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Commentary to the Solemnity of PENTECOST – YEAR B
THE TEXT BELOW IS THE TRANSCRIPTION OF THE VIDEO COMMENTARY BY FR. FERNANDO ARMELLINI
Good Easter to all! In the ancient Middle East, there was a very old agricultural feast, it was called the feast of the harvest because it celebrated the joy of the conclusion of harvest season, that is, around July.
Originally it did not have a fixed date because the ripening of the harvest varies from year to year. However, the Israelites at some point fixed the date: Seven weeks after the Passover. That is the reason for what is called: ?ag HaShavuot (Shavuot - ?????? - plural of Shavuah - ???? , week) seven-week feast, in Greek Πεντηκοστ? ?μ?ρα (pentecosté hemera) the fiftieth day corresponding to seven weeks after the Passover. At the time of Jesus, or immediately after, this feast changed its meaning; it was no longer an agricultural feast but a religious feast where the people of Israel celebrated their joy, their gratitude to the Lord who had given to the Israelites the Torah, the Law because this law was the light that allowed these people to really live as humans. And it was this Torah that made them feel superior to all other peoples.
In fact, in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses says: "In your observance of the commandments of the LORD, your God, you shall not add to what I command you nor subtract from it. Observe them carefully, for this is your wisdom and discernment in the sight of the peoples, who will hear of all these statutes and say, “This great nation is truly a wise and discerning people.” (Deut 4:2,6). And, in the book of Deuteronomy God who says to his people, "These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." (Deut 6:6-7). This is the joy of the Torah that was celebrated in this feast of Pentecost.
The Torah is beautiful, it is a great gift. What is the limit of the Torah? It is a standard external to the person; the person is not instinctively carried to observe the Torah, but to go in the opposite direction. Therefore, the indication of the way of life is beautiful, but the person is tempted to be adulterous, to steal, to lie. It is an external law.
Luke, in the account of the Acts, places the gift of the Spirit at the feast of Pentecost. Why does he place it there? We know that the Spirit was brought into the world by Jesus and was given at the moment of his death on Calvary. The evangelist John says that Jesus, in his last breath, gave up the Spirit. This Spirit is the new nature of the person. This Spirit is no longer an external law, but a new life that the person has received from heaven.
Let us give an example to help us understand what this gift of the Spirit consists of. A girl reads a psychology book that explains to her the feelings of a mother and how she should raise her child. These are beautiful and precious external indications. One day this girl becomes a mother, she doesn't need those external indications that explain to her the feelings of a mother. Her relationship with her son comes from within, from her new nature as a mother. It is a force that makes her forget of herself to put herself at the service of the fragile creature that God has entrusted to her and that is why she is able to rise 20 times at night and she doesn't realize it because it comes to her from within the behavior that she should have.
This is the new Torah, the Spirit, the gift of the new life, which is the life of the heavenly Father, the life of the Eternal One that animated Jesus during the time he spent in this world among us. And it is this life of Jesus, which is the life of the Father, this Spirit that led him to give all of himself, without limits, without conditions. God could not give us a greater gift than his own life, and then we understand what a joy it is for us to become aware of this gift because our biological life ends. But the life of the Eternal, of the Spirit, cannot end because it is the very life of God.
Now it is no longer the external law that guides us, it is this new life that now becomes our law; and then we understand that there is no rule in the Torah that tells you, if your enemy does evil to you, you must be willing to give your life for him... NO. This rule does not come from outside, it comes from your divine sonship. You cannot do otherwise because you have received the new law. To make us understand this, Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles put this gift of the Spirit at Pentecost.
Therefore, the Spirit replaces the Torah which, however, is maintained because it is always an indication that tells us: 'Are you really following the Spirit at least in this minimal boundary which is the ten words?'
And now let's introduce today's gospel passage that tells us about this gift. It has two parts in this passage that is taken from two different chapters of the gospel according to John. In the first part Jesus promises this gift and in the second part he tells us what the action of this Spirit in the Church is.
Let us listen to the promise:
“When the Advocate comes whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth that proceeds from the Father, he will testify to me. And you also testify because you have been with me from the beginning.”
We must understand well what Jesus promises us and, therefore, we will now examine word by word what Jesus said during that evening in the upper room to his disciples. "When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father" indicates the origin of this gift, the love of the heavenly Father and this gift have been given to us by Jesus.
The name by which the Spirit is called is 'Paraclete', (παρ?κλητος - paracletos, a Greek word from 'parakalein' meaning 'neighbor', in Latin 'advocatus'- an advocate, defender, one who defends you, one who protects you. The rabbis said that when you stand before God you will need an advocate and they wondered: Who is this advocate who will surely defend you well? The good works that you have done. God can't do anything to you, he can't accuse you because you have the advocate, the defender: the good works. But we don't need this advocate because God is never against us; He is always on our side.
The Spirit is the advocate… Of whom does he protect us? Not from God... He protects us from the real enemy, the evil force, which is within us and which, if indulged, dehumanizes us. The Spirit is the new life that reduces the evil instinct to impotence. The Spirit, the Defender, protects us from the foolishness of this world, which is very aggressive because it is followed by all; it is the one that is preached, the one that is inculcated by the media, by the magazines, by the trash programs, by the soap operas, and in fact, one of the most difficult trials for the believer is to feel alone in the midst of a pagan world that reasons and acts with criteria very different from those of the gospel.
In fact, if we preach forgiveness, meekness, chastity, renunciation, self-control, service, gratuitous love even towards enemies, well, these behaviors are considered strange, incomprehensible. In this situation of bewilderment, the believer can live because the Advocate, the Paraclete is at your side, defending you from the logic of the world, from the way of thinking that is considered wise by everybody. That way of thinking that tells you to enjoy life, to do what you want, to think for yourself.
Then, "the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father," the Paraclete is at your side to defend you. What does the Spirit of truth mean? Is it that He keeps you from telling lies? NO. Here it is not about lies which certainly should not be told. What does 'truth' mean in the Bible? It is what we easily understand: when we say 'a true flower' it means that it is not made of plastic; when we say 'a true priest' it is not because he wears a uniform, but because his life fits to what we expect from a priest.
The Spirit is the new life and when we follow this new life, when we let ourselves be guided by this new life, we become true persons, that is, true sons and daughters of God. Then: "This Spirit of truth will bear witness of Jesus." How beautiful to make this experience of the testimony of the Spirit that we all can have, and it is wonderful!
When is it that the Spirit bears witness for Jesus? When we hear a voice inside of us that tells us: Jesus is right. We hear many voices around us, many suggestions and then the voice from inside tells you: 'Jesus is right’ 'look, he's right'. That is the Spirit.
When you contemplate the face of God that shines in the face of Jesus, the God of love and love alone. Perhaps you will hear other images of God also; when you hear an inner voice telling you that the 'true' image is that of Jesus. When you feel an inner voice that tells you: practice the unconditional love that Jesus showed you, it is the Spirit that speaks to you and gives you testimony that Jesus is right. When you listen to a voice that tells you that Jesus is right when he says that the true greatness of a person is not in the accumulation of goods but in the sharing; in the humble exchange of goods, of the service of love; in giving his or her life for others as Jesus did... when you hear this voice, it is the testimony of the Spirit.
It is also important to know that an external knowledge of Jesus is not enough; what we learn in the Gospel is not enough. For one to adhere to the proposal of the Gospel, one needs an inner strength, a testimony that not only tells you that the word of Jesus is true, but that leads you to adhere to this word. Here is the voice of the Spirit assuring you: 'Trust in Jesus' because you can guess that he is right; this inner voice dissolves all doubts, all objections and gives serenity. When those who follow the life of this world could also dazzle you, you understand that they follow other criteria, you respect it, but the Spirit tells you: trust in Christ's proposal.
And he continues: "And you also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.” A catechist or even a priest can talk about Jesus like history teachers in school; they talk about Caesar and Napoleon; they say the right things, but they are not involved in the lives of these people. Caesar or Napoleon are characters that I don't care about, they don't touch me, although they are saying true things. He who is in love with Jesus does not speak like that because he or she has staked his life for this love, therefore, when they speak of Jesus, it is not as when they speak of Caesar, but they see their eyes shining because Jesus has given meaning to their lives.
This is what Jesus says to his disciples: “And you also testify” Because… ‘whoever hears them talk about me must understand that they are in love, that they are convinced that they are risking their lives for my proposal, and they are happy.' And this must happen from the beginning because 'you know me since I introduced myself in public life, I made myself seen, I showed you the true face of God and the face of successful person and you have seen me from the beginning. You know me well, looking at you people must see me. This is the testimony I expect from you.'
Now let us hear what the Spirit will do in the Church:
“I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” “I have much more to tell you,” Jesus said to the disciples during the last supper. The most immediate interpretation of these words would be like, during the three years of his public life he was not able to communicate all the truth about God and people that he had come to bring into the world due to lack of time, perhaps because he is going to meet an untimely death. Not that! In fact, he immediately adds that the reason why he cannot present the whole truth is because "you cannot bear it now." It is about his defeat, of his apparent failure. It is impossible for the disciples to understand this before the Passover. The death of Jesus, condemned as a heretic and blasphemer, would be too heavy an argument for their feeble forces.
He "will guide them into the full truth," says Jesus. It will be the Spirit. This will be the truth that he will present to them: that they will understand that the successful person according to God is the one who loves, the one who gives life. Jesus will not explain this. They will understand the meaning of his passion of love only after Easter by the help of the Spirit. He will not have the task of integrating what Jesus said and did but will bear witness that he is right. How does he introduce you to this truth? It will not be enough to make us understand that Jesus is an extraordinary person, whose life we cannot help but admire.
We must have the strength to adhere to this truth. We have understood that the Spirit makes us understand how wonderful this life of Jesus is, but then we need the strength to adhere to it. To give an example: something similar happens in falling in love... because falling in love is what it is about when one is united to Christ. When a girl meets a young man, she can know everything about him, she can admire him, but until the passion of love pushes her to unite her life to his, it is of little use to know everything about that young man. It is the same with Jesus: we can know all that the Gospel tells us and the Spirit can also tell us and make us understand that it is beautiful, that he is right, but then it is necessary that our life be adhered and adjusted to his proposal; to unite our life with his in a spousal encounter and also this impulse is put into us by the Spirit. This is what Jesus says: It will be the Spirit, after the Passover, who will bring you in and will make you understand in you this passion for the search for humanity that Jesus has proposed to us.
Then, "He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” “He shall not speak on his own,” that is, he shall not add anything, but shall speak all that he has heard, that is, “he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming.” What does it mean? That the Spirit will announce the future? Will he make us able to be magicians, soothsayers to foresee the future? Not at all.
If we look for the root of the sickness in the contemporary world, we find it in the lack of a vision for the future, in the lack of an evident goal, a “why” in life; when you look ahead and see nothing, you are not stimulated to plan, you are unmotivated, you lack the goal that spurs you to commit yourself. This is what we often hear when parents find themselves with a 35, 38 year old son who's still hanging around the house, and they ask him when are you going to decide, and he answers: 'Why do I have to start a family?' At most he's going to survive. It's lack of a future, lack of a purpose, of a why. It is Spirit that gives meaning to the future; He announces to you the future things, it announces the meaning that a person's life has in the world; and it is the Spirit that suggests the high values that are incarnated in Jesus of Nazareth, and it is He who makes you understand that life has meaning when it is lived like his.
This is the future that the Spirit shows you; he will show you how things end, what is the meaning of a successful life, and it will also be the Spirit that will make you understand how certain stars that seem to give meaning to the life of the people are in reality shooting stars. He will make you understand that the true star is Jesus of Nazareth, who is the one that gives meaning and direction to your life. He will make you understand, for example, that Jesus is right when he says What good does it do if you earn the whole world and then ruin your own life. We know that in customs you leave everything except the love that was shared. The Spirit will make you understand that Jesus is right and give you the strength to adhere to this truth.
This is what Jesus says: 'It is not I who will make you understand before the Passover for you will not bear the burden, but the Spirit will introduce you to this truth and you will save your lives.’ In a word, it is Spirit who brings us out of the nonmeaning of our existence that is so prevalent in our world. And now comes the part of the discourse where Jesus explains how the Spirit will work.
"The Spirit will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and declare it to you. Everything that the Father has is mine; for this reason I told you that he will take from what is mine and declare it to you."
"The Spirit will glorify me.” What is this glory that the Spirit will show present in Jesus? Now comes the moment when we are involved in this glorification of Jesus. First of all, what is glory? In Hebrew 'glory' is 'cavod,' It means 'weight', consistency, as the grain of wheat is consistent and the chaff is swept away; that is the 'vain-glory', there is nothing left of vain
glory, that which people seek, applause, success, pleasures and honors. That was the glory that the chief priests and the scribes sought. Jesus said it: ‘How can you believe that you receive glory and do not seek the true glory that comes from God?’
This glorification of Jesus is given by the Spirit. It is the Spirit who shows you that the true glory that you should seek is that of the gift of life for love and it is He who makes you understand and who gives you the strength to adhere to this proposal of Jesus. Jesus glorified the Father: What does it mean? It means that he was the perfect revelation of the Father's face which is love; is only love. This glory has shone in a perfect way especially in the gift of life on Calvary.
For people calvary was the obscuring of the glory, but the Spirit reveals to you that the glory of the Father has shone in this gift of life. And now what does the Spirit do? He shows the glory of Jesus in the disciples who let themselves be moved by this Spirit and adhere to Jesus' proposal and, therefore, the community of the disciples does not exist to transmit a new doctrine, but to make present in their lives the person of Jesus, his unconditional love that reaches even the enemy. Here is the Spirit which takes from what Jesus is and announces him to us; it insists on this announcement, on this voice of the Spirit that speaks to us.
So, if the Spirit speaks to us, suggests to us, testifies to us, we must know how to listen to him. And what name can this listening of the Spirit have? It is prayer; if we were to ask Christians to whom do you pray, with whom do you enter in dialogue? You must make decisions in life, you have problems, with whom do you dialogue, with whom do you enter in prayer? In the past, I think they would have answered 'I pray to some saint.' Today, more and more Christians answer: I dialogue with the heavenly Father. ‘I want to know what the Father thinks about my choices, I want to hear his suggestions, not people’s suggestions.’ This is the prayer to the Father. They also pray to Jesus, but I think few pray to the Spirit.
To pray to the Spirit means to enter into dialogue with this divine being that is in us, with this divine filiation, this love given to you that advice about all the choices we have to make. This is the voice of the Spirit that must be heard if we want to be moved by the Spirit as Jesus was moved. And to hear this voice it is necessary to be silent because there are so many voices that we hear so many times; we are tuned in by these voices of the world if we spend hours in front of soap operas, trash programs, talk shows where everybody is shouting, or we get lost in gossip... all these voices shout their glorious proposals. If we are stunned by these voices we end up tuning our thoughts and choices to these proposals.
We need to silence these voices that certainly don't suggest donating your life, at most they tell you to enjoy it. But what does the Spirit do? If we listen to him in silence, He doesn't repeat what Jesus said and that we already knew, but He makes it penetrate in our hearts and gives us the strength to adhere to the proposal that Jesus makes. And when we listen to this Spirit and let ourselves be led by it, Jesus is glorified because people see in us the face of the Spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, just as he glorified his Father with his person. Today we are called to let ourselves be led by the voice of the Spirit to give glory to Jesus.
I wish you all a happy Easter.
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