Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Fides Service) - In the Vatican Basilica on Sunday May 15, Solemnity of Pentecost, Benedict XVI presided at Mass during which he ordained 21 deacons of the diocese of Rome. We give excerpts from the Pope’s homily.
“The first reading and the Gospel of Pentecost Sunday present us with two great images of the mission of the Holy Spirit. The reading from the Acts of the Apostles tells how on the day of Pentecost under the signs of a powerful wind and fire the Holy Spirit breaks into the praying community of Jesus disciples and the Church is born. (…) The Holy Spirit gives understanding, overcomes the rupture which began in Babel - confusion in hearts, which puts us one against the other - and opens frontiers. The people of God who had found its first configuration on mount Sinai, is now extended and no longer knows any frontiers. The new people of God is a people formed of all peoples. From the beginning the Church is Catholic, this is her most profound essence. (…)The Church must always become anew that which she already is: she must open the frontiers between peoples and break down the barriers between classes and races. In her, no one can be forgotten or scorned. In the Church there are only free brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ. The wind and the fire of the Holy Spirit must ceaselessly open the frontiers that we human beings continue to build between ourselves; we must always pass anew from Babel, from closing in on ourselves, to Pentecost”. (…)
“The second image of the sending of the Spirit, which we find in the Gospel is much more discreet. (…)Passing through closed doors the Risen Lord enters the room where the disciples are and he greets them twice saying: peace be with you! We continually close our doors; continually we want to make ourselves secure so we are not disturbed by others or by God. (…) The Lord’s greeting is followed by two decisive gestures for Pentecost: the Lord wishes his mission to continue in his disciples: “As the Father sent me so I send you”. Then he breathes on them and says: “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven, who sins you shall retain they are retained”. (…)
“Dear ordinands!... To each of you in a most personal way the Lord says: peace be with you - peace be with you! When the Lord says this he does not give a thing, he gives himself. In fact he himself is peace. In this greeting of the Lord we have a reference to the great mystery of faith, the Holy Eucharist, in which he continues to give himself and, in this way, authentic peace. So this greeting is central in your priestly mission: the Lord entrusts the mystery of this sacrament to you”. (…)
“There resounds then in the Gospel we have just heard, the second word of the Risen Lord: “as the Father sent me so I send you”. Christ says this is a most personal way to each of you. Through priestly ordination you are inserted in the mission of the apostles. The Holy Spirit is wind, but he is not formless. He is an ordained Spirit. And he reveals himself precisely by ordaining the mission in the sacrament of the priesthood which continues the ministry of the apostles. Through this ministry you join the great host of those who, since Pentecost, have received the apostolic mission. (…) Just as the Lord came from the Father to bring us light, life and love, so mission must continually put us in movement, make us restless to carry to those who suffer, those in doubt and also those who are reluctant, the joy of Christ. Lastly there is the power of forgiveness. The Sacrament of Penance is one of the Church's precious treasures, because only in forgiveness is true renewal of the world achieved. (S.L.) (Agenzia Fides 16/5/2005, righe 42, parole 669)
