By Cardinal Justin Rigali
The
Gift of the Holy Spirit and the Mission of the Church
“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors
were locked, where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus
came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with
you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his
side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [Jesus] said
to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me,
so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them
and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive
are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain and retained’”
(Jn 20: 19-23).
On that Easter Sunday evening, the Risen Jesus appeared to His Apostles
in order to reassure them, to offer them the gift of peace, to commission
them in their task of sanctifying the world, and to give them the
gift of the Holy Spirit, who will enable them to accomplish their
mission. Pope John Paul II, in his 1986 encyclical, Dominum et Vivificantem,
explained: “Thus there is established a close link between the
sending of the Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit. There is no
sending of the Holy Spirit (after original sin) without the Cross
and the Resurrection. ... There is also established a close link between
the mission of the Holy Spirit and that of the Son in the Redemption.
... The Redemption is totally carried out by the Son as the Anointed
One, who came and acted in the power of the Holy Spirit, offering
himself finally in sacrifice on the wood of the Cross. And this Redemption
is, at the same time, constantly carried out in human hearts and minds
— in the history of the world — by the Holy Spirit, who
is the ‘other Counselor’” (no. 24).
Saint Luke relates the events of Pentecost Sunday in the Acts of the
Apostles. The “strong, driving wind” and the “tongues
as of fire” described by Saint Luke indicate the presence of
the Holy Spirit as He came upon the Apostles. “And they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues,
as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim” (Acts 2:4). “With
the coming of the Spirit,” wrote Pope John Paul II, “they
felt capable of fulfilling the mission entrusted to them. They felt
full of strength. It is precisely this that the Holy Spirit worked
in them, and this is continually at work in the Church, through their
successors” (no. 26).
Convincing the world concerning sin
During the Last Supper, Jesus informed the Apostles that His departure
would be beneficial because He would send the Holy Spirit upon them.
“But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For
if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I
will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world
in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because
they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the
Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler
of this world has been condemned” (Jn 16: 7-11).
Of this mysterious passage, Pope John Paul II explained: “When
on the eve of Passover Jesus speaks of the Holy Spirit as the one
who ‘will convince the world concerning sin,’ on one the
hand this statement must be given the widest possible meaning, insofar
as it includes all the sin in the history of humanity. But on the
other hand, when Jesus explains that this sin consists in the fact
that ‘they do not believe in him,’ this meaning seems
to apply only to those who rejected the messianic mission of the Son
of Man and condemned him to death on the Cross. But one can hardly
fail to notice that this more ‘limited’ and historically
specified meaning of sin expands, until it assumes a universal dimension
by reason of the universality of the Redemption, accomplished through
the Cross. The revelation of the mystery of the Redemption opens the
way to an understanding in which every sin wherever and whenever committed
has a reference to the Cross of Christ — and therefore indirectly
also to the sin of those who ‘have not believed in him,’
and who condemned Jesus Christ to death on the Cross” (no. 29).
With the declaration of Jesus that the Holy Spirit “will convict
the world in regard to sin,” and in light of Pope John Paul
II’s explanation of this statement, it is important for us to
realize that, when the Holy Spirit came upon the Apostles on Pentecost,
their first action under the guidance of the Holy Spirit was to announce
the need for repentance. Saint Peter proclaimed emphatically that
“God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you
crucified” (Acts 2: 36). Then Peter instructs the people: “Repent
and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit” (Acts 2: 38).
Pope John Paul II noted: “Peter in his discourse in Jerusalem
calls people to conversion, as Jesus called his listeners to conversion
at the beginning of his messianic activity. Conversion requires convincing
of sin; it includes the interior judgment of the conscience, and this,
being a proof of the action of the Spirit of truth in man’s
inmost being, becomes at the same time a new beginning of the bestowal
of grace and love: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ Thus in
this ‘convincing concerning sin’ we discover a double
gift: the gift of the truth of conscience and the gift of the certainty
of redemption. The Spirit of truth is the Counselor””(no.
31).
The Holy Spirit guides the Church to announce a message of repentance.
Through the guidance of the Holy Spirit as well, the hearts and consciences
of humanity are opened to the Church’s invitation to conversion.
“The conscience,” according to Pope John Paul II, “is
the ‘secret sanctuary’ in which ‘God’s voice
echoes’” (no. 43). Furthermore, Pope John Paul II noted,
“The Gospel’s ‘convincing concerning sin’
under the influence of the Spirit of truth can be accomplished in
man in no other way except through the conscience” (no. 43).
The Holy Spirit forms within us a conscience which is just and right,
one capable of recognizing what is evil and making proper judgment.
Such a conscience, properly formed and well-informed, enables us to
live in true freedom as children of God.
The Giver of Life
As the end of the Second Millennium approached, Pope John Paul II
directed the hearts and minds of every member of the Church to prepare
for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. That year of Jubilee was intended
to be a celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation — the
Word become Flesh — accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit.
“In the mystery of the Incarnation the work of the Spirit ‘who
gives life’ reaches its highest point” (no. 52). The Incarnation
invites us to see “with the eyes of faith the two thousand years
of the action of the Spirit of truth, who down the centuries has drawn
from the treasures of the Redemption achieved by Christ and given
new life to human beings, bringing about in them adoption in the only
begotten Son, sanctifying them, so that they can repeat with Saint
Paul: ‘We have received … the Spirit which is from God’”
(no. 53).
Devotion to the Holy Spirit begins with knowledge of the Holy Spirit.
Pope John Paul II strove to instruct the faithful at the brink of
the Third Millennium to examine their world and indeed their individual
hearts in order to see how great is their need for the Spirit of Love,
of Truth and of Life. The human heart which has been damaged by sinfulness
is reflected in a world which has altered by violence, pride, sensuality
and greed. The human heart cries out for renewal just as the world
cries out for refreshment and re-creation. Pope John Paul II so eloquently
expressed: “The way of the Church passes through the heart of
man, because here is the hidden place of the salvific encounter with
the Holy Spirit, with the hidden God, and precisely here the Holy
Spirit becomes ‘a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’
He comes here as the Spirit of truth and as the Paraclete, as he was
promised by Christ. … The Holy Spirit does not cease to be the
guardian of hope in the human heart: the hope of all creatures, and
especially of those who ‘have the first fruits of the Spirit’
and ‘wait for the redemption of their bodies’” (no.
67).
Having crossed into the Third Millennium of Christianity, we look
with remorse upon the tragedies which have marred human history. We
recall the courage which filled the hearts of the Apostles on that
first Pentecost. Moved by the Spirit of God, the Apostles proclaimed
a message of repentance, an invitation to embrace new life, an offer
of hope which was obtained at a great price. Guided by the same Holy
Spirit, we offer hope to humanity in need — in need of conversion
from sin; in need of reverence for the gift of life; in need of truth
which leads to salvation. Let us join with Mary, our Mother and Teacher
in the Holy Spirit, that our hearts and minds will be filled with
the gifts of the Spirit of God.
June 23, 2005