In a St Peter’s Basilica, draped in red – flowers, vestments, altar – Benedict XVI celebrated mass for the feat of Pentecost, which commemorates the gift of the Holy Spirit to the apostles and May gathered in the Upper Room. Lending greater solemnity to proceedings was the presence of the choir from Cologne Cathedral and the city’s Kammerorchester, whose 200 members, together with the Sistine Chapel choir, preformed the Harmoniemesse, one of Joseph Haydn’s last masses, marking two hundred years since the composers’ death.
In thanking them, the Pope described the work as “a sublime symphony of God’s glory”.
Of all liturgical feasts, said the Pope, Pentecost “distinguishes itself for it’s’ importance, because it represents the realisation of what Christ had announced as the aim of his earthly mission”: “"I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing!” (Lk 12,49).
“The true fire – he explained - the Holy Spirit was brought to earth by Christ. He did not steal it from the gods, as Prometheus did in the Greek myth, but he made himself the mediator of “God’s gift” by carrying out the greatest act of love in history: his death on the cross”.
The pope stressed that today “the normal path” to take in order to encounter the Holy Spirit and receive this “fire” is the Church. In order to receive it, so that the Church is “an extension of Christ’s renewing work”, Christians, like the disciples, must be “perseverant and in agreement in prayer”. The Church, he said, “needs to be less ‘anxious’ for action and more dedicated to prayer”.
Then, reflecting on the account of Pentecost in Acts of the Apostles, the pontiff dwelt on its description of the Holy Spirit as a “storm”.
“Obviously St. Luke [the author of the Acts] was thinking of the theophany of Sinai, from the books of Exodus (19,16-19) and Deuteronomy (4,10-12.36). In the ancient world, the storm was seen as a sign of God’s divine power, before which man felt subjugated and terrified. But I wish to underline another aspect: the storm is descried as an “impetuous wind”, and this makes one think of air, which distinguishes our planet from the other stares and allows us to live upon it. What air is for biological life, the Holy Spirit is for spiritual life; and just as an atmospheric pollution exists that poisons the environment and living organisms, there is also a pollution of the heart and the spirit that mortifies and poisons spiritual existence. Whilst we must not become accustomed to the poisons of the air - and for this reason ecological engagement is a priority today – at the same time we should be alert to that which corrupts the spirit. Instead it seems that without any difficulty we have become used to the many polluting products of the heart and mind that circulate in today’s society – for example images that make a spectacle of pleasure, violence or debase men and women. This is freedom too, it is said, without recognising that all which pollutes intoxicates the soul particularly of the younger generations, ends up conditioning freedom itself. The metaphor of the impetuous wind of Pentecost instead makes us think of how precious a thing it is to breathe fresh air, both physically with our lungs, and spiritually with our heart, the healthy air of the spirit that is love!”.
Returning to the similtude of fire, Benedict XVI explained in depth the difference between the Greek hero Prometheus and Christ. Prometheus symbolizes modern man: “Having taken possession of the energy of the cosmos – the ‘fire’ – human beings today seem to affirm that they are god and want to change the world, excluding, putting to one side or even rejecting the Creator of the universe. Man no longer wants to be the image and likeness of God, but of himself; he declares himself autonomous, free, and adult”.
“In the hands of such a mankind –continued the pope – the ‘fire’ and its enormous potential becomes dangerous: it can turn against life and humanity itself, as history unfortunately has shown us. The tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki remain a perennial warning, of how atomic energy, used for the purpose of war, ended up sowing death in previously unheard of proportions”.
Finally returning to the story of Pentecost (of the disciples, at first hiding in the Upper Room, then courageous proclaimers of the Gospel), Benedict XVI confirms that the Spirit “conquers fear”.
“God’s Spirit – he concluded – wherever it enters, quashes fear; it helps us recognise and feel that we are in the hands of an Omnipotent love; whatever happens His infinite love will never abandon us. The witness of the martyrs shows us this, the courage of the confessors of faith, the intrepid zeal of the missionaries, the frank nature of the preachers, the example of all of the saints, some even adolescent and children. The very existence of the Church shows us this, which, despite the limits and fault of man, continues its journey on the oceans of history, blown onwards by the breath of God and animated by his purifying fire. With this faith and joyous hope we repeat today through the intercession of Mary: “Send your Spirit Oh Lord, and renew the face of the earth!”.
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