Dear brothers and sisters,
May the Lord give you peace!
The passage we heard in the second reading from the Acts of the Apostles not only expresses the moment of the birth of the Church, one and undivided, but is also a precious indication of the identity of the universal Church and of our identity as the Church of Jerusalem, our specific vocation.
In the city of Jerusalem there were even then inhabitants from all nations, speaking different languages, having different cultures. This is a sign of the plurality of expressions existing in the world, willed by God, and the first consequence of human freedom. We see this from the very beginning of creation: the first chapters of the book of Genesis show us very well that humanity, which sprang from Adam and Eve, has always been plural. Precisely for this reason, these chapters contain numerous descriptions of peoples, nations and languages which, although different, are nevertheless in harmony with one another, because they are united by the same descent.
It is in the famous chapter 11 of Genesis, with the "Tower of Babel", that things change. We read that "the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech" (Gen. 11:1). Babel represents perhaps the first ideology in history, the first temptation of what we would today call "single thinking". To have only one language, to be uniform and without differences, is not in accordance with God's desire for man, created in His image and likeness, and free. At Babel, man wanted to make himself like God – a temptation that has always existed and keeps recurring – and impose a single order on everyone. That is why God said: "Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech" (Gen. 11:7). And so it was.
But at Pentecost, according to the description in the Acts of the Apostles, we find a different phenomenon, which mirrors the wound opened at Babel: "the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language." (Acts 2:6). There were "Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia" (Acts 2:9-11)... In other words, there were a long list of names and nations, of different cultures, as in the first chapters of Genesis, but united in mutual understanding ("every man heard them speak in his own language"). The love of God that has been poured into our hearts, the fire of the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, has not only erased the fears that kept us locked and paralyzed in our cenacles, has not only cleansed us of our sins, but has also opened our hearts to a new unity, has made us capable again of understanding one another, without erasing, however, our different backgrounds, cultures and languages. As before Babel.
This is how the Church was born, in Jerusalem, at Pentecost, when all, while remaining themselves, became part of each other, understood each other, united in celebrating "the mighty acts of God" (Acts 2:11). The Church must continually refer to this event in order to remain faithful to the mandate received and to be the Place of the encounter between heaven and earth, to be a visible expression of God’s desire for all humanity.
As I said at the beginning, Pentecost also describes very well the specific vocation of our Church of Jerusalem, the Mother Church. When I say Church of Jerusalem, I do not mean a specific denomination, but all our different affiliations that, together and only together, form the one Church of Christ.
We too, here in Jerusalem today, belong to different cultures, traditions, rites and identities. In a sense, we are like the Jerusalem of the Acts of the Apostles. The names of our nations, our languages and different affiliations changed, but we still have that same expressions of diversity. Our specific vocation, our mission, what we are called to do as Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem, is therefore to make visible not only this diversity of ours, but also this mutual understanding, the first fruit of the Spirit's gift. An understanding that has become difficult today, because of our sins over the centuries, which in the past even made us hostile to one another.
That presence in Jerusalem, therefore, of different churches, different rites, different charisms, is constitutive of the Christian identity of the Holy City. If we were all the same, we would be Babel, and not Jerusalem.
However, we must purify ourselves, ask forgiveness for our divisions, and work together so that, from the Mother Church of Jerusalem, as two thousand years ago, once again springs that fire which burns away all misunderstandings and fears, and brings us out of our cenacles to proclaim the mighty acts of God. If we are gathered here today, belonging to different denominations, it is for this very reason; to express our desire and our commitment to be the Mother Church, which, from the Holy City, continues to announce to the world that Christ is the Kyrios, and which does so in different ways, languages and expressions, but always united by the same love, by the same fire which burns in the hearts of all our communities.
The Gospel passage, which presents us with the gift of the Holy Spirit according to the version of the apostle John, offers us further food for thought. After the resurrection and with the gift of the Spirit, the disciples’ hearts are opened to a new understanding of the "mighty acts of God": Jesus is present in their midst in a new and stable way ("He stood in the midst", 20:19), and the presence of the Crucified and Risen One gives new joy ("They rejoiced when they saw the Lord", 20:20). The gift of the Spirit is also the beginning of a new creation ("He breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’", 20:22); it gives peace ("Peace be with you!", 20:19, 20) and forgiveness of sins ("If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven", 20:23).
If the Acts of the Apostles calls us to mutual understanding and unity in diversity, the Gospel passage shows us how to give concrete expression to this unity.
First, by being aware that we are inhabited by the presence of the Risen One, who is made manifest by the joy that characterizes our communities. We belong to the Risen One, we are therefore new creation; our old self is no more, and so we cannot be sad and disheartened.
We are, moreover, committed to building peace, which is the first gift of the Spirit. In this city of ours, marked by so much pain and division, we will be Church of Christ, faithful to our vocation, if we are able to build opportunities for peace and encounter, if we do not allow the Divider to put an end to our works to resolve conflicts, even at the cost of always starting over again and again. Our purpose is not to achieve an outcome, to be successful in our endeavors, but simply to express unceasingly in our works the love of God that sustains us and drives us out of ourselves, and that the Spirit has instilled in us.
There can be no unity if we are unable to forgive, without which there can be no justice. This is our experience as saved people, as people who, in meeting the Risen One, have truly become a new creation.
I don’t know if we, the Church in Jerusalem, are really there, where the Lord is calling us to be, if we are really faithful to this particular vocation of ours, if we are capable of loving each other in that way, if we are really willing to work for peace, to build a justice that is never separated from forgiveness, if we are a joyful community.
But I know with certainty that the fire that burned in the hearts of the disciples two thousand years ago continues to burn in the Church and that, despite our sins and infidelities, it will never cease to be, here and in the world, a source of joy, peace and forgiveness.
Happy feast to all of you, and thank you for agreeing to be present, here today, to strengthen our "diverse unity."
Happy Pentecost to all of you!
†Pierbattista Pizzaballa
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem
