The Acts of the Apostles; the journey of the Gospel in the World

Pauline Books & Media
May 19
5 min read

God “sends forth his command to the earth”, says the Psalm (147:15). The Word of God runs swiftly; it is dynamic; it irrigates all terrain onto which it falls. And what is its strength? Saint Luke tells us that human words become effective not thanks to rhetoric, which is the art of fine speech, but thanks to the Holy Spirit, who is God’s dýnamis, God’s dynamic, his force, who has the power to purify the word, to render it a bearer of life.

Saint Luke says that Jesus “presented himself alive after his passion by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days, and speaking of the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3). The Risen One, the Risen Jesus makes the most human gestures, such as sharing a meal with his own and he invites them to live in confident expectation of the fulfilment of the promise of the Father: “you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit” (1:5).

POPE FRANCIS, 29 May 2019

Peter's Sermon at Pentecost

"Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Now when they heard this they were cut to the to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself." And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, "Save yourselves from this crooked generation." So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

ACTS 2: 36-41

Baptism in the Holy Spirit, in fact, is the experience that allows us to enter into personal communion with God and to participate in his universal salvific will, acquiring the endowment of parrhesia, courage, which is the capacity to pronounce a word “as children of God”, not just as men, but as children of God: a clear, free, effective word, full of love for Christ and for brothers and sisters.

Thus, there is no need to struggle to earn or deserve God’s gift. Everything is given freely and in good time. The Lord gives everything freely. Salvation is not bought; one does not pay: it is a freely given gift. Before the fret to know in advance the time in which the events he announced will take place, Jesus responds to his own: “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (1:7-8).

The Apostles experience that expectation together; they live it as the Lord’s family, in the Upper Room, or Cenacle, the walls of which still bear witness to the gift by which Jesus consigned himself to his own in the Eucharist. And how do they await the power, the dýnamis of God? By praying with perseverance, as if they were not many but one. By praying in unity and with perseverance. Indeed, it is with prayer that isolation, temptation, suspicion are defeated and the heart opens to communion. The presence of the women and of Mary, Jesus’ mother, intensifies this experience: they were the first to learn from the Teacher how to witness to the faithfulness of love and the power of the communion that conquers all fear.

Pope Francis, 29 May 2019

Many Signs and Wonders Done

Now many signs and wonders were regularly done among the people by the hands of the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon's Portico. None of the rest dared join them, but the people held them in high esteem. And more than ever believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, that as Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on some of them. The people also gathered from the towns round Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed.

ACTS 5: 12-16

Everything starts with the Resurrection of Christ. Indeed, this is not one event among others, but is the source of new life. The disciples know it and — obedient to Jesus’ command — remain united, in harmony, and steadfast in prayer. They are close to Mary, the Mother, and prepare to receive God’s power, not passively but by strengthening the communion among themselves.

That first community was formed of 120 brothers and sisters, more or less: a number that contains within it the number 12, emblematic of Israel — because it represents the 12 tribes — and emblematic of the Church, with reference to the 12 Apostles chosen by Jesus. But now, after the agonizing events of the Passion, the Lord’s Apostles are no longer 12, but 11. One of them, Judas, is no longer there. He has taken his own life, crushed by remorse.

The Church is thus born from the fire of love and from a “fire” that blazes on Pentecost and manifests the power of the Word of the Risen One imbued with the Holy Spirit. The new and definitive Covenant is no longer founded on a law that is written on two stone tablets, but on the action of the Spirit of God which makes all things new and is etched on hearts of flesh.

Henceforth, from that moment, the Spirit of God moves hearts to receive the salvation that passes through one Person, Jesus Christ, the One whom men nailed to the wood of the Cross and whom God raised from the dead, “having loosed the pangs of death” (Acts 2:24). He is the One who emanated that Spirit who composes the polyphony of praises and whom everyone can hear. As Benedict XVI stated: “Pentecost is this: Jesus, and through him God himself, actually comes to us and draws us to himself” (Homily, 3 June 2006). The Spirit works through divine attraction: God captivates us with his Love and thus engages us, in order to move history and set in motion the processes through which new life seeps in. Indeed, only the Spirit of God has the power to humanize and create fraternity in every context, beginning with those who welcome him.