Pentecost Is the Fulfillment of the

New Covenant

General audience of August 2, 1989

 The Pasch of Christ's cross and resurrection reached its climax in the Pentecost of

Jerusalem. The descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles,

assembled in the upper room with Mary and the

first community of Christ's disciples, was the

fulfillment of the promises and announcements made by Jesus to his disciples.

 Pentecost is the solemn public

manifestation of the new covenant made between God and

man "in the blood" of

Christ: "this is the new covenant in my

blood," Jesus had said at the

Last Supper (cf. 1 Cor 11:25).

 This is a new, definitive and eternal covenant, prepared by

previous covenants spoken of in the Old

Testament. Those already contained the

announcement of the definitive pact which God would make with man in Christ and in

the Holy Spirit.

The revealed word in Ezekiel's

prophecy was an invitation to view

the Pentecost event in this light:

"And I will put my spirit within you"

(Ez 36:27).

Pentecost had at one time been the feast of

the harvest. (cf. Ex 23:14)

It was later celebrated also as a memorial and

a renewal of the covenant made by God

with Israel after the liberation from the Egyptian bondage

(cf. 2 Cor 15:10-13).

We read in the Book of Exodus that Moses "took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of

the people; and they said 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.' And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people and said, 'Behold the blood of

the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words'"

(Ex 24:7-8).

God's covenants with Noah and AbrahamThe covenant of Sinai had already been made between the Lord God

and Israel. Before that there had

been, according to the Bible,

God's covenants with the patriarch

Noah and with Abraham.

In the covenant with Noah after the flood,

God showed his intention to establish a covenant not only with humanity but also with the whole of creation in the visible world: "Behold, I establish

my covenant with you and your descendants

after you, and with every living creature

that is with you...with all animals that come from the ark"

(Gen 9:9-10).

"I will establish my covenant

between me and you and your

descendants after you throughout

their generations for an everlasting

covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants

after you" (Gen 17:7).

The covenant with Abraham had also another meaning.

God chose a man and made a covenant with him because of his descendants:

The covenant with Abraham revealed God's plan to

choose a specific people, Israel,

from which the promised Messiah would be born.

The divine law was given in the

covenant of SinaiThe covenant with Abraham did not

contain a law in the true and proper

sense. The divine law was

given later, in the covenant of

Sinai.

God promised it to Moses who had gone up the

mountain in answer to God's call:

"Now therefore, if you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you

shall be my own possession among all

peoples; for all the earth is mine.... These are the words which you shall speak to the children of

Israel" (Ex 19:5).

Moses informed the elders of Israel of the

divine promise, "and all the people answered together

and said, 'All that the Lord has spoken we will do.' And Moses reported

the words of the people to the Lord"

(Ex 19:8).

This biblical description of the preparation of the

covenant and of the mediating action of Moses sets out in relief the figure of

this great leader and lawgiver of Israel, showing the divine origin of the code

which he gave to the people.

the Lord chose Israel as his special possession, "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation"

(Ex 19:6). But it was on the

condition that they would remain faithful to

his law in the Ten Commandments, and to the other prescriptions

and norms. The people of Israel on

their part pledged themselves to this

fidelity.

But it also wishes to make it

understood that the covenant of Sinai

involved commitments on

both sides:

The history of the old covenant shows many

instances of Israel's infidelity to God.

The prophets especially rebuked

Israel for their infidelities, and they

interpreted the mournful events of

their history as divine punishment.

They threatened They threatened further further

punishment, punishment, but at the same but at the same

time they time they announced announced

another another covenant. covenant.

"Behold, the days are coming says the

Lord, when I will make a new

covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with

their fathers when I took them by the

hand to bring them out of the land of

Egypt, my covenant which they broke"

(Jer 31:31-32).

"This is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord:

I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people"

(Jer 31:33).

The new and future

covenant will involve man

more intimately.

God's law will be put in the depths of the

human "being" (of the human

"I"). This character of interiority is confirmed by the words,

This new initiative of God

concerns especially the

"interior" person.

"I will write it upon their hearts." It is therefore a law with which man

is identified interiorly. Only then is God truly "their" God.

According to the prophet Isaiah

the law constituting the new covenant

will be established in

the human spirit by means of the spirit of God.

The Spirit of the Lord "shall rest upon a

shoot from the stump of Jesse"

(Is 11:2),

that is, on the Messiah. The words of the prophet shall be fulfilled in him:

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,

because the Lord has anointed me"

(Is 61:1).

Guided by the Spirit of God,

the Messiah will fulfill the covenant

and will make it new and eternal.

This is what Isaiah foretold in

prophetic words floating above the

obscurity of history:

"And as for me, this is my covenant with them, says the Lord: my spirit which is upon you, and my words

which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children, or out of

the mouth of your children's children, says the Lord, from this time forth and

forevermore" (Is 59:21).

Whatever may be the historical and prophetic periods within which Isaiah's vision is set,

we can well say that his words are fulfilled in Christ, in the Word who is his own but also

"of the Father who sent him" (cf. Jn 5:37);

in his Gospel which renews, completes and vivifies the law;

and in the Holy Spirit who is sent by virtue of Christ's redemption through his cross and

resurrection, thus fully confirming what God had already

announced through the prophets in the old covenant.

With Christ and in the Holy Spirit there is the new covenant,

of which the prophet Ezekiel had prophesied as the mouthpiece of God:

"I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances...and you shall be my people, and I

will be your God" (Ez 36:26-28).

In the Pentecost event of Jerusalem the descent of

the Holy Spirit definitively fulfilled God's new and eternal covenant with humanity sealed in the

blood of the only-begotten Son,

as the crowning moment of the

"Gift from on high" (cf. Jas 1:17).

In that covenant the Triune God

"gives himself," no longer merely to the

Chosen People, but to all humanity.

Ezekiel's prophecy, "you shall be my people and I

will be your God" (Ez 36:28),

acquires a new and definitive dimension: universality. It realizes to the full the dimension of interiority,

because the fullness of the gift—the Holy Spirit—must fill all hearts,

giving to all the necessary power to overcome all

weakness and sin.

It acquires the dimension of eternity:

it is a "new and eternal" covenant (cf. Heb 13:20).

In that fullness of the gift the Church has its

beginning as the People of God of the new and

eternal covenant. This fulfilled Christ's

promise concerning the Holy Spirit sent as

"another Counselor" (Parakletos),

"to be with you forever" (Jn 14:16).