Letter for the year
Pentecost, stained-glass window by Brother Eric of Taizé
In many parts of the world, when the feast of Pentecost arrives nature is adorned with beauty. Springtime is in flower; summer is already on its way; wheat is rising and the wind likes to play in the ears of corn, as if it were that that made them grow. In Israel, Pentecost was a feast of thanksgiving for the ripe grain. In several parables, Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of God coming through ripening. Pentecost marks harvest time.
But Pentecost is also a time when something brand-new and unexpected arrives. What happened at Sinai was a foreshadowing, which now reaches fulfillment. God makes his will known, yet his Law is no longer written on tablets of stone but in our hearts. It is no longer a single person, Moses, who stands before God; the fire of the Spirit descends on each one. Through the Holy Spirit, God himself comes to dwell within us. He is present without a mediator. The Holy Spirit is given to us in order that we may enter into a personal relationship with God.
If the Holy Spirit is often discreet, unassuming, that is because he does not want to take our place, but rather to strengthen our being. In the depths of our heart, tirelessly he repeats God’s yes to our lives. So there is a prayer accessible to everyone: "May your spirit of kindness lead me!" (Psalm 143:10). Borne by that breath, we can move forward.
At the end of his life, Brother Roger addressed his prayers more and more often to the Holy Spirit. He wanted to lead us to trust in that invisible presence. He knew that the inner struggle to abandon ourselves to the breath of the Spirit and to believe in God’s love is crucial in human life.
For many years now, several of my brothers have been living in Korea. One day while I was visiting them, we went to a Buddhist monastery. We were shown very warm hospitality. I felt great admiration for those Buddhist monks who courageously seek to live in harmony with their vision. They make a huge effort to shift their center away from themselves and to open themselves up to a larger reality, to an absolute. They have developed deep wisdom, a search for mercy that we share with them.
But how do they remain faithful, I asked myself, without believing in a personal God? Their commitment involves extreme solitude. We, as Christians, believe that the Holy Spirit lives in us; in him we form the body of Christ; we turn to God and say "You" to him. This is an enormous step, unthinkable for a large part of humankind. Are we as aware of this as we should be?
I returned from this encounter full of renewed wonder for the revelation brought by Christ and I said to myself: is it not urgent, for us Christians, to show by our lives that the Holy Spirit is at work?
We can begin by deepening the mystery of communion which unites us. When we all turn to Christ in prayer together, the Holy Spirit gathers us into that unique communion that is the Church and enables us to be born to new life.
The first gift of the Holy Spirit is forgiveness. The risen Christ said to his followers: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven." (John 20:22-23) The Church is first and foremost a fellowship of forgiveness. When we understand that God gives us his forgiveness, we become able to give it to others as well. Of course, our communities, our parishes are still poor and far from what we dream of. But the Holy Spirit is constantly present in the Church and leads us forward along the path of forgiveness.
If Christ sends us to proclaim the Good News to the whole world, he also asks us to discern the signs of his presence in the places where he goes before us. The first Christians were astonished to discover the Spirit’s presence where they did not expect to find it (see Acts 10). Jesus himself was struck by the faith of a Roman soldier (Luke 7:1-10). Are we able to let ourselves be surprised by recognizing the spiritual longings of our contemporaries?
Let us also let the fruits of the Spirit grow in our lives: “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trust in others, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). The Spirit sets us on the road towards others, first of all towards those who are poorer than we are. In lived-out solidarity with the destitute, the light of the Holy Spirit can inundate our lives.
Yes, the Holy Spirit is at work today, ceaselessly reiterating in our hearts the love of God. Happy are those who do not abandon themselves to fear, but to the breath of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is also the living water, and the Spirit of peace, which can quench our hearts’ thirst and communicate itself, through us, into the world.