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2. "Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven" (John 20: 22-23). With these words, the Risen One bestows on the Apostles the gift of the Spirit and with it the divine power to forgive sins. The Capuchin priest Ignatius of Santhiá lived uniquely the mission of forgiving sins and of guiding men and women on the paths of evangelical perfection. For the love of Christ and to advance more quickly in evangelical perfection he walked in the footsteps of the Poverello of Assisi.
In the Piedmont of his time, Ignatius of Santhiá was father, confessor, counsellor and teacher of many - priests, religious and lay people - who sought his wise and enlightened guidance. Even today he continues to remind everyone of the values of poverty, simplicity and authentic Christian life.
In our society, in which all too often the traces of God seem to have vanished, Fra Umile is a joyful and encouraging invitation to meekness, kindness, simplicity, and a healthy detachment from the transient goods of this world.
This is what happened in the life of St Alphonsus of Orozco of the Order of St Augustine. Born in the town of Oropesa, Toledo, religious obedience led him to pass through many Spanish cities and towns until he ended his days in Madrid. His pastoral dedication to serving the poorest in the hospitals and prisons makes him a model for all who, under the guidance of the Spirit, base their entire life on the love of God and of their neighbour, following the great commandment of Jesus. Guided by divine grace, the new saint was concerned to accomplish God's will with fidelity and coherence. With boundless confidence in the Lord's goodness, she abandoned herself to his "loving Providence", deeply convinced, as she liked to repeat, that one must "do everything for love of God and to please him". This is the precious inheritance that St Benedetta Cambiagio Frassinello left to her spiritual daughters that today is offered to the entire Christian community.
Let us make our own this invocation of today's liturgy. The Holy Spirit radically transformed the Apostles who out of fear had locked themselves into the Upper Room, making them fervent heralds of the Gospel. Down through the ages, the Spirit continues to support the Church in her evangelizing mission, raising up in every age courageous witnesses to the faith.
With the Apostles, the Blessed Virgin Mary received the gift of the Spirit (cf. Acts 1:14). With her, and in communion with the new saints, let us also implore the miracle of a new Pentecost for the Church. For the humanity of our time let us ask an abundance of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Come Holy Spirit, enkindle the hearts of your faithful! Help us to spread the fire of your love in the world. Amen!
JOHN PAUL II REGINA CAELI Solemnity of Pentecost
1. At the conclusion of this solemn celebration, I cordially greet the pilgrims, particularly, those who have come from Piedmont, Calabria and Liguria who, with their Pastors and the Civil Authorities, have come to honour the new saints. These shining witnesses of the Gospel, to whom the Church calls attention today, invite us to turn our gaze towards Our Lady. They always had recourse to her in their lives.
2. I wish to hail the Spanish pilgrims participating in the canonization of St Alphonsus of Orozco with the other new Saints. I greet the Cardinals, Bishops and Civil Authorities, the priests and faithful, and in a special way, the members of the great family of St Augustine, enriched today with a new Saint. As he did, may you always enjoy the protection of Mary Mother of God and our Mother.
3. I warmly greet the pilgrims from Brazil, Pastors and faithful who came to assist at the canonization of St Pauline of the Suffering Heart of Jesus. I greet in a special way the President of the Republic and the other civil authorities who assisted at this celebration. I hope that the life of Mother Pauline can continue to serve as a model of holiness for the Little Sisters of the Immaculate Conception so that Our Lord can be known, loved and adored by all in the whole world.
4. Yesterday in Italy the Global March Against Child Labour and the association Mani Tese (Hands Outstretched) observed a day dedicated to sensitizing public opinion to the serious problem of the exploitation of child labour. May this initiative be a favourable occasion for seeking effective ways to resolve this intolerable phenomenon.
I greet the young people gathered at San Giovanni Rotondo to prepare for the canonization of Padre Pio. Dear young people, walk with courage on the path of holiness.
Acknowledgment: We thank the Vatican Publisher for allowing us to publish the Homilies of Pope Saint John Paul II, so that they could be accessed by more people all over the world; as a source of God’s encouragements to all of us. |
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MASS OF PRIESTLY ORDINATION HOMILY OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI St Peter's Basilica
Dear Brothers in the Episcopate and in the Priesthood,
The First Reading and the Gospel of Pentecost Sunday offer us two great images of the mission of the Holy Spirit. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles speaks of how, on the day of Pentecost, under the signs of a strong wind and fire, the Holy Spirit sweeps into the community of the disciples of Jesus who are in prayer, thus bringing the Church into being.
For Israel, Pentecost - celebration of the harvest - had become the celebration marking the conclusion of the Covenant on Mt Sinai. In wind and fire, God made his presence known to the people and then gave them the gift of his Law, the Ten Commandments. In this singular way was the work of liberation, begun with the Exodus from Egypt, brought to fulfilment: human freedom is always a shared freedom, a "togetherness" of liberty. Common freedom lasts only in an ordered harmony of freedom that reveals to each person his or her limits.
In this way the gift of the Law on Mt Sinai was not a restriction nor an abolition of freedom, but the foundation of true liberty. And since a correct human ordering finds stability only if it comes from God and if it unites men and women in the perspective of God, the Commandments that God himself gives us cannot be lacking in a correct ordering of human freedom.
In this way, Israel fully became a people, through the Covenant with God on Mt Sinai. Israel's encounter with God on Sinai could be considered to be the foundation and the guarantee of its existence as a people. The wind and fire, which enveloped the community of Christ's disciples gathered in the Upper Room, becomes a further development of the event of Mt Sinai and gives it new fullness.
They were gathered in Jerusalem on that day, according to what is written in the Acts of the Apostles: "devout Jews of every nation under heaven" (Acts 2: 5). Here is made manifest the characteristic gift of the Holy Spirit: all understood the words of the Apostles: "each one heard these men speaking his own language" (Acts 2: 6). The Holy Spirit gives understanding. Overcoming the "breach" begun in Babel - the confusion of hearts, putting us one against the other - the Spirit opens borders.
The People of God who found its first configuration on Mt Sinai, now becomes enlarged to the point of recognizing no limitations. The new People of God, the Church, is a people that derives from all peoples. The Church is catholic from her beginning and this is her deepest essence. St Paul explains and underlines this in the Second Reading when he says: "It was in one Spirit that all of us, whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, were baptized into one body. All of us have been given to drink of the one Spirit" (I Corinthians 12: 13).
The Church must always become anew what she already is; she must open the borders between peoples and break down the barriers between class and race. In her, there cannot be those who are forgotten or looked down upon. In the Church there are only free brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ. The wind and fire of the Holy Spirit must continually break down those barriers that we men and women continue to build between us; we must continually pass from Babel - being closed in on ourselves - to Pentecost.
Thus, we must continually pray that the Holy Spirit opens us and gives us the grace of understanding, so that we become the People of God deriving from all peoples. St Paul tells us more along these lines: in Christ, who as the one Bread feeds all of us in the Eucharist and draws us to him in his Body wracked on the Cross, we must become only one body and one spirit.
The second image of the sending of the Spirit that we find in the Gospel is much more hidden. Exactly in this way, however, all of the greatness of the Pentecost event is perceived. The Risen Lord passes through the closed doors and enters the place where the disciples are, and greets them twice with the words: "Peace be with you".
We continually close our doors; we continually want to feel secure and do not want to be disturbed by others and by God. And so, we can continually implore the Lord just for this, that he come to us, overcoming our closure, to bring us his greeting: "Peace be with you".
This greeting of the Lord is a bridge that he builds between heaven and earth. He descends to this bridge, reaching us, and we can climb up on this bridge of peace to reach him. On this bridge, always together with him, we too must reach our neighbour, reach the one who needs us. It is in lowering ourselves, together with Christ, that we rise up to him and up to God. God is Love, and so the descent, the lowering that love demands of us, is at the same time the true ascent. Exactly in this way, lowering ourselves, coming out of ourselves, we reach the dignity of Jesus Christ, the human being's true dignity.
The Lord's greeting of peace is followed by two gestures that are decisive for Pentecost: the Lord wants the disciples to continue his mission: "As the Father has sent me, so I send you" (John 20: 21).
After this, he breathes on them and says: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men's sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound" (John 20: 23). The Lord breathes on the disciples, giving them the Holy Spirit, his own Spirit. The breath of Jesus is the Holy Spirit.
We recognize here, in the first place, an allusion made to the story of creation in the Book of Genesis, where it is written: "The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2: 7). Man is this mysterious creature who comes entirely from the earth, but in whom has been placed the breath of God. Jesus breathes on the Apostles and gives them the breath of God in a new and greater way.
In people, notwithstanding all of their limitations, there is now something absolutely new: the breath of God. The life of God lives in us. The breath of his love, of his truth and of his goodness. In this way we can see here too an allusion to Baptism and Confirmation, this new belonging to God that the Lord gives to us. The Gospel Reading invites us to this: to live always within the breath of Jesus Christ, receiving life from him, so that he may inspire in us authentic life, the life that no death may ever take away.
To his breath, to the gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord joins the power of forgiveness. We heard earlier that the Holy Spirit unites, breaks down barriers, leads us one to the other. The strength that opens up and overcomes Babel is the strength of forgiveness.
Jesus can grant forgiveness and the power to forgive because he himself suffered the consequences of sin and dispelled them in the flame of his love. Forgiveness comes from the Cross; he transforms the world with the love that is offered. His heart opened on the Cross is the door through which the grace of forgiveness enters into the world. And this grace alone is able to transform the world and build peace.
If we compare the two events of Pentecost - the strong wind of the 50th day and the gentle breath of Jesus on the evening of Easter - we might think about this contrast between the two episodes that took place on Mt Sinai, spoken of in the Old Testament.
On the one hand, there is the narration of fire, thunder and wind, preceding the promulgation of the Ten Commandments and the conclusion of the Covenant (cf. Ex 19 ff.); on the other, there is the mysterious narration of Elijah on Mt Horeb. Following the dramatic events on Mt Carmel, Elijah fled from the wrath of Ahab and Jezebel. Following God's orders, he journeyed to Mt Horeb. The gift of the holy Covenant, of faith in the one God, seemed to have disappeared from Israel.
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15 June 2014 |