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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – At the First General Congregation of the II Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops, on October 5, the Holy Father Benedict XVI gave a meditation on the Third Hour, “Nunc sancte nobis Spiritus.” He said: “We pray that the Pentecost is not only a past event, the beginnings of the Church, but that it is today, rather, now...the apostles after the Ascension did not begin -- as would have been usual -- to organize, to create the Church of the future. They waited for God’s action, they waited for the Holy Spirit. They understood that the Church cannot be made, that it is not the product of our organization: the Church must be born of the Holy Spirit...In this sense, even all of our work at the Synod is a collaboration with the Holy Spirit, with the force of God that precedes us.”
In the second strophe of the hymn, three gifts of the Holy Spirit are implored: “confessio, caritas, proximos.” Commenting on the first, “confessio,” Benedict XVI showed its two essential meanings. Above all, it is the confession of sins: “recognizing our fault and recognizing that before God we are lacking, we are at fault, we are not in the right relationship with Him... Only in the light of God can we know each other and truly see all of reality.” He then highlighted that “we must keep in mind all this in our analysis of reconciliation, justice, peace” in that “horizontal analyses, made so exactly and competently, are insufficient. They do not indicate the real problems because they are not placed in the light of God.”
Continuing with the explanation of the term “confessio,” the Holy Father affirmed that “only in seeing our faults in the light of God, the insufficiencies in our relationship with Him, can we walk in the light of truth. And only truth will save. We finally work in truth: to really confess in this depth of God’s light is to make truth.” A second meaning of the word “confessio” is that of “thanking God, glorifying God, witnessing God...Therefore confessio is the witness of God's goodness, it is evangelization. We could say that the second dimension of the word confessio is identical to evangelization....In the light of God, to confess necessarily becomes proclaiming God, to evangelize and thus renew the world.” Yet another element, linked to this term, comes from Saint Paul's interpretation of the word Torah, substituting it with the word “confession and faith.” Reflecting on Saint Paul's thought, Benedict XVI commented: “God is truly close...God is close with faith, He is in your heart, and with confession He is on your lips. He is in you and with you...Things of science, of technology use up great investments: spiritual and material ventures are costly and difficult. But God gives Himself freely. The greatest things of life -- God, love, truth -- are free. God gives Himself in our hearts... God gives Himself freely in His love, He is in me in my heart and on my lips. This is the courage, the joy of our life. It is also the courage present in this Synod, because God is not far: He is with us with the word of faith. I think that even this duality is important: the word in the heart and on the lips.”
Lastly, the Pope gave a brief reflection on the other two gifts. “Charity: it is important that Christianity is not the sum of ideas, a philosophy, a theology, but a way of life, Christianity is charity, it is love. Only thus can we become Christians: if faith turns into charity, if it is charity.” Finally, the neighbor. Quoting the Gospel passage of the Good Samaritan, the Pope said: “This Good Samaritan meets a Jew, who therefore is beyond the boundaries of his tribe and his religion. But charity is universal and therefore this stranger is his neighbor in all senses. Universality opens the limitations that close the world and create differences and conflicts. At the same time, the fact that something must be done for universality is not a philosophy but a concrete act. We must tend towards this unification between universality and concreteness, we must truly open these boundaries between tribes, ethnic groups, religions to the universality of the love of God.” (SL) (Agenzia Fides 6/10/2009)
