Today’s readings: Acts 2, 1-11; 1 Corinthians 12, 3-7.12-13; John 20, 19-23.

In these last two decades there have been moments of global crisis like the financial crash, the trade wars and now the pandemic that have pushed globalisation to the edge. In response, inward-looking interests have prevailed on the global well-being of humanity, and in the long run this can weaken the will to recover, rendering world economies more vulnerable and failing to make the world a better place.

This is the scenario in which we can grasp the broader significance of Pentecost. Now is the time for the Church, as Vatican Council II augured over 50 years ago, to be side by side with all humanity because “the joy and hope, the grief and anguish of people in our time, especially of those who are poor and afflicted in any way”, are shared also by the followers of Christ.

The world is not as bad as we often perceive it and the Church is not the catalyst of change it is meant to be. As long as we are made of human stuff, believers and non-believers alike, we all need the Spirit of the Lord which liberates us from our paralysing fear and from the inertia that debilitates human nature.

The agenda on the world’s table is quite grim at present and it can easily render us cynical as regards our responsibilities as well as where institutions, both political and religious, are concerned. This can create a void of meaning that surely will not pull our spirits up.

The antidote to our relying too much on power and wealth is the realisation that we all have a spiritual destiny. The antidote to cynicism and indifference that ensues from it is what the ancient philosophers and later the Fathers of the Church technically call Parrhesia. This literally means fearless speech but it can be translated as the boldness that on Pentecost day set the apostles in motion.

When Jesus, the Word made flesh, died on the cross, a deafening silence reigned. The newly-born communities were lost and confused, overwhelmed by the circumstances and by the alluring and competing philosophies. This explains why today’s version of Pentecost given in Acts mostly highlights “the gift of speech”.

The Spirit on Pentecost day broke the long silence of the early Church not simply because the apostles spoke out with boldness but mainly because they made themselves understood by an audience as pluralist as it could be in terms of race, language, religion and mentality. The gift of the Spirit to the apostles went much further beyond the confines of the Church.

By now, we are all quite bored by the unprecedented events and narrative that have shaped our lives these last months. The sign of empty churches and the ban on liturgical assemblies was very telling and like any other sign needs to be interpreted. It was a shocking interruption from our temple cult.

After this silence, the gift of speech now calls for much more than simply resuming where we left off. During this interruption, a sort of relocation of the Church out of the temple occurred, and that in itself should give us a different standpoint from where we can get a better view of what essentially shapes our relationship with God.

The Spirit of Pentecost can reawaken in us a new outlook on the world and on our being Church. Different nations and cultures in Acts felt at home with the message of Christ. This renewed globalisation today can be recovered as the remedy for the globalisation of indifference. The Spirit can regenerate new boldness in us to prevail over all the spirits that make the world a more dangerous and risky place.

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