UPS Opening of the Academic Year 05 – 06

HOMILY DURING THE MASS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

Acts 2,1-11; Psalm 103; 1 Cor 12, 3b-7. 12-13; Jn 20, 19-23

Rome – UPS,19 October 2005

Dear members of the University Community of the UPS

Fr Rector, Vice-Rectors, Deans, Professors, Students

We are gathered here around the table of the Word and of the Eucharist to celebrate our faith in the Paschal Mystery, to listen to God and to invoke the gift of the Spirit on each and everyone of us at the beginning of the new Academic Year 2005-2006, which I pray will be one rich in wisdom.

The opening of the university year coincides with the celebration of the Synod of Bishops on the Eucharist, “source and summit of the life and mission of the Church,” which becomes an additional incentive for us to grow in appreciation of the mystery, in the adoration of God, in communion with His Love, in our personal transformation, and in our commitment to the trasfiguration of the world.

At this moment we cannot but recall dear Pope John Paul II, who called for the Year of the Eucharist and convoked this Synod, and who having left us on the evening of Saturday 2 April this year 2005 now shares in the heavenly banquet; and our dear Holy Father Benedict XVI, whom the Lord has called to be the Pastor of His Church and under whose authority this great Assembly of Bishops is taking place. From the very beginning of his Pontificate he invited us to face up to the “dictatorship of relativism”,and not to gave way to the tendency to make the faith something merely “ad usum privatum” without any consequences for pubic life, but to proclaim “the truth of the Gospel” and to present the beautiful, youthful face of the Church and of Chistianity, fruit of the joy of the redemption, with its cultural proposal an alternative to that of the world, so that its dealings with the world are never at the expense of its identity and mission, by giving way to a worldly logic in which the triumph of positivism leads to increasing dissolution and alienation. The only reply that can free us from this breakdown of society and the dictatorship of thought is the presentation of the Christian message with all its liberating strength.

In his homily at his investiture Pope Benedict XVI described his view of the world in which Christ must be preached, a world that he sees as a “desert” in which one has to seek men who are lost, and as a “salt sea” from which to draw them “towards the land of life towards the light of God.” It is a question, according to the Holy Father, of the desert of poverty, the desert of hunger and thirst, the desert of abandonment, of loneliness, of destroyed love, the desert of God’s darkness, the emptiness of souls no longer aware of their dignity or the goal of human life. It is “a sea salted with so many forms of alienation.” Naturally these images and this description are not intended to indicate that everything is dark and without light, but to emphasise the absolute need that man has for God and His salvation.

The biblical texts in the liturgy speak to us of the presence of God through His Spirit in the Church, as the source of a shared apostolic life whose mission is the communication of the Gospel, as the source of diversity and the support of the unity of the believing community, as the fount of fraternal forgiveness reconciliation, as the energy that nourishes the mission of the Church. As applied to our University, in my opinion the Word of God invites us to make of our academic life an opportunity to welcome the Spirit and His gifts, to open ourselves to His wisdom and to allow ourselves to be guided by his power, and so become His docile and effective collaborators in the transfiguration of the world. But let us see the lessons in the Word of God.

THE SPIRIT, LIFE TOGETHER AND COMMUNICATION

The second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles which narrates the “birth” of the Church tells us that the effusion of the Spirit of Jesus on His disciples leads to the first evangelisation of the whole world represented by the Jews who have come to Jerusalem from throughout the world. Where the Spirit comes the Church arises; not any kind of church however, not a mere juridical or social organisation even with a religious purpose, but the Church that is born from the communication of the Spirit for the communication of the Gospel “in tongues.”

However one might wish to interpret the phenomenon of the «tongues», it is certainly St Luke’s intention to signify the «unifying» power of the Spirit that leads the disciples to communicating the one faith, the seed of the unity of the whole human family. The Spirit works on two fronts simultaneously: in the hearts and on the lips of the Apostles who inebriated by His presence succeed in tranmitting the Gospel of salvation in a convincing manner. The Spirit is seen in a visible form as full of power and effective. And the first effect of the coming of the Spirit, even before that of bearing public witness in the preaching of the Gospel, is the transformation of the Apostles: they are changed from fearful disciples to courageous prophets, so that their faith has a social effect on the people.

This event is in contrast to that of the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel. The gift of the Holy Spirit creates the unity of one language, and in this way indicates the universality of the mission of the Apostles and of the Church, to the ends of the earth. At the tower of Babel all were speaking the same language and at a certain point they could no longer understand one another, there was a confusion of tongues and the dispersion of the one people; at Pentecost, each one spoke a different language and all understood and became a single people. When an effort is being made to build Europe without religion and without God, it is an attempt to manage without the Spirit, Who is the One who creates unity from diversity.

It is interesting to look at the present day situation in the light of these two contrasting models. It is sufficient to see what the builders of Babel are talking about and what the Apostles at Pentecost talk about. The first say to themselves: «Come let us build ourselves a city, and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth » (Gen 11, 4). These men are moved by their desire for power, they want to «make a name» for themselves seeking their own glory, anticipating and incarnating Prometheus. At Pentecost the Apostles, on the other hand, proclaim “the wonderful works of God.” They are not thinking about making a name for themselves, but of proclaiming God’s name; they don’t seek their own personal gratification, but that of God. And so everyone understands them. God is at the centre of things again; the desire for power has given way to the desire to serve, the law of selfishness to that of love.

Babel and Pentecost are two contrasting situations perpetuated throughout history. Every human activity civil or religious, private or public is faced with a choice: either become a Babel or a Pentecoste. Either self assertion at the expense of others that leads to the disintegration of society, or the affirmation of others that leads to unity. Either the selfishness and the manipulation of others or the primacy of love and repect for others.

THE SPIRIT, LIFE TOGETHER WITH RESPECT FOR DIVERSITY

But the Spirit is not only active in history. Rather, He acts first of all in individuals and in the community of believers, who are called to provide an alternative model to the dominant culture. After having dealt with some questions arising from the life of the community in Corinth, Paul considers the problem of the charisms. Since the Spirit is the source of personal gifts, the possession of them can create tensions in the community. This was the experience of the Corinthians and Paul helps them in their discernment: the gift that is given does not leave the recipient free but demonstrates the liberaity of the Donor; therefore someone who does not become more a servant of Jesus cannot deceive himself that he is a spiritual person. On the other hand all the gifts that are received bring with them responsibilities in their life together: diversity is at the service of communion. «Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service but the same Lord; and there are varieties of working but it is the same God who inspires them all in every one. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. » (1 Cor 12,4-7).

Relying on the possession of the Spirit, visible in His gifts – whatever they may be – to grow at the expense of others, would be to mistreat the community, undervalue the Spirit and separate oneself from dominion of Christ. Christian salvation is achieved through service to the community of Christians. Diversity should not foster conflict nor competition but unity and understanding. Everything has the same end, the common good, which is the building of the Church, which in her turn is at the service of the world as the “light of the nations”.

We therefore find ourselves before a «multiplicity» of gifts and of services that God gives to His Church: He is always being original, He does not want to give to believers a single image. And so in the world there is a place for everyone: each one brings what is typically his or her own; and it is clear that to achieve this unique quality one has to be totally generous! Living our faith “together” obliges us to be on the one hand generous and on the other constantly new. When it does not contribute to building the “whole” , «multiplicity» becomes destructive of the organism. So it is in the Church, which comes to birth only to the extent that the individual members transcend themselves in order to come together in a fundamental unity of faith, of love and of work: if this were not the case believers would be like scattered atoms incapable of finding their rightful place in the work of salvation and bearing witness to Christ as the “head” of His “body” the Church. And I ask myself whether the loss of the relevance of the Church here and there in society does not flow from this loss of its identity and mission.

Certainly the future of Christianity in Europe does not depend on its past, no matter how glorious, nor on its claims over how much it has contributed to the construction of the present edifice, nor on the close-knit quality of its truths, or on the quality of its ceremonies, or the high level of its moral teachings , but on the force of its witness as a community of love that is living, celebrating and communicating its faith, on its capacity of service especially towards the poor and the marginalised, on its credible experience of God, of its living out of His alternative cultural proposal.

How are men and women to be rescued from the desert of moral confusion, of deceit, of sadness, of selfishness, of loneliness, of the loss of the meaning of life and of despair, and be led to the pastures and to lifegiving waters? How are they to be drawn out of the lifeless waters? Only the joy of being believers, a new consistent way of life and a commitment to others will make us credible, convincing and attractive.

THE SPIRIT, FORGIVENESS AS MISSION

The youthfulness and the perennial newness of the Church and of humanity are the fruits of the New Man, the Risen Lord, as the passage of St John tells us, as it places the coming of the Spirit on the same day as the Resurrection of Jesus. Breathing on them His Spirit, the New Man gave His disciples the mission and the possibility of being new men and of making humanity new through forgiveness and reconciliation.

It was precisely the Holy Spirit Who prevented the Church from staying in the synagogue, that is the closed place for the elect, for people who do not see themselves as sinners and who do not want to be forgiven. That Church, bursting out from the Upper Room, is always tempted to return to cut itself off again, not allow itself to be forgiven and not have forgiveness as its special task. Especially when - such as now – outside the winds of contradiction blow. And then, the signs of fear re-appear: the little flock instead of setting foot outside cuts itself off and isolates itself, without even realising that all those knocking at the door are not doing so in order to break it down but to come in. Only the Spirit can gve fresh courage at each stage of history and of society to be the guide towards new goals for the Kingdom of God and for mankind.

But the Spirit given by the Risen Jesus also has another meaning for us: it is the principle of our identity, that which distinguishes us from the world. Woe if we were to forget, giving in to the seductions of the world, to its logic! He ensures the fidelity of the Church to Christ. He ses to it that our cause with the world remains indeed the «cause of Jesus » (« the truth »!) and does not become a different one.

A Christian life that has gone soft, become bourgeois, devoid of energy, runs the risk of becoming irrelevant, innocuous. It no longer has anything to say to anyone. People of today are distracted, disenchanted, indifferent, used to everything. Precisely on account of these characteristics, they need to be given a shake up by the witness which is particularly challenging to its habits.

We need to rediscover the « pentecostal, spiritual» dimension of Christian life; we need to rediscover the Spirit. The present crisis of the Church does not worry me. What I am afraid of is a Christian life that is insignificant; and the Christian does not mean anything, has nothing to say, does not worry anyone when he or she is not spiritual. I am reminded, in the context of the Eucharist of the great discourse of Jesus in which He reveals Himself as “the bread of eternal life,” immediately after the multiplication of the loaves, and the reaction of His disciples: «This is a hard saying who can listen to it?». This is the “logos scleros”, which becomes countercultural, so as to provoke an editorial comment from the evangelist: “After this many of His disciples drew back and no longer went about with Him.” (Jn 6,60.66).

Chistianity, our faith, cannot believe in easy answers, in compromises, in kindly concessions, in equivocal nods and winks, in keeping the balance in order to fill the gaps. It cannot believe in a huge «discount» generously made to the original price to attract customers and stop them going to the competition. In short, it cannot give up its ideals and lower it expectations (which after all are those established by Christ), in order to reach a friendly compromise and make a generous arrangement, even though it might help it recover popularity and fill up the ranks. Precisely because the relevance of the faith nowadays depends on its own identity and not on the level of its social acceptance we believe in the necessity of a commitment that is more difficult in this area. It is necessary to raise the stakes, to dare to be clear, to say openly who we are, what we want, what we are asking for without shirking the consequences and what might be required.

I finish by making a heartfelt appeal to the whole University community of the UPS to be “spiritual”, to welcome the Spirit therefore, Who combines knowledge and wisdom, making humility the path towards the truth and towards service.

To Mary filled by the Spirit, I entrust each and everyone of you. May she teach us to allow ourselves to be guided and made fruitful by the Spirit.

Fr Pascual Chávez V.

Rome, UPS, 19 October 2005