it seems certain that “sinners will return to you.” But here as well the awareness of the active presence of an inner power, that of the “holy spirit,” is in play.

The deduction enunciated by the Psalmist has a universal value: “My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit; a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn” (Ps 51:19). Prophetically he foresees that the day will come when, in a restored Jerusalem, the sacrifices celebrated on the temple altar according to the law’s prescriptions will be acceptable (cf. vv. 20-21). The rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem will be the sign of divine pardon, as the prophets Isaiah (cf. 60:1 ff.; 62:1 ff.), Jeremiah (cf. 30:15-18) and Ezekiel (cf. 36:33) will also say. But it remains sure that what is of greater worth is that “sacrifice of the spirit” of the person who asks pardon humbly, moved by the divine spirit which, thanks to repentance and prayer, was not taken away from him (cf. Ps 51:13).

8. As is clear from this succinct presentation of its basic themes, the Psalm Miserere is for us not only a beautiful prayer text and a guide in the asceticism of repentance. It is also a witness to the level of development achieved in the Old Testament regarding the concept of the “divine spirit,” as it gradually comes closer to what will be the revelation of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament.

The Psalm is, therefore, a great page in the history of the spirituality of the Old Testament, in pilgrimage, although in shadow, toward the new Jerusalem which will be the Holy Spirit’s dwelling place.”

33- The Spirit, the Word and Wisdom

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, Ash Wednesday, 14 March 1990

“1. The experience of the Old Testament prophets accents especially the link between the word and the spirit. The prophet speaks in the name of God and through the spirit. Scripture itself is a word which comes from the Spirit, the recording of the spirit lasting through the ages. It is holy because of the spirit who brings about its effectiveness through the spoken and written word.

Even in some who are not prophets, the intervention of the spirit prompts the word. The First Book of Chronicles recounts that the “brave ones” who acknowledged his royalty joined David. It says that “the spirit enveloped Amasai, leader of the thirty [brave ones]” and made him say these words to David: “We are yours…. Peace, peace to you, and peace to him who helps you; your God it is who helps you.” And “David received them and placed them among the leaders of his troops” (1 Chr 12:19). Even more dramatic is another example told in the Second Book of Chronicles, which Jesus will recall (cf. Mt 23:35; Lk 11:51). This took place at a time when temple worship was declining and Israel was yielding to the temptation to idolatry. When the prophets who were sent to the Israelites by God so that they might return to him were left unheeded, “Then the Spirit of God possessed Zechariah, son of Jehoiada the priest. He took his stand above the people and said to them: ‘God says, “Why are you transgressing the Lord’s commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you.”‘ But they conspired against him, and at the king’s order they stoned him to death in the court of the Lord’s temple” (2 Chr 24:20-21). These are meaningful examples of the connection between spirit and word, present in the mind and the vocabulary of Israel.

2. Another similar link is the one between spirit and wisdom. It is seen in the Book of Daniel, on the lips of King Nebuchadnezzar. In recounting his dream and Daniel’s explanation of it, he recognized the prophet as “a man who has the spirit of the holy God” (Dan 4:5; cf. 4:6, 15; 5:11, 14), that is, divine inspiration, which the pharaoh in his day also recognized in Joseph through the wisdom of his counsel (cf. Gen 41:38-39). In pagan vocabulary the king of Babylon spoke repeatedly of “the spirit of the holy gods,” while at the end of his account he spoke of “the king of heaven” (Dan 4:34), in the singular. In any case, he recognized that a divine spirit was manifest in Daniel, as King Belshazzar will also acknowledge: “I have heard that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and that you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom” (Dan 5:14). And the author of the book stresses that “Daniel outshone all his supervisors and satraps, because an exceptional spirit was in him, and the king thought of giving him authority over the entire kingdom” (Dan 6:3).

The “extraordinary wisdom” and the “exceptional spirit” are rightly attributed to Daniel. These bear witness to the link between these qualities in Judaism of the second century B.C. (when the book was written) to sustain the faith and hope of the Jews persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes.

3. In the Book of Wisdom, a text edited almost at the threshold of the New Testament, that is, according to certain modern authors, in the second half of the first century B.C., and in Hellenistic circles, the link between wisdom and the spirit is so stressed that the two are almost identical. From the beginning we find there that “wisdom is a kindly spirit” (Wis 1:6). It is manifested and communicated by the strength of a basic love for humanity. But this kindly spirit is not blind nor does it tolerate evil in people, even hidden evil. “Wisdom does not enter into a soul that plots evil, nor does she dwell in a body under debt of sin. For the holy spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsels…. She acquits not the blasphemer of his guilty lips because God is the witness of his innermost self and the sure observer of his heart and the listener to his tongue” (Wis 1:4, 6).

The spirit of the Lord, therefore, is a holy spirit, who wants to communicate his holiness and carry out an educational function: “The holy spirit who teaches” (Wis 1:5). The spirit opposes injustice. That is not a limit upon the spirit’s love, but rather a demand of that love. In the fight against evil, the spirit opposes all iniquity, but without ever allowing himself to be tricked, because nothing escapes the spirit, “not even words spoken in secret” (Wis 1:11). The spirit “fills the world”; it is omnipresent. “And, all-embracing, the spirit knows what man says” (Wis 1:7). The effect of his omnipresence is knowledge of all things, even secret ones.

Being a “kindly spirit,” the spirit does not intend only to watch over people, but to fill them with his voice and his holiness. “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being…” (Wis 1:13-14). The affirmation of this positive quality of creation reflects the biblical concept of God as “he who is” and as creator of the whole universe (cf. Gen 1:1 ff.). It gives a religious basis to the philosophical concept and to the ethics of relations with things; above all it launches a discussion of the final goal of the human being, which no philosophy would have been able to put forth without the aid of divine revelation. St. Paul will then say later that, if death had been introduced through man’s sin, Christ came as the new Adam to redeem humanity from sin and free humanity from death (cf. Rom 5:12-21). The Apostle will add that Christ brought a new life in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 8:1 ff.), giving the name and, even more, revealing the mission of the divine Person sheathed in mystery in the pages of the Book of Wisdom.

4. King Solomon, who is presented as the author of this book by literary contrivance, says at a certain moment to his colleagues: “Listen, oh kings…” (Wis 6:1), inviting them to receive the wisdom which is the secret and norm for royalty, and explaining “what wisdom is…” (Wis 6:22). He praises wisdom with a long list of the divine spirit’s traits, which he attributes to wisdom, almost personifying it: “In her is a spirit, intelligent, holy, unique, manifold…” (Wis 7:22-23). There are twenty-one descriptive attributes (three times seven), consisting of words taken in part from Greek philosophy and in part from the Bible. Here are the most important ones:

It is an “intelligent” spirit, that is not a blind impulse, but a force led by the awareness of truth. It is a “holy” spirit, because it wants not only to enlighten people, but to make them holy. It is “unique and manifold,” thus able to penetrate into everything. It is “subtle,” and pervades all spirits. Its activity is thus essentially interior, as is the spirit’s presence. The spirit is “omnipotent and all-seeing,” but does not constitute a tyrannical or destructive power, because the spirit is “kind and a friend to mankind,” desires their good and tends to “make friends for God.” Love supports and directs the exercise of the spirit’s power.

Wisdom has thus the qualities of and carries out the roles traditionally attributed to the divine spirit: “spirit of wisdom and intelligence…etc.” (Is 11:2 f.), because wisdom is identified with the spirit in the mysterious depths of the divine reality.

5. Among the functions of the Spirit-Wisdom there is that of making known the divine will: “Who ever knew your will, except you had given Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?” (Wis 9:17). Unaided, the human person is not able to know God’s will: “What man knows God’s counsel?” (Wis 9:13). By means of his holy spirit, God makes known his own will, his plan for human life, much more deeply and surely than with a mere promulgation of a law in formulae of human language. Acting from within by the gift of the Holy Spirit, God permits “the paths of those on earth to be made straight; and men learned what was your pleasure, and were saved by wisdom” (Wis 9:18). At this point the author describes in ten chapters the work of the Spirit-Wisdom in history, from Adam to Moses, to the covenant with Israel, to the liberation, through the continuing care given God’s people. And he concludes: “In all ways, O Lord, you have magnified and glorified your people; unfailing, you stood by them in every time and circumstance…” (Wis 19:22).

6. In this historical wisdom-literature recalling, a passage emerges where in speaking to the Lord, the author recalls God’s omnipresent spirit which loves and protects human life. That goes also for the enemies of God’s people and, generally, for the godless, for sinners. In them, too, there is a divine spirit of love and life: “You spare all things because they are yours, O Lord, lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things” (Wis 11:26; 12:1).

“You spare….” Israel’s enemies could have been punished in a way much more terrible than did happen. They could have been “winnowed out by your mighty spirit, but you have disposed all things by measure, number and weight” (Wis 11:20). The Book of Wisdom praises God’s “moderation” and offers this reason for it: God’s spirit does not act only as a strong wind, able to destroy the guilty, but as a spirit of wisdom which desires life and thereby shows its love. “But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people’s sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved had it not been called forth by you?” (Wis 11:23-25).

7. We are at the summit of religious philosophy, not only of Israel, but of all ancient peoples. Here the biblical tradition, already expressed in Genesis, answers the great questions unresolved even by Hellenistic culture.

Here God’s mercy united with the truth of his creation of all things. The universality of creation carries with it the universality of mercy. And all is under the power of the eternal love with which God loves all his creatures: love in which we now recognize the person of the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Wisdom already lets us perceive this Spirit-Love which, like Wisdom, takes on the qualities of a person, with the following characteristics: spirit which knows all and makes known to people the divine plans; spirit which cannot accept evil; spirit which, through the mediation of wisdom, wants to lead all to salvation; spirit of love which desires life; spirit which fills the universe with its beneficial presence.”

34- The divine Spirit and the Servant

Catechesis by Pope John Paul II on the Holy Spirit

General Audience, 21 March 1990