Pentecost:

1

• Pentecost
• God's Gift of Divine Adoption
• General audience of July 26, 1989

2

• The descent of the Holy Spirit is closely
  connected with the paschal mystery, which is
  effected in the redemptive sacrifice of the cross
  and in Christ's resurrection which generates new
  life.

3

• On the day of Pentecost the apostles
• by the work of the Holy Spirit
• fully partake in this life,
• and thus there matures within them the power of
  the witness which they will bear to the risen
  Lord.

4

• At Pentecost the Holy Spirit is manifested as the
  giver of life.
• This is what we profess in the creed when we
  proclaim him
• "the Lord, the giver of life."

5

• This completes the economy of God's
  self-communication which began when he gave
  himself to man, created in his image and
  likeness.
• This divine gift of self
• which originally constituted the mystery of the
  creation of man and of his elevation to
  supernatural dignity
• after sin is projected in history as a promise of
  salvation.
• It is fulfilled in the mystery of the redemption
  effected by Christ, the God-Man, through his
  sacrifice.

6

• Linked to Christ's
• paschal mystery,
• "God's self-giving"
• is fulfilled in Pentecost.
• The theophany of Jerusalem signifies the new
  beginning of God's self-giving in the Holy
  Spirit.

7

• The apostles and all those present on that day
  with Mary, the mother of Christ, in the upper
  room, were the first to experience this new
  outpouring of divine life which
• in them and through them, and therefore in the
  Church and through the Church
• has been made available to everyone.

8

• It is universal,
• just as redemption is universal.

9

• The beginning of the new life is acquired through
  the gift of divine adoption.
• This is obtained for all by Christ
• through the redemption
• and extended to all by the Holy Spirit.
• By grace,
• the Spirit remakes
• and as it were recreates man
• in the likeness of the
• only-begotten
• Son of the Father.

10

• In this way the incarnate Word
• renews and reinforces
• God's "gift of self,"
• by offering man through the redemption that
• "participation in the divine nature"
• (cf. 2 Pet 14).
• St. Paul speaks of Jesus Christ as
• "designated Son of God in power according to the
  Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the
  dead"
• (Rom 14).

11

• The fruit of the resurrection,
• which realizes the fullness of the power of
  Christ,
• Son of God,
• is therefore shared with those who are open to
  the action of the Spirit as a new gift of divine
  adoption.
• After having spoken of the Word made flesh,
• St. John says in the prologue of his Gospel that
• "to all who received him,
• who believed in his name,
• he gave power to become children of God"
• (112).

12

• The two apostles John and Paul understood the
  concept of divine adoption as a gift to man of
  this new life,
• effected by Christ through the Holy Spirit.
• The adoption is a gift coming from the Father,
• "See what love the Father has given us,
• that we should be called children of God
• and so we are"
• (1 Jn 31).

13

• Paul expounds the same truth in the light of
  God's eternal design
• "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined
  to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order
  that he might be the first-born among many
  brethren"
• (Rom 829).
• Paul also speaks of a sonship due to divine
  adoption, since God has predestined us
• "to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ"
• (Eph 15).

14

• Moreover, Paul speaks of the eternal design
  conceived by God in the depth of his trinitarian
  life.
• It was accomplished in the
• "fullness of time"
• with the coming of the Son in the Incarnation to
  make us his adopted sons
• "God sent forth his Son,
• born of a woman...
• so that we might receive adoption as sons"
• (Gal 44-5).

15

• According to the Apostle,
• the mission of the Holy Spirit is closely
  connected with the Son's
• "mission" (missio)
• in the trinitarian economy.
• He adds
• "And because we are sons,
• God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our
  hearts, crying,
• 'Abba! Father!'"
• (Gal 46).

16

• Here we touch the goal of the mystery expressed
  in Pentecost
• the Holy Spirit descends
• "into our hearts"
• as the Spirit of the Son.
• Precisely because he is the Spirit of the Son,
• he enables us to cry out to God together with
  Christ
• "Abba, Father."

17

• This cry expresses the fact that not only are we
  called to be sons of God,
• "but we are so indeed,"
• (1 Jn. 31).
• Because of this gift,
• we truly share in the sonship proper to the Son
  of God, Jesus Christ.

This is the supernatural truth of our
relationship with Christ, a truth that can be
known only by those who "have known the Father"
(cf. 1 Jn 213).
18

• This knowledge is possible only by virtue of the
  Holy Spirit,
• through the witness which he gives from within to
  the human spirit.

19

• There, he is present as the principle of truth
  and life.
• "The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit
  that we are children of God, and if children,
  then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with
  Christ"
• (Rom 816-17).
• "You did not receive the spirit of slavery to
  fall back into fear, but you have received the
  spirit of sonship whereby we cry,
• 'Abba! Father!'"
• (Rom 815).

20

• The Spirit reproduces in man the image of the
  Son, thus establishing the intimate fraternal
  bond with Christ which leads us to
• "cry out with him, 'Abba! Father!'"
• Hence the Apostle writes that
• "all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of
  God"
• (Rom 814).

21

• The Holy Spirit
• "breathes"
• in the hearts of believers
• as the Spirit of the Son,
• establishing in man the divine sonship
• in the likeness of Christ
• and in union with Christ.

22

• The Holy Spirit forms the human spirit from
  within according to the divine exemplar which is
  Christ.
• Thus, through the Spirit,
• the Christ known in the pages of the Gospel
  becomes the
• "life of the soul."

23

• In thinking, loving, judging, acting and even in
  feeling,
• man is conformed to Christ,
• and becomes
• "Christlike."

24

• This work of the Holy Spirit has its new
  beginning at Pentecost in Jerusalem,
• at the apex of the paschal mystery.
• From then onward Christ is with us and works in
  us through the Holy Spirit,
• putting into effect the eternal design of the
  Father, who has predestined us
• "to be his adopted sons through Jesus Christ"
• (Eph 15).

25

• Let us never tire of repeating and meditating on
  this marvelous truth of our faith.