Luke begins the account of Pentecost in Acts with the expression: "When the day of Pentecost was fulfilled". He uses the same Greek verb in his Gospel with the same sense: "When the days were fulfilled in which he would be exalted on high, he made up his mind to set out for Jerusalem" (9:51) and for the filling of the boat in the storm on the lake (8:23).
Therefore, it conveys the idea of a fullness that is yet to come. Indeed, Pentecost is the fulfillment of Easter and its fullness. But it is not fullness as a point of arrival, but as the beginning of a presence, that of the Spirit in the Church and in each of its members: a dynamic presence that acts in time.
Like the impetuous wind with which he appeared in the Upper Room, which shapes the desert dunes and smoothes the rocks. Like the fire he chose to be visible, which illuminates, heats, progressively cooks food making it more edible and makes metals malleable so that the work of men can produce utensils and jewelry.
Thus, the abiding "forever" with us of the "other Paraclete" is an active abiding, which transforms us, molds us and makes us grow on the path of our history.
Throughout the history of the Church and of our lives, the Holy Spirit teaches us everything and reminds us, making us understand the words of Jesus. He, who is the very love of God, leads us to love Jesus and, therefore, to fulfill his commandments and to prepare our souls as the fixed abode of the Father and of the Son.
Today's liturgy tells us that the Holy Spirit is the ability to make oneself understood in all human languages: the overcoming of the tower of Babel.
He is the creator of unity while respecting diversity. He is the envoy who renews the face of the earth: he is the creative Spirit.
It is He who, as Paul writes to the Romans, by dwelling in us helps us to overcome the tendency to be dominated by the flesh. Exegetes explain that by "flesh" Paul means that negative principle that causes a person to be closed in on himself, to pursue his own needs and ambitions, to rely on his own resources, to be full of himself, to be proud, enslaved and subject to fear.
The Spirit, on the other hand, overcomes this resistance due to original sin by giving the person the freedom of the children of God, the capacity to go out of oneself to open oneself to God, to others in fraternity and to creation.
With gratuity and in charity. Come, Father of the poor; come, giver of gifts; come, light of hearts.
Perfect consolation; sweet guest of the soul; sweetest relief.
In work, rest; in heat, refuge; in weeping, consolation.
Homily on the readings of Pentecost
The priest Luis Herrera Campo offers its nanomiliaa small one-minute reflection for these readings.
