The Birth of the Church General audience of August 30, 1989.

The Birth of the Church

General audience of August 30, 1989

The Church, which originated

in Christ's redemptive death, was

manifested to the world on

Pentecost Day by the work of the

Holy Spirit.

We have seen how, in reference to the old

covenant between the Lord God and Israel

as his "chosen" people,

the people of the new covenant made

"in Christ's blood" (cf. 1 Cor 11:25)

are called in the Holy Spirit to holiness.

It is the people consecrated through "the anointing of the

Holy Spirit" in the sacrament of

Baptism. It is the

"royal priesthood" called to offer

"spiritual gifts" (cf. 1 Pet 2:9).

By forming the By forming the people of the new people of the new

covenant in this way, covenant in this way, the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit

manifests the Church manifests the Church which flowed from which flowed from

the Redeemer's heart the Redeemer's heart wounded on the wounded on the

cross.cross.

Jesus Christ, by "transmitting to the

apostles the kingdom received from the Father"

(cf. Lk 22:2; Mk 4:11),

laid the foundations for building his Church.

He did not limit himself to attracting listeners and

disciples by means of the words of the Gospel and the

signs worked by him. He clearly stated that he

wished "to build the Church" on the apostles, and in

particular on Peter (cf. Mt 16:18).

When the hour of his passion, the evening of

the previous day, arrived, he prayed for their

"consecration in the truth"

(cf. Jn 17:17);

he prayed for their unity: "That they may all be

one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you...so that the world

may believe that you have sent me"

(cf. Jn 17:21-23).

Finally, he gave his life

"as a ransom for many" (Mk 10:45),

"to gather into one the children of God who are scattered

abroad" (Jn 11:52).

The conciliar Constitution Lumen Gentium emphasizes the

connection between the Paschal mystery and

Pentecost: "When Jesus,

who had suffered the death of the cross for

mankind, had risen,

he appeared as the one constituted as Lord,

Christ and eternal Priest, and he poured out on his

disciples the Spirit promised by the Father"

(n. 5).

This happened in accordance with what

Jesus announced during the supper before his passion, and repeated

before his final departure from this earth to return to the Father:

"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon

you; and you shall be my

witnesses in Jerusalem...

and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

This fact is culminating and decisive for the

Church's existence.

Christ announced and instituted her,

and then finally "generated" her

on the cross through his

redemptive death.

However, the Church's existence became evident on the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit

descended and the apostles began to "bear

witness" to Christ's paschal mystery.

We can speak of this event as a birth of the

Church, as we speak of a person's birth at the

moment when he comes forth from his mother's

womb and "is manifested" to the

world.

"The era of the Church began with the 'coming,' that is to say, with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem, together with Mary, the Lord's mother. The time of the Church began at the moment when the promises and predictions that so explicitly referred to the Counselor, the

Spirit of truth, began to be fulfilled in complete power and clarity upon the apostles, thus determining the birth of the Church....

The Holy Spirit assumed the invisible—but in a certain way 'perceptible'—

guidance of those who after the departure of the Lord Jesus felt deeply that they had been left orphans. With the coming of the

Spirit they felt capable of fulfilling the mission entrusted to them. They felt full of strength. It is precisely this that the Spirit worked in them, and this is certainly at work in the Church, through their

successors" (Dominum et Vivificantem n. 25).

The Church's birth is like a "new creation"

(cf. Eph 2:15).

We can make an analogy with the first

creation, when "the Lord formed

man of dust from the ground, and breathed

into his nostrils the breath of life"

(Gen 2:7).

To this breath of life man owes the spirit which makes him a

human person.

We must refer back to this creative breath

when we read that the risen Christ,

appearing to the apostles assembled in the upper

room, "breathed on them, and said to them:

'Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins

of any, they are forgiven;

if you retain the sins of any,

they are retained'" (Jn 20:22-23).

This event, which took place the very evening of the Pasch, can be

considered as a Pentecost in anticipation, not yet public.

Then followed the day of Pentecost, the public manifestation of the gift

of the Spirit. Jesus Christ,

"exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the

Father the gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out this Spirit"

(Acts 2:33).

Therefore through the work of the Holy Spirit there has been

"the new creation" (cf. Ps 104:30).

We can find other passages in the Book of Ezekiel where we

read: "Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live"

(Ez 37:9). "Behold, I will open your graves, and

raise you from your grave, O my people; and I will bring you home

into the land of Israel" (Ez 37:12).

"And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live...you shall know

that I, the Lord, have spoken" (Ez 37:14).

"...and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their

feet" (Ez 37:10).

This magnificent and penetrating prophetic vision

concerns the messianic

restoration of Israel after the

exile, announced by God after the long period of

suffering (cf. Ez 37:11-14).

The same announcement of

revival and new life was given by Hosea

(cf. 6:2; 13; 14)

and by Isaiah (26:19).

Yet the symbolism used by the prophet

gave Israel the desire for an individual

resurrection, perhaps already foreseen by Job

(cf. 19:25).

As other passages show, this idea would develop gradually

in the Old Testament (cf. Dan 12:2; 2 Macc 7:9-14; 23-36;

12:43-46) and in the New

(Mt 22:29-32; 1 Cor 15).

However, that idea prepared for the concept of the new life

which would be revealed in Christ's resurrection and

would come down on those who would believe,

through the work of the Holy Spirit.

We believers in Christ can also read a certain paschal

analogy in the text of Ezekiel.

Here is a final aspect of the mystery of the

Church's birth at Pentecost through the Spirit's action.

In it Christ's priestly prayer in the upper room

is realized: "that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that

they also may be in us, so that the world may believe

that you have sent me" (Jn 17:21).

Descending upon the apostles assembled with Mary, Christ's

mother, the Holy Spirit transforms and

unites them, "filling them"

with the fullness of the divine life. They become "one,"

an apostolic community, ready to bear witness to the crucified and risen Christ.

This is the new creation which flowed from the cross and was given life by the Holy Spirit,

who gave it its historical beginning at Pentecost.