Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - “Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Pentecost, the ancient Hebrew feast that commemorated the Covenant of God with His people on Mount Sinai. It became a Christian feast on account of all that occurred on that day, 50 days after Jesus’ Resurrection,” the Holy Father Benedict XVI told pilgrims gathered in Saint Peter’s Square on Sunday, May 11, prior to the recitation of the Regina Caeli.
Recalling the passage from the Acts of the Apostles that tells of the descent of the Holy Spirit “as wind and flame” upon the Apostles gathered in the Upper Room, who are then “sent to announce in many languages the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection,” the Pope explained that “Jesus' whole mission was aimed at giving the Spirit of God to men and baptizing them in the 'bath' of regeneration. This was realized through his glorification, that is, through his death and resurrection: then the Spirit of God was poured out in a super-abundant way.”
Pentecost is presented as “the crowning moment of Jesus' whole mission,” the Pope continued. In a “special way, the baptism of the Church who undertakes her universal mission... In this baptism of the Holy Spirit, the personal and communal dimensions -- the 'I' of the disciple and the 'we' of the Church -- are inseparable. The Spirit consecrates the person and at the same time makes him a living member of the mystical body of Christ, participant in the mission to witness to his love. And this reality is actualized through the sacraments of Christian initiation: Baptism and Confirmation.”
As he had already mentioned to the youth, in his Message for the upcoming World Youth Day, on Pentecost the Holy Father renewed his invitation to them, saying: “Let us rediscover, dear brothers and sisters, the beauty of being baptized in the Holy Spirit; let us be aware again of our baptism and of our confirmation, sources of grace that are always present.” He then invoked the Virgin Mary, asking that She grant a “renewed Pentecost for the Church again today, a Pentecost that will spread in everyone the joy of living and witnessing to the Gospel.”
After the Marian prayer, the Pope launched this appeal for Lebanon: “I have been following with great concern in recent days, the situation in Lebanon, where political initiatives having stalled, verbal violence and then armed confrontations followed, with many dead and wounded. Even if in these last hours the tensions have slackened, I believe that it is a duty today to exhort the Lebanese to abandon every argument for aggressive opposition that would cause their country irreparable damage. Dialogue, mutual understanding and the search for reasonable compromise are the only way to restore to Lebanon its institutions, and to the people, the necessary security for a daily life that is dignified and rich with hope for tomorrow. May Lebanon, through the intercession of Our Lady of Lebanon, know how to respond with courage to its vocation of being, for the Middle East and for the whole world, a sign of the real possibility of constructive and peaceful coexistence among people. The different communities that make up Lebanon, as the post-Synodal exhortation 'A New Hope for Lebanon' observed, are at the same time 'a richness, an originality and a difficulty. But bringing Lebanon to life is a common task for all of its inhabitants. Together with the Virgin Mary in prayer at Pentecost, we ask that Almighty God grant an abundant outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of unity and concord, who inspires inspirations of peace and reconciliation in all.” (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 12/5/2008; righe 46, parole 601)
