I thought we might use the moment before Compline to gather together and to listen to the words of St. Peter, who tomorrow on the day of Pentecost explains the mystery of the Holy Spirit, the descent upon the Apostles. He explains it in this way, that this coming of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles marks the beginning of a new era. The era which the prophets had foreseen that it would come upon this world in the latter days. The era of the Spirit of God. What should add the era in which the fullness of the Spirit of God descends upon this earth.

[01:09]

You know very well that the Spirit of God was working already in the Old Testament. The Spirit, the Ruach, as the Hebrews say, is the power, As it is manifest, especially in sudden extraordinary manifestations, which cannot be explained by the mere powers of nature, and which therefore betray a special action on the part of God. God works through his spirit, and these sudden effects that we see, for example, in the form of an ecstasy, we see how suddenly the spirit takes possession of the king's soul, or how he is imparted to the prophets, and then works in them a status

[02:23]

all which we call enthusiasm of a supernatural state of hearts lifted up in such a way that this intensity, this new supernatural intensity also communicates itself to the body. But in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God comes and leaves. It is not there to abide. The Spirit of God, for example, in the time of the judges, may certainly take possession of this or that individual, very often an individual which naturally nobody had known or heard or thought of. And the Spirit of God singles out this individual and gives him as a leader to Ishmael. But all that is just for time.

[03:29]

It's not really the power of the Holy Spirit descending upon anybody in order to rest. First upon whom the Spirit of God rests He is really the Messiah, as we know from Isaiah 11. And he is the one who ushers in the new age. The Spirit in the Old Testament also, as you see already, is limited to this or that individual. In the new messianic era, which the prophets foresee and announce, The Holy Spirit becomes a universal good, which is communicated to the whole people, even in the end to all mankind.

[04:31]

Not limited to any nation, but really a universal outpouring of the Spirit over the whole earth. Therefore, tomorrow we begin the Feast of the Holy Spirit by singing the enjoyed Spiritus Sanctus, but lay thee over thereon, fill the entire world. That is the characteristic of the messianic era, as a new era and unique era in the history of mankind. And we as Christians, as baptized Christians, we are members, we live in that era. For us to be up to date means to live up to the standards of the Messianic era. Now, St. Peter, in his sermon on Pentecost, explains in some way the nature of this gift that he sends, and therefore also of the new era which it ushers in.

[05:44]

He says, But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice and spoke out to them, Men of Judea and all you who dwell in Jerusalem, Let this be known to you and to hear to my words. You feel right away the solemnity of this announcement. These men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only a third hour of the day. But this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel, and it shall come to pass in the last days. one should say better in translating it closer to the Greek and also better in English, but now has been fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet Job. And it shall come to pass in the last days, says the Lord, that I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh,

[06:55]

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. And moreover, upon my servants and upon my handmaids in those days will I pour forth of my Spirit, and they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth beneath, blood and fire and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the day of the Lord comes, the great and manifested. And it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Thus far the words of the prophecy of Job. Then St.

[07:59]

Peter continues and explains. He says, men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth was a man approved by God among you by miracles and wonders and signs. You see now, St. Peter goes on to explain the prophecy of Joel. The first thing he does is, the wonders in the heavens above and the signs on the earth beneath, of which Joel speaks, he explains as fulfilled in the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth, which God did through him in the midst of you as you yourselves remember. Him who had delivered up by the settled purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have crucified and slain by the hands of wicked men.

[09:03]

But God has raised him up, having loosed the sorrows of hell, because it was not possible that he should be held fast by it. So this, the signs and wonders of Jesus that he did during his earthly life, they are the wonders that Joel foresaw as one of the characteristics of the latter days, the beginning of the messianic age. The wonder of wonders are ever the miracle of which all the miracles of Christ in last analysis are only a sign and shadow is the miracle of the resurrection. By the foreknowledge and permission of God, Jesus was crucified by the Jews, but this crucifixion then leads to his resurrection because it is impossible for him to be held captive in the power of hell.

[10:10]

And therefore in him, as Peter continues, is fulfilled the words which David says, and as Peter says, with reference to him. And there we have a beautiful, authentic piece of a Christocentric explanation and understanding of the Psalms. I saw the Lord before me always, because he is at my right hand, lest I be moved. This is why my heart was made merry, and my tongue has rejoiced. Moreover, my flesh also will rest in hope, because you will not abandon my soul to hell, neither will you let the Holy One undergo decay. You have made known to me the ways of life. You will fill me with joy in thy presence.

[11:12]

And these words of David, as St. Peter continues, he must have said, not of himself, because as he tells the Jews now, in a kind of... Pacifying way, brethren, let me say to you freely of the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this very day. Therefore, he cannot have spoken of himself in this song. And therefore, whom did he speak in the first person secular? He spoke of his son. And in the person of his son, father and the following generations, that's an important thing for the understanding of the Old as well as the New Testament, are, as it were, one person.

[12:18]

The house is one with the father. so also here. So it is the offspring of David, the one of whom God had sworn to him with an oath that of the fruit of his loins one should sit upon his throne. This is the one, the son of David, Christ. And David foresaw his resurrection. when he talked the way he did in the Psalms. Christ was not abandoned to hell, nor did his flesh undergo decay. Because this Jesus, Saint Peter says, God has raised up, and we all are witnesses of it. Therefore, exalted by the right hand of God, and receiving from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured forth this spirit which you see and hear.

[13:32]

You see, our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified by the Jews, raised up in the power and glory of God, in the ascension, sits at the right hand of the Father. The sitting at the right hand of the Father means a permanent status. That's always sitting. A permanent status at the right hand of the Father means in full communication and possession of divine power. At the right hand of the Father. In full possession of divine power. And therefore it is now this risen Savior, this Lord, who sits, has been enthroned at the right hand of the Father, who now sends forth the Spirit. What really is the Spirit? The Spirit is the power with which God rules, with which God puts his orders into reality.

[14:40]

The Spirit is the creative Spirit, the Spirit through which God creates. Now, this Spirit, through the session of Christ at the right hand of the Father, has become Christ's. So Christ is, through his ascension, he is Lord of the Spirit. That is what the name Christ the Lord, in its application to the wisdom Savior, really means. He is the Lord of the Spirit, and he sends and draws forth the Spirit which you see and hear. Nobody is Lord if he does not exercise power. The characteristic of a Lord is, as the New Testament also says, to have power. And therefore, St. Matthew also says that Christ, who has power, now sends forth the apostles to preach to the whole world the glad tidings, to establish the kingdom of his new Lord.

[15:54]

And the kingdom of this new Lord is the Holy Spirit, that is his rule, that is his power. And kingdom, in the original sense, means rule, the power with which we, through which we move. So therefore he sends, he's Lord of the Spirit, and he sends down and forth, forth the Spirit, which you now see and hear. For David did not ascend into heaven, but he says himself, the Lord said to my Lord, sit you at my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool. Therefore David in the spirit calls this song, the Messiah's son of David, my Lord, seeing him as it were enthroned at the right hand of the Father. and making the enemies his footstool in the power of the Holy Spirit.

[17:02]

And therefore, St. Peter then concludes this sermon and says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know most assuredly that God has made both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucify. In this wonderful sermon, I can say the whole theology of the Holy Spirit is explained to us. The source of the Spirit is the Lord and Christ. Christ, our Lord Jesus, is called Christ insofar as he has been crucified for us, insofar as he suffered for us. He is called Lord insofar as he is risen and as he is actually ruling over us and actually with us in active presence, in life-giving presence through his spirit and in his spirit.

[18:12]

So there is the connection. Christ who suffered for us who gave himself completely, who emptied himself, who emptied himself, he, this Christ who was crucified, whose every drop of blood was drained out of him for our sake, for our salvation, he now sends us the fullness of the Spirit Because he has passed as it were through this emptiness into the new fullness of the ascension where he is enthroned at the right hand of the Father in the fullness of divine power. And of this fullness he now gives to his church. That is the Holy Spirit. So through this Holy Spirit, Christ becomes the King and the Lord of this new messianic era.

[19:20]

Now if we look at the Holy Spirit himself, that our Lord sends to us, he is described in his characteristic effects in the prophecy of Joel. I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh. The first thing is this, that our Lord Jesus Christ, through his resurrection and his ascension, has become the curious, the Lord. And this name, curious and Lord, applied to our Lord Jesus Christ, is, as St. Paul says, a name above all names, because his place is at the right hand of the Father. So he is, therefore, the one who is enthroned over high above this earth, above the heavens, above this entire universe. He is the head of a new creation.

[20:25]

Therefore the spirit whom he as the Lord, as the head of a new creation, as sitting at the right hand of the Father, poured out upon us is universal, fills the entire. It's a Catholic spirit. That is why we call the Church a Catholic Church. I would say this is even the reason just to say that as a side remark, why we call the Church, Church. Have we ever thought about this beautiful, wonderful word? You know, we have two words in the New Testament. For church, that means for that messianic community which has been created by the fullness of the spirit of Christ. Two words, one is ecclesia and the other one is kyriake.

[21:32]

Ecclesia means the congregation. Kyriake means the Lord's house, the Lord's own property. From this Kyriaké comes our church. And our church has taken on the whole fullness of the significance of these two words, one can say, of the word congregation and of the word the Lord's own property or the Lord's house. I think that's the beauty of our English church. The German Kirche comes in there too. Scottish cook. So we have there, there we have those two, because in the world, the Latin nations are less fortunate. Because the Latin ecclesia, you know, comes again in eglise, and then it comes in iglesia, and it comes in chiesa,

[22:41]

But that has only the meaning of the congregation. Our word church has these two meanings. Today, everybody who speaks about church means a congregation, means a group, church. But at the same time, the word also means that this congregation is the Lord's own possession. Therefore, this congregation is the Lord's house. So in the word church, these two elements are combined in the unity of one word, the congregation and the Lord, both together, the head and the members, one body, and together in the word church. So when we speak about it, this word, we should always think that That word means this new community, which is in an absolutely unique and special way, which only happens in the messianic age, in which the Spirit of God rests on the Lord.

[24:01]

That means he is in his full possession. And therefore he can give this power of the Holy Spirit to whom he wants. And he gives it to his church for the church he died. Therefore the Spirit is given as a permanent possession upon the church whom he built on the rock. So all that, you know, are terms of permanency, of abiding strength that is with the church and comes from the perfection of the head, the enthroned, reigning Christ. The church is the fullness of Christ. So that is the first thing at this Spirit of the Messianic Age establishes the Church.

[25:06]

We add the Catholic Church. And characteristic of this Catholic Church is a universality over all flesh. Therefore, that Church is lifted up in distinction to the synagogue over all differences of nations and of races over all flesh. catholic church but this catholic church also is unique and one because it is as one church united to the one curious in the power unique power of the one spirit we see therefore that the word church belongs to the in this part of the vocabulary of the messianic age Let us use these words and understand them again in their original meaning, and then we see much better the tremendous difference that exists between

[26:15]

our Catholic idea of the Church, which really goes back and is right there in the Gospels and in the Acts of the Apostles and the modern dilutions of that concept as we see it around us everywhere. So then further, this spirit from descending from the risen Savior, poured out upon all flesh, because it's the fullness of the Spirit which is given to us in the messianic age. And then your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy. That means that the fullness of the Spirit is or transcends the differences of the sexes. Your sons and daughters shall prophesy. One cannot emphasize that enough.

[27:18]

That this fullness of the messianic age is, one can say also, the Magna Carta for the equality between men and women. The fullness of the Spirit is upon both your sons and your daughters. And that has had a profound influence on the whole workings of the Church. Then we go to see the next one. Your young man shall see visions and your old man shall dream dreams. So the next vision Think that the fullness of the Spirit transcends. One can say the next barrier that nature puts up. Nature puts up the race and nation barriers. Nature puts up the barrier between the sexes. Nature puts up the barrier between youth and old age.

[28:20]

Your young man shall see visions and your old man shall dream dreams. And again, this natural barrier in which so often sons turn against their fathers, fathers against their sons, again the Holy Spirit, the fullness of the Holy Spirit, is against that. And also that we can see so clearly. As soon as the Church entered into the history of mankind, What became and who received a completely different position? Not only the women, the weaker sex, but also the children. The child had a completely new dignity. And the sign, the magnificent sign of that is the baptism of infants, the infant baptism, through which the child already is and becomes a member of the Christian community. And we see that so often throughout the history of the church, the role which the youth, the younger generation has played in the history of the church.

[29:34]

Usually one doesn't become a cardinal before one is 70 years. But I mean, that is only up on the, I'll say, cenature that surrounds the pontiff. The pontiff himself is sometimes much younger. and a representative of the younger generation. It's so interesting to see that too. We are reading this book of Father Leib, a poem about the mission in China. And that's a marvelous example. One can see there the clash between the fullness of the spirit of the messianic age, so deeply understood by Father Leib, And then on the other hand, you know, this complete lack of the real understanding of the nature of the church as a messianic community on the part of persons that are really, one can say, the captives of the bourgeois age.

[30:41]

that therefore have not that tremendous inner broadness and the courage and daring of approach that really is the proper, the characteristic sign of the messianic age. While this courage and this broad outlook is found there on the very top of the church in the person of the Holy Father, who just passing over all resistance from the local authority makes that tremendous step into a new broadness, into a new future for the church in China. So therefore then also you can see, for example, the monastic movement in the church was to a great extent a youth movement in the beginning. So many other examples of that could be quoted.

[31:43]

Then we have the next one here. And moreover, upon my servants and upon my handmaids in those days will I pour forth of my spirit and they shall prophesy. And that is the last barrier which men have put up and which the Holy Spirit overcomes. And there are social barriers, the barrier between the free and the slave. So the Holy Spirit, therefore, in this fullness, ushers in the new messianic age. The characteristic note of that messianic age is a community which is Catholic by nature. And that means beyond the barriers of the nations, embracing all flesh, and beyond the barriers of the sexes, beyond the barriers of age, and beyond the barriers of social class distinctions.

[32:57]

So this Holy Spirit, this spirit then, and then is the last note which Saint Peter reads here from the prophecy of Joel, and it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This Holy Spirit that descends in its fullness in the messianic age then calls or makes people of whom he takes possession, call upon the name of the Lord, the name of the curious. And that curious is the risen Savior, so that this Holy Spirit leads all those whom... He fills into the worship of Christ the risen Lord, in whose name every knee should bend on earth and in heaven.

[34:04]

And that is finally the last thing, and that would be also a wonderful thing to follow up. This Holy Spirit is spirit of worship. And the worship of the church is worship of the end, in the messianic age. If you look here at the effects that the Holy Spirit has, and you see this, your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions, Your old man shared dream dreams. And moreover, upon my servants, upon my handmaids, your spirit was for my spirit, and they shared prophesying. So what is the effect of the spirit? It's a spiritual effect. This spirit is the spirit of the knowledge, the spirit of prophecy. It is the spirit of wisdom.

[35:07]

It is spiritual enlightenment that is given So the life of the church and in that messianic community, which is formed by the Spirit, is a spiritual life, it is the understanding of the Word, and it is the preaching of the Word. That is what is understood here also by prophecy. And there you have really the theological reason Why? Our Christian worship, the divine office, as well as the Mass, the divine office in, let us say, exclusive way, consists of spirited worship in the Word, reading and the singing of psalms, the receiving of the Word and the answering of the And holy mass, holy sacrifice, also inseparable from the mass of the catechumens.

[36:12]

And this mass of the catechumens, again, a announcing of the word. The Old Testament, the epistle, the announcing of the gospel, and finally also one can see what a necessary and essential element it is, the sermon, the preaching. That is prophecy also in this sense. So this... Worship of the Church is a spiritual worship in this sense, you know, that it is announcing understanding, deeper understanding of the Spirit, of the Word, in the fullness of the Spirit. Therefore, St. Paul, who lived so deeply in the spirit of the Messianic age, understood it so well, also as a practical reality in the communities which he founded. He says, now I want you to be children in malice, but I don't want you to be children in the spirit and according to the mind.

[37:23]

And then he says that it is essential that before the messianic age that you have and possess maturity of mind. That means depth of spiritual understanding, seeing very clearly.

[37:39]

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