Transcription
[Applause] [Music]
Good morning, dear brothers and sisters. Welcome to Rome. When Christians, and especially charismatic people, meet together, they need to start with a big act of faith. Not just the faith we proclaim in the Creed, but a more existential faith. The faith which consists in believing, in almost feeling, that the risen Lord is among us, alive. He was waiting for us. He's the most present among all of us, because we are always not entirely in the place where we are staying. Our thoughts are, some of them are as well. But the risen Lord is fully present and scrutinizing not just our exterior, also our interior, our thoughts. And the risen Lord rejoices immensely being among us.
So let us enter, induce this atmosphere of being with the Lord. Not just listen to some words coming from him, but listen in this presence. Let us experience and among God. Yet the need of the Amanita senior. Welcome Jesus. Welcome. Take joy, take joy with your people, Lord Jesus.
The theme of this talk is baptism in the Spirit, in the Bible and in Christian life. To avoid speaking too quickly and so putting the translators in a difficult situation, I will divide this first talk into two parts, delivering one this morning and the second part on the same subject in the afternoon. This will allow us to absorb the content more deeply in us. The expression "baptism in the Spirit" was not invented by the charismatic renewal, nor by the Pentecostal movement. It comes from Jesus himself, who before ascending into heaven, said: "John baptized in water, but not many days from now, you will be baptized in the Holy Spirit." This is Acts of the Apostles 1:5. One of the optimists is that Jesus not only used the expression "baptized in the Spirit," but also explained what it meant and what it would bring about.
What happened in fact? Not many days from that moment, precisely 10 days later, Pentecost. Even baptism in the Spirit is on the lips of Jesus first and most directly indicates Pentecost. The simplest way to understand what it means and what are its effects is to consider what happened at Pentecost, and what did it bring about in the lives of the Apostles, and what takes place today in those who have received the baptism in the Spirit. What I want to plan to do therefore is to consider the account of Pentecost in the light of the experience of the charismatic renewal, and the experience of the charismatic renewal in the light of Pentecost. I will examine the different sections of the account of Pentecost one at a time, in order to highlight what each of them helps us understand of the baptism in the Spirit.
First section, verses 1 to 4 of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2. "When Pentecost Day came round, they had all met in one room. Like when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting. And something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire. They separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. And they were hoarse with the Holy Spirit."
What does it mean to say that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit? Because the essence of Pentecost, of course, is engrossed in these few words: "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit." What precedes are just signs, preparatory signs. The wind, noise of the wind, was a sign for the ears. Then tongues of fire, a sign for the eyes, to attract, to stir the attention of the presence. But the essence is in this last phrase: "They were filled with the Holy Spirit." Other than mere means to be filled with the Holy Spirit? The answer is simple. It is enough to ask ourselves what the Holy Spirit is. And we know he is the love flowing between the Father and the Son in the Trinity. A love so powerful and so substantial as to constituting or a person, or as theology says, a subsistent relation, relatio subsistens. And so, to say that they were all filled with the Holy Spirit means very simply that they were filled with the love of God. The Apostles had an overwhelming experience of being loved by God, and that explains the tremendous, dramatic change which occurred in the hearts of these people. From this moment on, we see the Apostles changed, in completely different persons, as if the heart of stone had broken and a new heart, an art of flesh, of fire, had come on them.
Saint Paul explains Pentecost precisely in this way when he says, Romans 5:5: "The love of God, which of course here means the love of God for us, not the contrary, not our love for God, the love of God is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us." This is a short account of Pentecost, not in a descriptive way, in a synthetic way. This is Pentecost: the love of God, the love of the Trinity, being shared and being poured into the hearts of people. For each believer, this effusion took place at the baptism. Well, for the whole Church, it happens at Pentecost. According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, the love Paul is speaking of is at the same time the love with which God loves us, and love with which he makes us capable of loving Him in our turn. And brothers, for those who know Latin, "our coddles knows delish it and co if say knows the letters so we fetch it." You see the complete reality of God. God is the love descending from the Trinity. This is the first love, very loved Hammacher love with which God loves us, and with which he makes us able, capable of loving man in our turn, and our brothers in fusion charity. We are to love and rights John, because he loved us first.
When the Apostles were filled with the love of God, they were also filled, the same moment, with love for one another. Before Pentecost, each of the Apostles were concerned, was concerned about affirming himself, being the most important among the Apostles. Now they spoke always in first person. "I am my brother," says John and James or Peter. "I will not be the I will not betray you, even all the others betray you. I will not." Now they no longer speak with a single subject, always "I." "We are the Apostles." Which is a sign that the love of God has opened ins the Apostle, so love for one another.
We see a singular confirmation of this interpretation of Pentecost in those who have received baptism in the Spirit. One of its most striking fruits is the new experience of God's love. For many, this is by far the most astonishing and exhilarating thing about baptism in the Spirit. Those who took part in the retreat in which the charismatic renewal had its beginning in the Catholic Church thought of the world that there was a moment when they feared they would not be able to bear the excessive love of God. It was, they say, a quote, "literally, it was as though the God of Sinai had come into the room, utterly filling it, and us as well. It was an experience of the love of God." At a very beginning of the charismatic renewal, there is no counting of the number of people who describe the moment of their baptism in the Spirit as feeling a torrent of love coming down upon them. For some, it was something that moved them immediately to tears. Or for others, it is an awareness that grew over time. For most people, I remember a woman saying, "I had lived all my life with respect, experience not being loved by anyone and not being able to be loved by anyone. At that moment, this feeling disappeared and never came again."
Some years ago, precisely on the 40th anniversary of the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, there was a consultation in England among all the charismatic of Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland. And a survey was distributed before this symposium with some questions. And one question said, "What is the most enduring blessing you think you have received from the experience of the charismatic renewal?" And the majority of the answers were: "For the first time, I felt loved by God." In North Lady of 80 years, well received the baton in the space, shook the people around, saying, "Don't you know? I feel a little girl. Knows that I am the daughter of God." You could see, and I said, she she felt what she was saying.
You will have noticed, brothers and sisters, are often in the last few sentences, the notion of experience has come to the fore. We need to dwell a while on this theme, because it will allow us to understand what has been one of the most remarkable contributions of the charismatic renewal to the Christian theology and spirituality. Something most impressive and at the time scandalizing to outside observers of the Pentecostal and charismatic phenomenon is the way the inward experience of the Spirit translates into an involvement of a person, all being of this person, body and soul, raising hands, clapping hands, eyes closing, expression ecstatic, smiling, weeping, not to speak of singing again, speaking in tongues, and other unusual behavior.
I must confess that at first, I too found it hard to accept that kind of things. And in this, I am quite on the same situation about Francis. Very often, a mention that at the beginning, he was also taken aback. The word "enthusiasm," as we know, has always been held in suspicion among church historians. You understand what I mean? But enthusiasts, entusiasmo, enthusiasm. But there are different kinds of enthusiasm. There is a good kind of enthusiasm that in patristic tradition is called the "sober intoxication of the Spirit." And there are no better words to describe this portion, this position of the Apostles. They are Pentecost as this. They were intoxicated, soberly intoxicated by the Spirit. What we imagine prompted some of those who were there to accuse the Apostles of being drunk on new wine. "These men are not drunk," as you imagine, said Peter. And Cyril of Jerusalem, a bishop of the 4th century, said to the people: "They are not drunk in the way you imagine. They are drunk, but not in the way who imagine. They are drunk, but with that sober intoxication that causes sins today and hearts to live."
Pentecost is the moment when the heart of stone is shattered to bits, and in its place is taken by the heart of flesh. But this heart transplant didn't take place under total anesthesia. I cannot imagine the sin of intervals as artists and iconographers traditionally depicted. They all they're sitting down, quite composed, immobile, each in his own place, arms devoutly crossed over the breast, gazing into the air. Let's see when now when image a different image of Pentecost, much closer to the reality. Are certain images of the Pentecost away and we find among young Camus Christian communities in Africa, depicting something that they themselves have experienced. This is a picture which expresses an experience, a living experience. This this image comes from Cameroon. You see the Apostles are looking at when an artist at experience, smiles in their faces, some embracing, are raising their hands to heaven, others face is hidden behind their hands, though unable to bear such excessive sweetness. Isn't that much more experienced? There is only one person, if you look at, which is very try to quite relaxed. This may be because she had already at Pentecost, she knew what the coming of the Spirit produces. It's lady on blue. She almost looks at the Apostle saying, "Now you know what the Spirit is." He knew the Annunciation, or area, the Magnificat is already the expression of this ecstatic experience.
Almost all of our thinking is a visually in terms of abstract concepts. A person becomes child of God, of course, we know from geology that member of the body of Christ, the Holy Spirit comes well, as giving sanctifying grace, the tale or theological virtues. Of this we know, but all taking place beyond the level of our consciousness. We notice nothing of it, or in the sense that we fit no different perience, no emotion. This is what student learn in theology. By the parties, we become child of God, temple of the Holy Spirit. There is an act of faith, not no emotion. There is a lacuna here, and it is exactly this that the charismatic renewal helps to church to overcome. There is not, there has not always been this gap between experience and notion, concepts. Especially in the centuries before the rise of the scholastic theology.
Theologian of the caliber of Karl Rahner did 25 years after the appearance of the charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church, wrote a contribution for a book, book where many theologians reflected what the charismatic experience had to reveal to theology. And Karl Rahner says this: "We cannot deny that it is possible for us to have experiences of grace, not just concepts, experiences of days in this life that give us a sense of freedom, that open us to completely new horizons, that impress us profoundly and transform, bring about even a long-standing change in the very heart of our Christian attitude." Listen to the concluding State: "Nothing prevents us calling please experienced Baptists in the Spirit."
Before going ahead, I need to come back to the beginning of the account of Pentecost. This something is not written so that the translator should follow my oral. The account of interest begins with these words: "When Pentecost Day came round." Not slight different translations, but the meaning is clear. It means that Pentecost existed before Pentecost, because it was precisely on a feast of angels that all this happened. And as we don't understand Easter, Christian Easter, unless we see it as the fulfillment of what the ancient Easter proclaimed, so we cannot understand Pentecost unless we see it in the background of the old Pentecost.
Now, Pentecost at the beginning, in the most ancient books of the Bible, was an agricultural feast. It was the moment when the priests offered to God the first shaft of the harvest. But with the passing of time, the feast had acquired a new meaning, an historical meaning, no longer in a natural or agricultural meaning. It was the feast that commemorated the events of Mount Sinai, which means the gift of the law and the new covenant established with the people. This is the founding moment in the history of Israel. In fact, look in the account of Pentecost, alludes, makes this parallelism by using the same phenomenon which occurred on Mount Sinai: fire, wind, and Liturgy of Catholic liturgy of Pentecost. Let us read Exodus 19. The vigil of Pentecost, say Clare. There is there is a link between what happened, happens now, and what happened. Saint Augustine had already noticed that and in one sermon he says to the people: "Look at the analogy and at the difference. 50 days after the Malaysian of the land in Egypt and the coming out of the people from Egypt, on Mount Sinai, the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, wrote the law on tablets of stone. And 50 days after the Malaysian of the true Lamb of God, Jesus, look, the finger of God, the Holy Spirit, again writes the law, but this time not on tablets of stone, rather on the tablets of flesh, in the hearts of people."
Which means that the Holy Spirit is the new interior law of Christians. What simple calls precisely the law of the Spirit. To remember the beginning of this beautiful chapter 8 of to the Romans is one of my favorite texts. "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus I set you free from the law of sin and death." Do you want that this beautiful caramel resound in this hole? So repeat the phrase, the phrase after me: "There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit which gives life in Christ Jesus I set you free." It's a great amnesty from the law of sin and death.
Italians are feeling discriminated against at that moment. How many Italians are here? How many friends? How many French are here? Ettusais problema en frente a Predacon dem nacio Portuguese on play Chris Tracy Pascal alwa display read on la vie i'm chris christie libre de lado de pêche a la ma a lo que ella difference' and receptive URL spray in aloha mosaic - risotto second set wha a dandekar celery ELISA shontella prophesied remedial sacred a Malwa. It's the realization of the prophecy of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. "I will write my law on the upon their hearts."
There are two ways of pushing people to obliging people to do something. Every written law, positive law, starting from the Mosaic law till the canon law, the religious rule, act in this way. They establish a goal and Fritton, a punishment. Unless you do this, so it acts by pushing, pushing. The law of the Spirit is by attraction. You have received the love of God. You know that God loves you. You have espoused the love of God, so you do willingly what the Lord asked you. Said the garcy news to asbestos with image. He said so to a child some nuts. When the Rosewell times where some nuts were enough to attract children. Nowadays no longer. You need something more, a PlayStation. Or you will see this child running to fetch the nuts. Who is pushing him? Nobody. He is attracted by the object of his desire. Now show to a person thirsty of God, thirsty of light, show God, and you will see that this person most word. Who is pushing? Nobody. He is attracted by the object of his desire. And this is the way the interior law of the Spirit acts, not dispensing cards from the law, the written law, but giving us the power to observe the law.
Remember the prophecy of Ezekiel: "I will put a new heart to give you a new spirit, put my Spirit in you, and I will make you observe my statutes." Only now we are able to observe really, not just as the Pharisees, exterior the presets of the law, because we are moved Imperioli by the [Music]