The true, one and great miracle of Pentecost!
Jesus is the one who came down from heaven for the salvation and redemption of every one of his disciples. It is only in him that it is established that we can be saved. Christ worked eternal redemption for us. Who can put us in this communion of life with him is the Holy Spirit.
Therefore the Spirit must become the supernatural principle of every action and behavior; holiness and truth must therefore be the only aspiration. Constituted capable of actions according to God, the disciples can externally manifest that divine force which acts within themselves, thus becoming manifest signs of God’s love and charity for man, for every man.Only through signs and concrete gestures will the world become aware of our diversity, our behavior in contrast and contradiction, of rejection of its evil mentality and without God.
He will certainly ask for the hope that moves us and leads us , that makes us act and operate according to canons of another justice and another truth, which he does not know, because it is contrary to his principles of selfishness and concupiscence. The Christian will make reason with the same behavior of his Master, assuming the sin, dying for the salvation of the brothers, to bring them back to God, ready to undergo all sorts of injustice, but unable to commit it. He will give reason for the truth of his faith with the good that he will do in every circumstance.
For this reason it is necessary that he be always strengthened by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus , drawn in the sacraments and in prayer, in that adoration of the Lord, which is the perfect fulfillment of his will. The Spirit that dwells in our hearts will be the sign of contradiction between us and the world. We are different from the world, because the truth of Christ moves thoughts and operations, gestures and behaviors. The world can not know the Spirit of God, because it is all immersed in lies and darkness, in that existential darkness that is already a sign of eternal darkness. The Christian, on the other hand, lives in the realm of light, knows how to discern the good, distinguishes it from evil, has the strength to do it, because the Spirit is in him principle and strength, ability and action that moves and guides him.
Made capable of loving God , he becomes the temple of the Lord, his home. There is therefore a faith that becomes life and this life is transformed into theology, into a living speech, which convinces the world of its sin, but also helps the man of good will to return to his Lord and Savior, seen and known in the believer.
The miracle of Pentecost is the “creation” of this unity among men: they can understand each other because the Holy Spirit of God gives them the language of love and charity, in the one faith and hope. The language of love must be prioritized to the other language, to that of faith and hope, and one and the other must become the foundation. Hope and faith must nourish themselves with love, from love to draw the lifeblood that renews the world and leads it to God. If we come from the Spirit and quench our thirst we can no more clothe its nature, participating in its truth and communion; if assimilated to him we can only externally manifest that “spirituality” that has transformed us inwardly, in the soul, in thoughts, in will, in intelligence, in rationality. Our “flesh” has no more power over us, because the man born of it gradually gives way to the other man, to that born of God, through the Spirit and water.
The Church has not been called to exercise a sterile rituality, which leaves man in his sin, justifying it and increasing it too. It has the divine mandate to free man from his transgression, announcing the truth, giving that grace, which is the Holy Spirit.
Renewing the Church is helping her to rediscover her true and authentic mission, which wants the liberation and sanctification of every man.
by Don Francesco Cristofaro
