The Law of Love - Acts 2:1-4 The Spirit Brings to life the love of God in us By Father Raniero Cantalamessa Part 1 of a 5 part series Pope John Paul II very often refers to a quotation from a letter he wrote in 1981 on the sixteen hundredth anniversary of the ecumenical council of Constantinople. That was the Council which proclaimed the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In his letter, the Pope said: '`The renewal of the church providentially started and outlined by the Vatican Council cannot be fulfilled without the Holy Spirit. That means without his help and his life." I am convinced that there is a tremendous truth in this statement. The renewal of the church outlined by the Vatican Council cannot be achieved, put into practice, without the intervention of the Holy Spirit. This is a new, dramatic intervention of the Holy Spirit, not just a normal common one; in fact, it is a new Pentecost Pope John X~II dared to ask for a new Pentecost, and I am convinced that God answered his prayer-that there is a new Pentecost going on in the church. It's up to us to choose whether we want to be among the people who at this first Pentecost said: "Oh, let them alone. They have just drunk too much wine." Or, are we going to be among the people who marveled and said: 'VVhat is this, this new truth? We listened. We heard them in our own language proclaiming the marvels of God." The Holy Spirit Comes and is Present This is why I have chosen, my brothers and sisters, to speak to you about Pentecost Just reading again the account of the first Pentecost reveals to us a mystery. Something happens like what happens on the altar when we celebrate the Eucharist When we say the Mass, at the consecration the priest tells the story of the institution of the Eucharist; he recounts whet Jesus did on that night He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples. The church simply tells what Jesus did by repeating the words of the consecration. According to our Catholic faith, when an ordained priest, acting in the name of the church, tells the story of whet Jesus said and did on that night, the result is that Jesus becomes present. The bread is transformed into his body, the wine into his blood. Something happens just by telling what Jesus did; something makes present what Jesus did. The same, I am convinced, happens when we tell the story of Pentecost. When we listen to what happened on that day in the history of the world, the Holy Spirit comes. It is not just a quotation, not a reading like any reading of history; it is a special reading. It is the living word of God. When people listen to it in faith, the Holy Spirit comes and makes himself present. This conviction is the hope with which we are going to listen to this account of Pentecost. I will divide my talk into five parts. We shall focus on five moments of this particular event of Pentecost. The first moment or the first scene let us speak as though it were a drama-of this drama is Acts 2:1-4: When Pentecost day came around they had all met together when suddenly there came from heaven the sound as of a violent wind which filled the entire house in which they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of a fire. These separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves. So you see that when they were all together in the same place, suddenly something happened. We must read this in a very actual sense. We are these disciples gathered in the same place in this church. We are concerned; we are involved; we are not just spectators. We are actors in this drama. The event of Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit, was an incredible event-one of the four most important events in the history of humankind. The first of these very crucial moments was creation. The second was the incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of Mary. The third was the resurrection when Jesus, on the cross, redeemed us, destroyed sin and renewed life. The fourth was when the Holy Spirit came upon the church. The New Law Wntten in the Human Heart This epic moment in history is described in the simplest way possible. First, St. Luke presents some exterior, visible signs which anticipated and announced the coming event. He stressed something-a sound, a sign for the ears. They heard a sound as of a violent wind. There was an audible sign for the ears. Then there was another sign for the eyes. They saw something. They heard something-a violent wind, and they saw something-tongues of fire. And, of course, there was the event itself: They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. The others were signs, exterior signs; this was the reality. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Consider what this means. What happened deep down in the hearts of the apostles at that moment when they were filled with the Holy Spirit? To understand this point (which means to understand what Pentecost is all about), we must know something. First, we must know that the feast of Pentecost already existed before the apostles re ceived the Holy Spirit. In fact, all of those three thousand people were gathered in Jerusalem precisely to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. And what did the feast of Pentecost recall for the Jews? At the beginning, in ancient times, Pentecost used to be the Feast of the Harvest, a feast related to the natural cycle of the seasons. Later on, certainly at the time of Jesus, Pentecost was the feast of the gift of the law. It commemorated the moment when God, on Mt. Sinai, gave the law to Moses. On the basis of this law, he established a covenant with the people. As St. Augustine pondered this point, he said: See, look what a mystery. Fifty days after the people of God left Egypt, fifty days after celebrating thePassover in Egypt, they received the law of God on Mt. Sinai. The finger of God wrote the law on tablets of stone. Now, precisely fifty days after the new Passover, after the immolation of the true Lamb of God, the finger of I God again writes the law, but this time the new law-not in tablets of stone but on the hearts of the apostles! Augustine said: ... what a mystery. Fifty days after the people of God left Egypt, fifty days after celebrating the Passover in Egypt, they received the law of God on Mt. Sinai. The finger of God wrote the law on tablets of stone. Now, precisely fifty days after the new Passover, after the immolation of the true Lamb of God, the finger of God again writes the law, but this time the new law-not in tablets of stone but on the hearts of the apostles! The Holy Spirit, therefore, is the very principle of the new covenant. He is the one who makes the new covenant alive and operative in our hearts. It's a new law but an interior law; not an exterior imposed law, but an interior law. And the Holy Spirit (this new law) is what St. Paul is speaking about when he says at the beginning of Romans 8: "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death." This is one of my favorite passages of all the New Testament because it celebrates so joyful a message. The law of the Spirit means the new law which is the Spirit. 'I~he Holy Spirit is the new law. Knowing the Father who Loves I must say that I have never read a better explanation of what the Holy Spirit achieves in our hearts, how he changes a natural man into a new man, a new creature, than the one by Martin Luther in a sermon on Pentecost. And thanks to the Lord that we can quote Martin Luther in a Catholic setting today. Thanks to the Lord that we can take the good truth which the Holy Spirit has inspired and given to any part of this body, and share it together. This is the first ecumenism-not in sitting around a table discussing theological differences. No, this first ecumenism consists of putting together the treasures, the inspirations, and the insights we all have received from the Lord. Luther said: Natural man is born with many desires, including bad desires-concupiscence as we used to say. Natural man lusts after power, women, pleasure, and other things, of course, including money. In this situation, God appears to natural man (that means to each one of us) as the enemy, the obstacle, the one who has barred the way with his commandments by saying that you must do this, you must not do that. You must not covet another man's woman you must not give false testimony, and so on. Thus God becomes the enemy. This is the first ecumenism-not in sitting around a table discussing theological differences. No, this first ecumenism consists of putting together the treasures, the inspirations, and the insights we all have received from the Lord. When the Holy Spirit comes, he starts revealing to man a new image of God, not as an obstacle or an enemy, the adversary of our joy. On the conkary, he becomes the ally, the Father who really cares for us, who really loves us so much that he gave his only begotten Son for us. In this way, man starts looking at God as a Father. This is the moment when out of a slave, a son is born. A son, a child of God. This is what being born again by Spirit and water is all about. And the new man says, "Abba, Father. I didn't really know you. I knew you only by hearsay, but now that the Spirit is revealing your face to me, I know you." Let us ask again: How does the Holy Spirit achieve this kansforming of man from a slave into a son, kansforming the image of God as a master and a tyrant into a Father? How? With love. The answer is with love. Love is the new law; the new law is love. The new law is the commandment to love God and our neighbor. Even better, God loves you. Love, therefore, is the new law. This is why St. Paul says that the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit which has been given to us. This is what Ezekiel wanted to say with his prophecy: "I shall take out of you a heart of stone and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, my heart" (36:26). A new heart is the heart of God. It is not a new heart, an art)ficial heart, like in surgery. No, the new heart already exists; it's the heart of God; it's the Holy Spirit. Continued in: Overwhelming Love: Acts 2:5-11 Back to Fr. Cantalamessa's Scripture series page This series first appeared in The WORD AMONG US, A DAILY APPROACH TO PRAYER & SCRIPTURE, and is used with permission. For further information contact them at: www.wau.org Top