May 31, 2025 Written by 

Spirit: what breadth, 'power' and incisiveness?

Unable to sin

(Acts 2:1-11)

 

Pentecost is the feast of the Gift, quite simply. The language of Acts of the Apostles is quite striking and colourful: it infuses the event with symbolic prodigies that are good to decipher.

Thunder, lightning, wind and fire were the images that accompanied the revelation of the ancient law. With them Lk wants to emphasise the power of the world to come.

The rabbis claimed that at Sinai the Words of God took the form of seventy tongues of fire - saying that the entire Torah was intended for the multitudes, even the pagans.

According to traditional interpretation, the divine Words had made themselves visible ["the people saw the voices"; Hebrew text] in the form of flames that had carved the stone tablets prepared by Moses (Ex 20:18).

Against this backdrop, Lk intends to present the gift of the new Law - that of the Spirit - and employs the same biblical icons to make itself understood, not to chronicle details.

The vigorous figures suggest a powerful explosion, which throws all life into the air - that is the point.

This is to say: for a radical liberation from the old structures that masked sin and (too many) duplicities, obsessions or quietisms, the divine Spirit must come.

Only its unexpected and shattering power can change the face of the earth and bring about radical transformations.

It is impossible to achieve this authentically, generating any upheaval from the limit of our genius and muscles.

 

It is beyond our capabilities to bring down conditioning, atavistic barriers, and activate the multifaceted Newness of God that humanises us.

Only a founding relationship can convince us that courageous initiatives and the triumph of life pass through a form of death. Death of common thinking, of the old world, of conditionings and fashions - and of the emptiness of selfhood.

An essential work - to encounter the multiplicity of faces; our own and others'.

The "many tongues spoken" are precisely to indicate the now biting universalism of the message of Christ and his Church.

The Gift comes from a Presence 'within' us and events. But it is destined precisely for the multitudes, with no more barriers.

The disaster of Babel is redeemed both from above and from below, because here and now dissimilarities become valuable resources.

He who allows himself to be guided by the Spirit recovers the many facets, also of the [personal and non]shadow sides.

In this way it is expressed in the language that everyone understands: Communion, conviviality of differences.

It is the love that treasures everything and brings everyone together (vv.7-11), doing away with the idolatrous fixations of selective religion - that of purities with individualist or ethnic overtones; idolatries linked to cultural extraction.

 

All New Testament authors start from the reality of the Spirit's presence; Lk dares to 'describe' it.

The descent of the Spirit is thus placed on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after Easter.

But in Jn (20:22) Jesus communicates the Spirit that animates believers and the Church... on the very day of the Resurrection.

As the liturgy itself proposes in its signs and symbolic expressions, the Easter Mystery is One.

To put it bluntly: the Crucified One "delivered the Spirit" already from the Cross (Jn 19:30).

Lk describes the dense meaning of the one Paschal Mystery-reality in three successive 'moments'-aspects of the disciples' maturation.

They become 'apostles' [Resurrection, Ascension, Pentecost] not to convey to us a chronicle of particular events, but to help us understand their significance and manifold aspects.

Jn instead places the delivery of the Spirit from the Cross and on Easter evening, to highlight it as the global Gift of the Risen Crucified.

The author of Acts emblematically places this delivery on the day of Pentecost, to emphasise the relationship and detachment from the Jewish feast.

This feast, however, provided a perfect setting: it was a pilgrimage feast that drew both Palestinian and Diaspora Jews to Jerusalem.

 

The "official" origins of the Community made aware of its task as "Outgoing Sender" was nourished - in addition - by a subtle reference to the Spirit of Creation.

The breath of the Ruah - divine Spirit [in Hebrew of the feminine gender] becomes the vital breath and impetuous wind that invests the "House" (v.2) regenerating and forcing the fearful followers, still seated in the Temple (Lk 24:53).

 

The ancient Pentecost celebrated the arrival of the people at Mount Sinai and the gift of the Law [which theologised the agricultural feast of thanksgiving for the wheat harvest, which in turn concluded the cycle of reborn nature that had begun at Passover and preceded the Feast of Tents later held at the great autumn harvest; In the tradition of the shepherds, Passover was a theologisation of the apotropaic rite of the sacrifice of a lamb to propitiate the outcome of the spring transhumance, while Pentecost was its concluding feast on the heights and preceded the return to the folds the following autumn].

Lk wants to teach that the Spirit has replaced the Torah: it has become the new norm of behaviour and the only non-external criterion of communion with God.

The author evokes the traditional Jewish feast, almost by comparison - to mark its fulfilment-fullness. But like Easter, Pentecost is also stretched towards the future.

The evangelist wants to demonstrate the breadth of the Spirit's destination over "twelve" different regions, conveyed by the fire of the Word (v.3), which empowered the Proclamation to all nations on earth.

But first of all, Lk intends to make us understand its real incisiveness.

 

The author of the third Gospel and of Acts realises that in order to obtain works of righteousness and love, it is not enough for men to show the right way.

It is the Eternal Himself who must become the reliable subject of history, the sole propeller of life.

Therefore, God had to change our hearts: precepts and counsels are not enough to change the deep instincts of people and peoples.

External regulation only makes us epidermic: it does not grasp the intimate, it does not convince the heart.

Every genuine action is the expression of a profound adhesion, of a desire of the soul, of a compelling intimate impulse.

The law of the Spirit is a kind of fantasy in power, but it does not stand outside, nor does it require in itself any effort against its own character - at root.

The 'new heart' is the very Life of God that enters into us to transform us, not in moralistic or model terms - but by expanding existence in a genuine way, starting from the seed, from our core.

 

When the Life of the Eternal pulsates in anyone's soul, it spontaneously manifests God in human history.

And it produces its vital works - with an unthinkable action, transmuting us from brambles into fruitful trees.

With no more artifice and duplicity, our uncertain desert becomes a garden.

We even begin to love with God's own quality of love - sometimes without even the purpose or discipline, or the very knowledge that we want to do so.

Since the Spirit takes up residence in any woman or man, they no longer need to be taught by the opinion of others: they can finally be themselves.

"And this is the Promise that He has made to us: the Life of the Eternal. This I have written to you concerning those who seek to deceive you. And as for you, the anointing you have received from Him remains in you and you do not need anyone to instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you all things and is true and does not lie, so now abide in Him as He has instructed you" (1 John 2:25-27).

 

All that remains external or distant vanishes, and effortlessly loses consistency.

This is because there is no longer any law or cerebral thought that holds, nor any obligation of any kind.

We become 'incapable of sin': we have passed from the religious sense that intimidated and made us prone, to the full dignity of Faith.

"Whoever is born of God does not commit sin, because a divine seed dwells in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God" (1Jn 3:9).

9 Last modified on Saturday, 31 May 2025 07:14
don Giuseppe Nespeca

Giuseppe Nespeca è architetto e sacerdote. Cultore della Sacra scrittura è autore della raccolta "Due Fuochi due Vie - Religione e Fede, Vangeli e Tao"; coautore del libro "Dialogo e Solstizio".

“It is part of the mystery of God that he acts so gently, that he only gradually builds up his history within the great history of mankind; that he becomes man and so can be overlooked by his contemporaries and by the decisive forces within history; that he suffers and dies and that, having risen again, he chooses to come to mankind only through the faith of the disciples to whom he reveals himself; that he continues to knock gently at the doors of our hearts and slowly opens our eyes if we open our doors to him” [Jesus of Nazareth II, 2011, p. 276) (Pope Benedict, Regina Coeli 22 maggio 2011]
«È proprio del mistero di Dio agire in modo sommesso. Solo pian piano Egli costruisce nella grande storia dell’umanità la sua storia. Diventa uomo ma in modo da poter essere ignorato dai contemporanei, dalle forze autorevoli della storia. Patisce e muore e, come Risorto, vuole arrivare all’umanità soltanto attraverso la fede dei suoi ai quali si manifesta. Di continuo Egli bussa sommessamente alle porte dei nostri cuori e, se gli apriamo, lentamente ci rende capaci di “vedere”» (Gesù di Nazareth II, 2011, 306) [Papa Benedetto, Regina Coeli 22 maggio 2011]
John is the origin of our loftiest spirituality. Like him, ‘the silent ones' experience that mysterious exchange of hearts, pray for John's presence, and their hearts are set on fire (Athenagoras)
Giovanni è all'origine della nostra più alta spiritualità. Come lui, i ‘silenziosi’ conoscono quel misterioso scambio dei cuori, invocano la presenza di Giovanni e il loro cuore si infiamma (Atenagora)
This is to say that Jesus has put himself on the level of Peter, rather than Peter on Jesus' level! It is exactly this divine conformity that gives hope to the Disciple, who experienced the pain of infidelity. From here is born the trust that makes him able to follow [Christ] to the end: «This he said to show by what death he was to glorify God. And after this he said to him, "Follow me"» (Pope Benedict)
Verrebbe da dire che Gesù si è adeguato a Pietro, piuttosto che Pietro a Gesù! E’ proprio questo adeguamento divino a dare speranza al discepolo, che ha conosciuto la sofferenza dell’infedeltà. Da qui nasce la fiducia che lo rende capace della sequela fino alla fine: «Questo disse per indicare con quale morte egli avrebbe glorificato Dio. E detto questo aggiunse: “Seguimi”» (Papa Benedetto)
Unity is not made with glue [...] The great prayer of Jesus is to «resemble» the Father (Pope Francis)
L’Unità non si fa con la colla […] La grande preghiera di Gesù» è quella di «assomigliare» al Padre (Papa Francesco)
Divisions among Christians, while they wound the Church, wound Christ; and divided, we cause a wound to Christ: the Church is indeed the body of which Christ is the Head (Pope Francis)
Le divisioni tra i cristiani, mentre feriscono la Chiesa, feriscono Cristo, e noi divisi provochiamo una ferita a Cristo: la Chiesa infatti è il corpo di cui Cristo è capo (Papa Francesco)
The glorification that Jesus asks for himself as High Priest, is the entry into full obedience to the Father, an obedience that leads to his fullest filial condition [Pope Benedict]
La glorificazione che Gesù chiede per se stesso, quale Sommo Sacerdote, è l'ingresso nella piena obbedienza al Padre, un'obbedienza che lo conduce alla sua più piena condizione filiale [Papa Benedetto]
All this helps us not to let our guard down before the depths of iniquity, before the mockery of the wicked. In these situations of weariness, the Lord says to us: “Have courage! I have overcome the world!” (Jn 16:33). The word of God gives us strength [Pope Francis]

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