During the general audience in the Paul Vl Hall on 29 November the Holy Father continues his reflections on Pentecost and the role of the Holy Spirit in the early Church.

I. The coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost is a unique event, but it does not end there. Rather, it is the beginning of a lasting process, the first phases of which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles. They concern, first of all, the life of the Church at Jerusalem, where the apostles, after having borne witness to Christ and to the Holy Spirit and obtained the first conversions, had to defend before the Sanhedrin the right to existence of the first community of Christ's disciples and followers. The Acts of the Apostles tell us that even before the elders the apostles were assisted by the same power they received at Pentecost: they were "filled with the Holy Spirit" (cf e.g., Acts 4:8).

This power of the Spirit is manifested at work in some moments and aspects of the life of the Jerusalem community, which are particularly mentioned in Acts.

Prayer of faith and abandonment

2. Let us summarize them briefly, beginning with the common prayer of the community when the apostles, on returning from the Sanhedrin, reported to the "brethren" what had been said by the chief priests and elders: "They lifted their voices together to God..." (Acts 4:24). In their beautiful prayer recorded by Luke they recognize the divine plan in the persecution, recalling that God had spoken "through the Holy Spirit" (4:25), and they quote the words of Psalm 2 (vv. 1-2) on the rage unleashed by the kings and peoples of the earth "against the Lord and against his Anointed". These words they applied to Jesus’ death: "Truly in this city there were gathered together against thy holy servant Jesus, whom thou didst anoint, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever thy hand and thy plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats, and grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness" (Acts 4:25-29).

It is a prayer full of faith and abandonment to God, at the end of which there is a new manifestation of the Spirit and a new Pentecost event, as it were.

3."When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken" (Acts 4:31). There is then a new manifestation, perceptible to the senses, of the Holy Spirit’s power, as had happened on the first Pentecost. Moreover, the reference to the place in which the community is gathered together confirms the analogy to the Upper Room, and indicates that the Holy Spirit wishes to involve the whole community with his transforming action. Then "all were filled with the Holy Spirit": not only the apostles who had confronted the leaders of the people, but all the "brethren" (4:23) gathered with them, who constitute the central and most representative nucleus of the first community. With the enthusiasm aroused by the new "fullness" of the Holy Spirit, we are told by Acts, "they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts 4:31). It was the answer to their prayer to the Lord: "Grant to thy servants to speak thy word with all boldness" (Acts 4:29).

The "little" Pentecost therefore makes a new beginning of the evangelizing mission after the judgement and imprisonment of the apostles on the part of the Sanhedrin. The power of the Holy Spirit is manifested especially in the boldness which the members of the Sanhedrinhad already noticed, to their amazement, in Peter and John, "for they perceived that they were uneducated, common men" (Acts 4:13). Now Acts again emphasize that "they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness".

4. Moreover, the whole life of the primitive community at Jerusalem bears the signs of the Holy Spirit who is its invisible guide and inspirer. The overall view of it given by Luke enables us to see in that community the model as it were of the Christian communities formed throughout the centuries, including parishes and religious congregations, in which the fruit of the "fullness of the Holy Spirit" is given tangible form in some basic forms of organization, codified in part in the very law of the Church.

They are principally the following: "communion" (koinonia) infraternity and love (cf. Acts 2:42), so that it could be said of the Christians that they were "of one heart and soul" (Acts 2:32): the community spirit in handing over their goods to the apostles for distribution to each according to his need (Acts 4:34-37) or in their use, while retaining their ownership, so that "no one said that any of the things he possessed was his own. (4:32; cf. 2:44-45; 4:34-37);communion in "devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching" (Acts 2:42) and their"testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 4:33); communion in the "breaking of bread" (Acts 2:42), that is, in the common meal according to the Jewish custom, into which the Christians, however, inserted the Eucharistic rite (cf. 1 Cor 1:16; 11:24; Lk 22:19; 24:35); communion in the prayers (Acts 2:42, 46-47). The word of God, the Eucharist, prayer and fraternal charity constituted the quadrilateral within which the community lived, grew, and became strong.

5 On their part the apostles, "with great power gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus" (4:33), and they worked "many signs and wonders" (5:12), as they had asked in the prayer in the Upper Room: "thou stretches out thy hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of thy holy servant Jesus" (Acts 4:30). They were signs of the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, to whom the entire life of the community was referred. Even the guilt of Ananias and Sapphira, who pretended to bring to the apostles and the community the whole price of the property they had sold while holding back part of the proceeds, is regarded by Peter as a fault against the Holy Spirit: "You have lied to the Holy Spirit" (5:3); "How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord?" (Acts 5:9). It was not a case of a "sin against the Holy Spirit" in the sense in which the Gospel speaks (cf. Lk 12:10) and which would be handed down in the Church's moral and catechetical texts. Rather, it was a failure to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, as St Paul would say (Eph 4:3). It was therefore a presence in professing that Christian community in charity, whose soul is the Holy Spirit! 

Respect and gratitude or those distant "elder brothers and sisters"

6. The awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence and action is found in the choice of the seven deacons, men "full of the Spirit and of wisdom" (Acts 6:3) and in particular of Stephen "a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 6:5), who very soon began to preach Jesus Christ with zeal, enthusiasm and boldness, working "great wonders and signs among the people" (Acts 6:8). Having aroused the anger and jealousy of a part of the Jews who rose up against him, Stephen did not cease to preach and he did not hesitate to accuse his opponents of being heirs to their fathers in "resisting the Holy Spirit" (Acts 7:5 l ), thus going serenely to his martyrdom, as we read in Acts: "Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God..." (Acts 7:55), and in that attitude he was put to death by stoning.

Thus the primitive Church, under the action of the Holy Spirit, added to the experience of communion that of martyrdom.

7. The Jerusalem community was composed of men and women of Jewish origin, like the apostles themselves and Mary. We cannot forget this fact, even though later those Jewish Christians, gathered around James when Peter set out for Rome, were dispersed and gradually disappeared. However, what we learn from Acts should inspire us with respect and gratitude for those distant "elder brothers and sisters", inasmuch as they belonged to those people of Jerusalem who showed their favour to the apostles (cf. Acts 2:47) who gave "their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus"(Acts 4:33). No less can we forget that after Stephen’s stoning and Paul's conversion, the Church which had developed from that first community "had peace and was built up throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria; and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit it was multiplied" (Acts 9:31).

So the first chapters of the Acts of the Apostles attest to the fulfilment of the promise made by Jesus to the apostles in the Upper Room before his passion: "I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor, to be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth" (Jn 14:16-17). As we have seen before, "Counsellor"—in Greek "Parakletos"—also means Advocate or "Defender ". Both as Advocate or "Defender" and as "Counsellor", the Holy Spirit is revealed as present and at work in the Church from her beginnings in the heart of Judaism. Soon we shall see that the same Spirit will lead the apostles and their collaborators to extend the experience of Pentecost to all nations.