Father Raniero Cantalamessa
Renewal in the Spirit "Charismatic Renewal" is a biblical expression we meet, in equivalent forms, twice in the New Testament.
The first of the two texts is Ephesians 4.23 to 24, and says "You have to be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man." In this step, the "spirit" is spelled with a lowercase letter, and rightly so, because it indicates "our" spirit, even the most intimate part of it. Here the word "spirit" is therefore the place where you have to renew itself to resemble Christ, the new man par excellence. "Renewal" means, therefore, strive to have the same feelings in him that was in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5), fight for the "new heart". Already
questo testo ci illumina sul senso e sullo scopo della nostra esperienza: ci dice che il rinnovamento deve essere anzitutto quello interiore, del cuore.
questo testo ci illumina sul senso e sullo scopo della nostra esperienza: ci dice che il rinnovamento deve essere anzitutto quello interiore, del cuore.
Dopo il Concilio, si sono rinnovate tante cose nella Chiesa: la liturgia, la pastorale, adesso il Codice di Diritto Canonico, le costituzioni e l'abito dei religiosi. Ma per quanto importanti, queste sono solo le premesse del vero rinnovamento; guai a fermarsi ad esse e ritenere esaurito tutto il compito. A Dio non premono le strutture, ma le anime. E' nelle anime che la Chiesa è bella ed è nelle anime perciò che deve "farsi bella". A Dio preme il cuore del suo popolo, l'amore del suo popolo, e tutto il resto è in funzione di questo.
Il secondo testo biblico cui mi riferisco ci dice che Dio "... ci ha salvati non in virtù di opere di giustizia da noi compiute, ma per sua misericordia mediante un lavacro di rigenerazione e di rinnovamento nello Spirito Santo " (Timoteo 3,5).
In questo testo, "Spirito" è scritto con la lettera maiuscola perché non indica il "nostro" spirito, ma lo Spirito di Dio, lo Spirito Santo. La preposizione articolata "nello", contrariamente al solito, qui non sta a indicare il luogo dove ci dobbiamo rinnovare, ma designa piuttosto lo strumento, l'agente. Il nome che diamo alla nostra esperienza significa dunque una cosa ben precisa: rinnovamento ad opera dello Spirito Santo; rinnovamento di cui Dio, non l'uomo, è l'autore main, the main character. "I, not you - God says - I am making all things new"
seems a small thing, a simple explanation, and instead it is a real Copernican revolution, a reversal, which must pass through people, institutions, community and the whole Church, in its human aspect, to experience a true spiritual renewal.
From a religious perspective, we think often with the "Ptolemaic system": the basis is our effort, organization, efficiency, reform, good will, and the "land" here is at the center; God comes to strengthen and crown, with his grace, our effort. The "Sun" runs and acts as a vassal to the land; God is the satellite man and not vice versa.
"We - crying at this point, the Word of God - give power back to God" (see Psalm 68.35), for "the power belongs to God" (Psalm 62.12). This is a clarion call! For too long we have usurped this power to God, managing as if it were our own, we would "hold up" the power of God that we need to turn around the "Sun", this is a Copernican revolution of which I spoke.
Through it, we acknowledge simply that, without the Holy Spirit, we can not do anything, even say "Jesus is Lord!" (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3), which the effort is always tougher effect rather than cause, of salvation. And then really begin to "look up" to "look up" as the prophet exhorts us (see Hosea 11:7) and say "I lift up my eyes to the hills where does my help come ? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth " (Ps 12 1, 1 ff). Many times in the Bible
echoes the command of God: "Be holy for I the Lord your God, am holy!" (Leviticus 19, the cf. Leviticus 11:44; ss 1 Peter 1.15), but once in the very same book of Leviticus, we find the sentence that explains all the others: " I am the Lord who wants to holy! "(Leviticus 20:8). I am the Lord who wants to renew you with His Spirit! Be renewed by my Spirit!
In questo testo, "Spirito" è scritto con la lettera maiuscola perché non indica il "nostro" spirito, ma lo Spirito di Dio, lo Spirito Santo. La preposizione articolata "nello", contrariamente al solito, qui non sta a indicare il luogo dove ci dobbiamo rinnovare, ma designa piuttosto lo strumento, l'agente. Il nome che diamo alla nostra esperienza significa dunque una cosa ben precisa: rinnovamento ad opera dello Spirito Santo; rinnovamento di cui Dio, non l'uomo, è l'autore main, the main character. "I, not you - God says - I am making all things new"
seems a small thing, a simple explanation, and instead it is a real Copernican revolution, a reversal, which must pass through people, institutions, community and the whole Church, in its human aspect, to experience a true spiritual renewal.
From a religious perspective, we think often with the "Ptolemaic system": the basis is our effort, organization, efficiency, reform, good will, and the "land" here is at the center; God comes to strengthen and crown, with his grace, our effort. The "Sun" runs and acts as a vassal to the land; God is the satellite man and not vice versa.
"We - crying at this point, the Word of God - give power back to God" (see Psalm 68.35), for "the power belongs to God" (Psalm 62.12). This is a clarion call! For too long we have usurped this power to God, managing as if it were our own, we would "hold up" the power of God that we need to turn around the "Sun", this is a Copernican revolution of which I spoke.
Through it, we acknowledge simply that, without the Holy Spirit, we can not do anything, even say "Jesus is Lord!" (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3), which the effort is always tougher effect rather than cause, of salvation. And then really begin to "look up" to "look up" as the prophet exhorts us (see Hosea 11:7) and say "I lift up my eyes to the hills where does my help come ? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth " (Ps 12 1, 1 ff). Many times in the Bible
echoes the command of God: "Be holy for I the Lord your God, am holy!" (Leviticus 19, the cf. Leviticus 11:44; ss 1 Peter 1.15), but once in the very same book of Leviticus, we find the sentence that explains all the others: " I am the Lord who wants to holy! "(Leviticus 20:8). I am the Lord who wants to renew you with His Spirit! Be renewed by my Spirit!
Baptism, the sacrament" bound "
We can now move to deal directly with the issue that we most interested in: the outpouring of the Spirit.
The outpouring of the Spirit is not a sacrament, but it implies a relation to a sacrament, indeed to most sacred of the sacraments of Christian initiation. effusion present, and, for so to speak, it renews Christian initiation. The fundamental relationship is, however, with the sacrament of baptism. The designation "baptism in the Spirit" with which the outpouring veniva chiamata fino a poco fa, e con cui è ancora chiamata dai nostri fratelli americani, non voleva dire altro che questo, cioè che si tratta di qualcosa che si fonda sul sacramento del battesimo. Noi diciamo che l'effusione dello Spirito attualizza e ravviva il nostro battesimo. Per capire come un sacramento ricevuto tanti anni fa, addirittura agli inizi della vita, possa improvvisamente tornare a rivivere e a sprigionare tanta energia quanta ne vediamo in occasione dell'effusione, bisogna tener presenti alcuni elementi di teologia sacramentaria.
La teologia cattolica conosce l'idea di sacramento valido e lecito, ma "legato". Un sacramento si dice legato" se il suo frutto rimane vincolato, non usufruito, per mancanza di certe condizioni che hinder their effectiveness. An extreme example is the sacrament of matrimony or Holy Orders received in a state of mortal sin. Under these conditions, these sacraments can not give any grace to people, however, removed the obstacle of sin, penance, the sacrament is said to relive (reviviscit) thanks to the loyalty and the irrevocability of the gift of God, God remains faithful even if we are unfaithful because he can not deny himself (cf. 2 Timothy 2:13).
that of marriage and holy orders received in a state of sin, I said, an extreme case, but others are possible cases in which the sacrament, though not all linked, it is not even entirely dissolved, that is free to make its effects. In the case of baptism, what is it that makes the fruit of the sacrament remains tied up?
We recall here the classical doctrine of the sacraments. The sacraments are not magical rituals that act mechanically, without the knowledge of man, or without any work with him. Their effectiveness is the result of a synergy or cooperation between divine omnipotence (specifically: the grace of Christ or the Holy Spirit) and human freedom, because he said S. Augustine: "Who created you without your competition does not save you without your cooperation" (Sermo 169.11; PL 38.923).
More precisely, the result depends on all the grace of the sacrament divine, only that this grace does not act without the 'yes', that is the consensus and the contribution of the creature, which is a "conditio sine qua non" not with a-cause. God acts as the groom who do not imposes his love for power, but awaits the "yes" to free the bride.
More precisely, the result depends on all the grace of the sacrament divine, only that this grace does not act without the 'yes', that is the consensus and the contribution of the creature, which is a "conditio sine qua non" not with a-cause. God acts as the groom who do not imposes his love for power, but awaits the "yes" to free the bride.
God's work and the work of man in baptism
Everything depends on God's grace and the will of Christ, in the sacrament, is called "opus operatum" which we translate: it works already carried out, objective and inevitable result of the sacrament, when administered properly, but everything depends on freedom and the provisions of the subject called "opus operantis", that work be carried out, the human contribution. The opus
operatum of baptism, that is part of God or grace, is varied and rich: the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity (which only in germ), child of God, all operated by the effective action of the Holy Spirit. "Baptized, we are enlightened, enlightened as we are adopted children, adopted, we are made perfect, perfected, we receive the immortality of the baptism ... This has different names: grace, illumination, perfection, bathroom. Bathroom which we cleansed from our sins, and grace for which deserved punishment for our sins are removed; light in which we contemplate the beautiful and holy light of salvation, ie, for which penetrate the eye with the divine perfection because it lacks nothing "(Clement of Alexandria, Pedagogue 1, 6.26).
Baptism is indeed a rich-pack gift we received when we were born in God but it is a gift-pack still sealed: we are rich because we have that package (and thus we can perform all acts necessary for the Christian life), but do not know what we have , to paraphrase one of John, we could say as of now we are children of God, but what we have not yet been revealed (cf. 1 Jn 3:2). That's why we say that in most Christian, baptism is a sacrament "bound".
far operatum opus. But in what is, in baptism, the opus operantis, ie the part of man? Consists of faith! "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16): next to the baptism so there is something else: the faith of man. "But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1, 12). We also remember that beautiful text of the Acts of the Apostles tells of the baptism of the minister of Queen Candàcel Once in a watercourse that man says, 'here is water: what prevents me from being baptized? Philip says: If you believe with all my heart is allowed (Acts 8:36-37) Verse 37 is the addition of early Christian community that testifies to the common belief of the Church in this period). Baptism is like a divine seal placed on the man's faith: "... after listening to the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation and have believed in him, have received (in baptism, that is) the seal of the Spirit holy "(Ephesians 1, 13). Writes
S. Basil: in truth, faith and baptism, these two ways of salvation, are bound to one another and inseparable, as if faith receives from baptism of his perfection, baptism is based on faith (On the Holy Spirit, 12; PG 32.117 B). The same holy baptism called "seal of faith" (Against Eunomius 111, 5; PG 29.655).
The work of man, that faith, not of the same importance and autonomy of the work of God, because in the very act of faith there is a part of God is itself a work of grace that it raises; However, the act of faith as an essential element also includes the reply, "I believe!" man, and in this sense we call operantis opus, that is man-made.
Of course, now, because in the early church baptism was an event so powerful and full of grace and that there was no need, normally, a new outpouring of the Spirit come quella che facciamo noi oggi. Il battesimo veniva amministrato ad adulti che si convertivano dal paganesimo e che, convenientemente istruiti, erano in grado di fare, in occasione del battesimo, un atto di fede e una scelta esistenziale libera e matura (basta leggere le Catechesi Mistagogiche sul battesimo, attribuite a Cirillo di Gerusalemme, per rendersi conto della profondità di fede cui erano condotti i battezzandi).
Al battesimo insomma si arrivava attraverso una vera e propria conversione; per essi il battesimo era davvero un lavacro di rinnovamento personale, oltre che di rigenerazione nello Spirito Santo (cfr. Tito 3,5). Mi ha impressionato un testo di S. Basilio. A uno che gli aveva chiesto di scrivere un trattato sul battesimo, S. Basilio risponde che non può spiegare cosa significa il battesimo senza aver spiegato prima cosa significa essere discepoli di Gesù, poiché il comando del Signore dice: "Andate, dunque, e ammaestrate tutte le nazioni, battezzandole nel nome del Padre e del Figlio e dello Spirito Santo, insegnando loro ad osservare tutto ciò che vi ho comandato (Matteo 28,19-20).
Perché il battesimo operi in tutta la sua forza, bisogna che chi si accosta ad esso sia un discepolo, o sia intenzionato a diventarlo seriamente: "Discepolo è, come apprendiamo dal Signore stesso, chiunque si accosta al Signore per seguirlo, cioè per ascoltare le sue parole, credere e ubbidire a lui come a padrone e re e medico e maestro di verità... Ora, those who believe in the Lord and is presented as ready for discipleship, it must first get away from all sin, and then also from all the things that distract dall'ubbidienza, for many reasons due to the Lord, even if apparently seem reasonable "(S . Basilio, on baptism, I, 1, ss PG 31.1513).
The favorable conditions that allowed the baptism, the origins of the Church, to work with such power, then, was this: that God's work and the work of 'man they met at the same time, there was a perfect sync, as was the case when the two poles, positive and negative, so they touch each other and emit light.
Now this synchronism is broken, receiving the baptism of children, came to miss gradually a free and personal act of faith. It was supple, and issued, as it were, through a third party (parents, godparents). In fact, once, when the whole environment surrounding the child was a Christian and impregnated with faith, that faith could flourish, albeit more slowly. But this is no longer so, our state has come to be even worse than that of the Middle Ages The environment in which the child grows in fact, is not likely to help him to blossom in the faith: it is not often the family, not it is more often the school and it is not, least of all, society and culture. This is not to say that there is, in this situation, a Christian life normale, né che siano mancati la santità e i carismi che l'accompagnano; solo che, anziché un fatto normale, ciò è divenuto sempre più, agli occhi dei cristiani, un'eccezione.
In questa situazione, raramente, o mai, il battezzato arriva a proclamare "in Spirito Santo": Gesù è il Signore! E finché non si arriva a questo punto, tutto nella vita cristiana è sfocato, immaturo. Non avvengono più i miracoli; si ripete ciò che avvenne per i nazaretani "Gesù non potè fare molti miracoli a causa della mancanza di fede" (cfr. Matteo 13,58).
Il significato dell'effusione dello Spirito
Ecco, allora, il senso dell'effusione dello Spirito. Essa è una risposta di Dio alla disfunzione in cui è venuta a trovarsi la vita cristiana. In questi ultimi anni si sa che anche la Chiesa, i vescovi, hanno cominciato a preoccuparsi del fatto che i sacramenti cristiani, specialmente il battesimo, vengono amministrati a persone che poi non ne faranno alcun uso nella vita e hanno prospettato la possibilità di non dare il battesimo quando mancano le garanzie minime che esso sia coltivato e valorizzato dal bambino. Non si possono infatti "gettare le perle ai cani", come diceva Gesù, e il battesimo è una perla perché esso è il frutto del sangue di Cristo. Ma si direbbe che Dio si sia preoccupato, prima ancora della Chiesa, di questa disfunzione e abbia suscitato, qua e là in the Church, the movements aimed at renewing the Christian initiation for adults.
Renewal in the Spirit (and the Catholic Charismatic Renewal ed) is one of these movements, and the grace of principal is perhaps linked to the outpouring of the Spirit and what precedes it. Its effectiveness in reactivating baptism consists in this: the man who finally gives her part, that makes a choice of faith, prepared in repentance, which allows it to God to "liberate" and unleash its full force . As if the outstretched hand of God finally met the man and, in the narrow, did spend all his creative power that is the Holy Spirit, as if, to use an image comes from the physical world, the plug was inserted into the socket and turning on the light. them the gift of God is finally "untied" and the Spirit expands as a perfume on the Christian life.
In the adult, who already has a long Christian life, this choice of faith necessarily has the character of a conversion, we describe the outpouring of the Spirit, as regards the part of man, as a renewal of baptism , who as a second conversion.
We can understand something more of the effusion, seeing her in connection with confirmation, at least in current practice, in which this sacrament is detached from baptism and administered later. In addition to a renewal of grace del battesimo, l'effusione è anche una "conferma" del proprio battesimo, un "sì" cosciente detto ad esso, ai suoi frutti e ai suoi impegni, e come tale si affianca (almeno per l'aspetto soggettivo di esso) a quello che opera, sul piano oggettivo e sacramentale, la confermazione: questa infatti è vista come un sacramento che sviluppa, conferma e porta a compimento l'opera del battesimo. L'effusione è una confermazione soggettiva e spontanea (non sacramentale), in cui lo Spirito agisce non in forza dell'istituzione, ma in forza della libera iniziativa dello Spirito e della disponibilità del soggetto.
Dal riferimento alla confermazione viene anche quello speciale senso di maggiore coinvolgimento nella dimensione apostolica and missionary of the Church which is usually known in those who received the outpouring of the Spirit, we feel compelled to cooperate more to building the Church, to put it in service in various ministries that both clerical and lay, to bear witness to Christ all things, this, recall that the Pentecost event and are updated in the sacrament of Confirmation.
Jesus, he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit
The outpouring of the Spirit is not the only time that is known in the Church for this revival of the sacraments of initiation, and, in particular, the coming of the Holy Spirit in 'soul at baptism. There is, for example, the renewal of baptismal promises during the Easter Vigil, there are retreats, religious profession is called a "second baptism" and a sacramental level, we said, the confirmation.
It is not difficult, then often discover in the lives of saints, the presence of a "spontaneous outpouring", especially on the occasion of their conversion. Here, for example what is the law of S. Francis at the time of his conversion: "After the banquet, leaving the house.'s Friends walked forward, and he, holding a kind of scepter, came last, but instead of singing, was deep in thought. Suddenly The Lord visited him and its heart was overflowing with so much sweetness, which could not move or speak, but to not perceiving sweetness, which alienated from any sense ... Friends, turning and seeing him was so far away, reached him and remained almost startled to see him changed into another man. They asked: 'What were you thinking, have not you followed? Almanacs maybe get married? Responded with enthusiasm: "It's true. I was thinking of taking the girl to marry more noble, rich and beautiful I have ever seen." His companions laughed. Francis said it does not on its own, but inspired by God "(Legend of the Three Companions, 3.7).
I said that the outpouring of the Spirit is not the only opportunity for renewal of baptismal grace. However, it occupies a very special place because it is open to all God's people, young and old, and not just the privileged few who make the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, or produce religious profession. Where does this extraordinary power that we experienced at the outpouring? For we are not talking about a theory, but something that we have experienced ourselves, so we can tell how John "What we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, our hands have touched This also announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us " (cf. 1 John 1: 1-3). The explanation for this strength is in God's will: because it pleased God today to renew the Church in this way and that's it!
There are certainly precedents such as the Bible narrated in Acts 8.14 to 17, when Peter and John knew that the Samaritans had received the Word of God, they went from them, prayed for them, and laid their hands that they might receive Holy Spirit. But the biblical text from which one must begin to understand something of the baptism in the Spirit, especially John 1.32-33: "John bore witness, I saw the Spirit descending like a dove from heaven and remain upon him. The did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water told me: The man on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is he who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. "
That is to say that Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit? L 'expression not only serves to distinguish the baptism of Jesus by John baptizing only to" water ", but it serves to distinguish the 'whole person and work of Christ from those of the precursor. In other words, in all his work Jesus is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. Baptize here has a metaphorical meaning; means showering, bathroom, sink, as does the' water bodies. Jesus "baptizes with the Holy Spirit" in the sense that "gives the Spirit without measure" (John 3:34), that "pours" His Spirit (see Acts 2:33) on the whole ' redeemed humanity. The term si riferisce più all'avvenimento della Pentecoste che al sacramento del battesimo, come si deduce anche dal seguente passo degli Atti: "Giovanni ha battezzato con acqua, voi invece sarete battezzati in Spirito Santo fra non molti giorni" (At 1,5).
L'espressione "battezzare in Spirito Santo" definisce perciò l'opera essenziale di Cristo che già nelle profezie messianiche dell'Antico Testamento appare orientata a rigenerare l'umanità mediante una grande effusione di Spirito Santo (cfr. Galati 3,1 ss). Applicando tutto questo alla vita e al tempo della Chiesa, dobbiamo concludere che Gesù risuscitato non battezza in Spirito Santo unicamente nel sacramento del battesimo, ma, in modo diverso, anche in altri momenti: nell'eucaristia, nell'ascolto della Parola e, in genere, in tutti i "mezzi della grazia".
Il battesimo nello Spirito è uno di questi modi con cui Gesù risorto continua la sua opera essenziale di "battezzare nello Spirito". Per questo motivo, se è giusto spiegare questa grazia in riferimento al battesimo e all'iniziazione cristiana. come io stesso ho fatto sopra, bisogna guardarsi dall'irrigidire anche questo punto di vista. Non è soltanto il nostro battesimo che rivive grazie ad essa, ma anche la cresima, la prima comunione, l'ordinazione sacerdotale o episcopale, la professione religiosa, il matrimonio, tutte le grazie e tutti i carismi ricevuti. E' davvero la grazia di una nuova Pentecoste. Una initiative, in a sense, a new and sovereign grace of God, which is based, like everything else, on baptism, but that does not end it. It does not say the report only to the 'initiation', but also to the "perfection" of the Christian life.
Only then does one explain the presence of the baptism in the Holy Spirit among those Pentecostals, where the initiation is a foreign concept and the same baptism of water is always of the importance it has for us and for other Catholic Churches . Baptism in the Spirit, at its very origin, ecumenical value must be preserved at all costs, as the promise and tool for Christian unity, avoiding excessive "cattolicizzazione" of this common experience, which is the baptism in the Spirit.
Brotherly love, prayer and laying on of hands
outpouring is a secret part, mysterious, that God is different for everyone just because he knows us within, and can act enhancing our distinctive personality; and there is a clear part of the community, which is equal for all and that is a kind of sign, with a certain similarity with respect to what are the signs in the sacraments. The visible part or the community, consists mainly of three things: brotherly love, laying on of hands and prayer. Elements are not sacramental, but simply the Bible and the Church.
L' imposizione delle mani può avere due significati: uno di invocazione e uno di consacrazione. Vediamo, per esempio, presenti entrambi questi tipi di imposizione delle mani nella Messa: c'è una imposizione delle mani di carattere invocatorio (almeno per noi latini), ed è quella che il sacerdote fa sulle offerte al momento dell'epiclesi, quando prega dicendo: "Lo Spirito Santo santifichi questi doni perché diventino il corpo e il sangue di Gesù Cristo"; e c'è una imposizione delle mani consacratoria, ed è quella che fanno i concelebranti sulle offerte al momento della consacrazione. Nel rito stesso della cresima, come si svolge attualmente, vi sono due imposizioni delle mani: una previa di carattere invocatorio e un'altra that accompanies the act of consecration of the anointing chrism on the forehead, in which there is the sacrament itself.
in the outpouring of the Spirit, the laying on of hands, has only one character invocatory (on the lines of what we find in Genesis 48.14; Leviticus 9:22; Me 10, 13-16, Matthew 19.13-15) He also has a high symbolic value: it calls the image of the Holy Spirit which covers with its shadow (cf 1.35), also recalls that the Holy Spirit "hovered" over the waters (Genesis 1:2). In the original, the word we translate as "hover" means "to cover with their wings," or "brooding, as the hen with her chicks." This symbolism of the gesture of Hand is highlighted by Tertullian when he speaks of the imposition of hands on the baptized: "The flesh is overshadowed by the imposition of hands that the soul is illuminated by the Spirit" (On the Resurrection of the dead, 8, 3). There is a paradox, as in all things of God: the laying on of hands lights darken, as the cloud that followed the Exodus and the chosen people as the one that wrapped the disciples on Mount Tabor (cf. Matthew 17:5) .
The other two elements are, we said, prayer and brotherly love, we might say: brotherly love that is expressed in prayer. A brotherly love is the sign and vehicle of the Holy Spirit. The latter, who is love, is brotherly love his environment natural, its sign par excellence (you can also say it what is said of the sacramental sign, although in a different sense, "meaning they cause" is no exaggeration enough the importance of a climate of true love around to his brother that is to receive the outpouring.
The prayer is put in close relationship in the New Testament, with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Of the baptism of Jesus says that "while he was praying, the heaven was opened, and went on him the Holy Spirit "(cf 3.2 1), was the prayer of Jesus, it seems, be open to the heavens and bring down upon him the Holy Spirit. Even the outpouring of Pentecost was this: while all they were constant in prayer came from the sky a noise like thunder and appeared tongues of fire (see Acts 1.14-2, ss). After all, Jesus had said: "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Comforter" (John 14:16): Every time the outpouring of the Spirit is put in relationship with prayer.
These signs: the laying on of hands, prayer and brotherly love, they talk all of simplicity, they are simple tools. Precisely in this, they bear the mark of God's actions: "There is nothing - Tertullian writes about baptism - thus leaving the astonished minds of men like the simplicity of the divine actions that are seen in place and the magnificence of the effects that are conseguiti... Le proprietà di Dio sono: semplicità e potenza" (Sul battesimo, 2,1 ss). Il contrario di ciò che fa il mondo: nel mondo più sono grandi gli obiettivi da conseguire, più l'apparato dei mezzi è complicato; quando poi si vuole arrivare sulla luna questo apparato diventa gigantesco.
Se la semplicità è il marchio dell'agire divino, bisogna preservare assolutamente questo marchio nel conferire l'effusione dello Spirito. Per questo la semplicità deve risplendere in tutto: nella preghiera e nei gesti; niente cose teatrali, gesti eccitati, multiloquio ecc. La Bibbia fa notare, a proposito del sacrificio del Carmelo, il contrasto stridente tra l'agire dei sacerdoti di Baal che gridano, danzano by rowdy and make incisions in blood, and the act of Elijah praying instead simply as "Lord God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ... answer me this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and convert their hearts "(1 Kings 18,36-37).
The fire of God fell on the sacrifice of Elijah and not that of the priests of Baal (cf. 1 Kings 18.25-38). Elijah himself, shortly after, made the experience that God was not in the rushing wind, it was not in the earthquake, was not in the fire, but it was in the whisper of a gentle wind (see 1 Kings 19:11-12).
Where is the grace that is experienced in the effusion? By the bystanders? No! By the person who receives it? Not even! It comes from God! It makes no sense to ask if it comes from inside or outside the subject: God is inside and out. We can only say that this grace has relationship with the baptism because God always acts with consistency and fidelity, not to do and undo. He honors the commitment and the institution of Christ. One thing is certain: there are the brothers to give the Holy Spirit, they do not give the Holy Spirit to his brother, but invoke the Holy Spirit on his brother. The Spirit can not be given by any man, even by the pope or the bishop, because no man has in his Holy Spirit. Only Jesus can make in the real sense the Holy Spirit, the other does not possess the Holy Spirit, but rather are owned by him.
As to the manner of this grace we can speak of a second coming of the Holy Spirit, a new mission from the Father through Jesus Christ or a new anointing corresponding to the new degree of grace. In this sense, the outpouring, if not a sacrament, but it is an event, a spiritual event: This could be the definition that comes closest to reality. An event, then something happens that leaves its mark, creating a new life, but a spiritual event (not history): because it is spiritual in the spirit, that is in the interior of man and the others can not see very well nothing; spiritual, especially because it is the Holy Spirit.
conclude this teaching with a beautiful text of the Apostle Paolo che parla proprio della riviviscenza del dono di Dio. Ascoltiamolo come un invito rivolto a ciascuno di noi: "Ti ricordo di ravvivare il dono di Dio che è in te per l'imposizione delle mie mani. Dio infatti non ci ha dato uno Spirito di timidezza, ma di forza, di amore e di saggezza " (2 Timoteo 1,6-7).
0 comments:
Post a Comment