Solemnity of Pentecost meditation: The Spirit inspires a language of love – Vatican News

Readings: Ac.2, 1-11; Rom 3, 8-17; Jn 14, 15-16.23b-26

My dear brothers and sisters, happy feast of Pentecost. Today the Church invites us to celebrate the solemnity of Pentecost: the Holy Spirit who descends on the apostles.

Fifty days after Easter, the apostles being gathered in Jerusalem receive the gift of the Holy Spirit promised by the master, Jesus Christ, himself. ‘All were filled with the Holy Spirit. They spoke in tongues and all the people present in Jerusalem heard and understood them, each in their own language and dialect.

While language is sometimes ‘source of misunderstandings and various misunderstandings’, in Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, language unifies, harmonizes, promotes communion and brings people together: “Are these people who speak not all Galileans? How is it that each of us hears them in his own dialect, his mother tongue? »… “We all hear them speak in our languages ​​of the wonders of God”. While with the experience of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11, 1-9), humanity learned diversity, dispersion and incomprehension, at Pentecost the world finds unity in diversity, communion in dissimilarity, exchange in difference.

How is it possible ? What is this language accessible to all the peoples of the earth? At Pentecost, after receiving the Holy Spirit, the apostles speak a language of love as their Master and Lord. Obviously, the language of love is accessible to all. It is a language that encompasses all the languages ​​of the earth. Love is understandable by all. Love is in the heart of every man regardless of race, nationality, economic or political status. Love is the gift of God that we receive on the day of Pentecost and we bear witness to it without fear or shame. At Pentecost ‘we do not receive a spirit that makes us slaves and brings us back to fear; on the contrary, we receive a Spirit who makes us sons’.

As sons, ‘alter Christi’, the way opens for us to continue the mission of Christ. The world is bogged down in incomprehensible languages ​​that often lead to divisions, conflicts, wars, various diseases, different marginalizations and exploitations of man by man…, at the same time, the Holy Spirit continues to descend on Christians, today, to assist them and inspire them with the words and actions necessary to fight against linguistic excesses.

As the world increasingly speaks the language of war, conflict, confrontation and antagonism, Christians are discussing peace.

As the world seems to offer division and phobia of the other, Christians pray for unity and fellowship.

While the world is experiencing the exclusion of the other, of self-enclosure, Christians implore openness and benevolent welcome.

While humanity speaks several languages ​​which sometimes lead to quarrels, misunderstandings and misunderstandings, Christians speak and act in love, a language that is easy and accessible to all humanity.

Let us pray that in this celebration of Pentecost in a particular context of open wars and persistent illnesses in the world, the Holy Spirit will open us to the small and great wonders of God despite the crisis and inspire us with an adequate and appropriate language for our time. Amen.