During the general audience on Wednesday, 8 November, the Holy Father continued his reflection on the content of Peter's discourse on the day of Pentecost.

Before his return to the Father, Jesus had promised the apostles: "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" (Acts 1:8). As I wrote in the Encyclical Dominum et Vivificantem, "On the day of Pentecost this prediction was fulfilled with total accuracy. Acting under the influence of the Holy Spirit, who had been received by the apostles while they were praying in the Upper Room, Peter comes forward and speaks before a multitude of people of different languages, gathered for the feast. He proclaims what he certainly would not have had the courage to say before" (n. 30). It is the first witness given publicly and, one might say, solemnly, to the risen Christ, to Christ victorious. It is also the beginning of the apostolic preaching.

We already spoke about it in the previous reflection, examining it from the point of view of the teacher: "Peter with the eleven" (cf. Acts 2:14). Today we wish to analyse the content of that first sermon, as a model or schema of the many other "proclamations" which will follow in the Acts of the Apostles, and later in the history of the Church. 

Signs of the coming of God

Peter addresses those who had assembled near the Upper Room: "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem" (Acts 2:14). They were the same people who had witnessed the phenomenon of the glossolalia, and heard in their own languages the apostles speaking of "the mighty works of God" (cf. Acts 2:1l). In his discourse Peter begins by defending or at least explaining the condition of those who, "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4), were suspected of being drunk because of their unusual behaviour. From the very opening words he gives the answer: "These men are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel" (Acts 2:15-16).

3. The passage from Joel is extensively quoted in Acts: "And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy" (Acts 2:17). This "outpouring of the Spirit" on both young and old, on menservants and maidservants, will have therefore a universal character. And it will be confirmed by signs: "I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs on the earth beneath" (Acts 2:19). These will be the signs of the "day of the Lord" which is approaching (cf. Acts 2:20). And it shall be that whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). 

4. In the mind of the speaker the text from Joel aptly explains the meaning of the event of which those present saw the signs: "the outpouring of the Holy Spirit". It was a supernatural act of God joined to signs typical of the coming of God, foretold by the prophets and identified by the New Testament with the coming of Christ. This is the context in which Peter concentrates the essential content of his discourse, which is the very nucleus of the apostolic "kerygma": "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. But God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it" (Acts 2:22-24).

Perhaps not all those present at Peter's discourse, having come from many regions for the Pasch and Pentecost, had taken part in the events in Jerusalem which ended with Christ's crucifixion. But Peter addresses them also as "men of Israel", belonging to an ancient world in which, by that time, the signs of the Lord’s new coming were clear for everyone.

The signs and wonders to which Peter referred were certainly still within the recollection of the people of Jerusalem, but also of many others of his hearers, who must have at least heard Jesus of Nazareth spoken about. In any case, having recalled all that Jesus had done, Peter passes to the fact of his death on the cross, and speaks directly of the responsibility of those who had consigned Jesus to death. However, he adds that Christ "was delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God" (cf. Acts 2:23). Peter therefore introduces his hearers into the vision of God’s salvific plan which is fulfilled precisely by means of Christ’s death. And he hastens to give the decisive confirmation of God’s action through and beyond what had been done by men. This confirmation is Christ’s resurrection: "God raised him up, having loosed the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it" (Acts 2:24).

It is the culminating point of the apostolic "kerygma" concerning Christ the Saviour who had vanquished death.

Messianic psalm

6. At this point Peter again has recourse to the Old Testament. He cites the messianic psalm 15 [16] (vv. 8-11): "I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand that I may not be shaken; therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover my flesh will dwell in hope. For thou wilt not abandon my soul to Hades, nor let thy Holy One see corruption. Thou has made known to me the ways of life; thou wilt make me full of gladness with thy presence" (Acts 2:25-28).

It is a legitimate adaptation of the Davidic Psalm which the author of Acts quotes according to the Greek text of the Septuagint, which emphasizes the aspiration of the Jewish soul to escape death, in the sense of a hope of liberation even from death after it has taken place.

7. Doubtlessly Peter is at pains to stress that the words of the psalm do not refer to David, whose tomb, he remarks, is with us to this day. They refer, rather, to his descendant, Jesus Christ: David "foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of Christ" (Acts 2:31). The prophetic words are therefore fulfilled: "This Jesus Christ God raised up, and ofthat we all are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which you see and hear...Let all the house ofIsrael therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:32-33, 36).

8. On the day before his passion Jesus had told the apostles in the Upper Room, in reference to the Holy Spirit: "He will bear witness to me,... and you also are witnesses" (Jn 15:26-27). As I wrote in the Encyclical Dominum et Vivif icantem, "In the first discourse of Peter in Jerusalem this ‘witness’ finds its clear beginning: it is the witness to Christ crucified and risen. The witness of the Spirit-Paraclete and of the apostles" (n. 30).

In this testimony Peter wishes to remind his hearers of the mystery of the risen Christ, but he also wishes to explain the facts of Pentecost at which they were present, by showing that they were signs of the coming of the Holy Spirit. The Paraclete really came by virtue of Christ’s Pasch. He came and transformed those men of Galilee, to whom was entrusted the witness concerning Christ, "exalted at the right hand of the Father" (cf. Acts 2:33), that is to say, exalted by his victory over death. His coming is therefore a confirmation of the divine power of the risen Christ. "Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2: 36). Paul also in writing to the Romans will proclaim: "Jesus is Lord" (Rom 10:9).