During the general audience in the Paul Vl Hall on 13 December, the Holy Father continued his reflections on the events of Pentecost, especially in the context of Peter’s having been led by the Holy Spirit to open the doors of the Church to non-Jewish converts.

1. After the baptism of the first pagans, carried out at Peter’s command in the house of the centurion Cornelius at Caesarea, the Apostle remained for some days with the new Christians in response to their invitation (cf. Acts 10:48). This did not please the "apostles" and "brethren" at Jerusalem, and they criticized him for this on his return (cf. Acts 11:3). Peter, rather than defend himself from the accusation, preferred "to explain to them what had happened" (Acts 11:4), so that the converts from Judaism could appreciate the full importance of the fact that the "Gentiles also had received the word of God " (Acts 11:1).

He then told them of the vision he had at Joppa, of Cornelius's invitation, of the interior prompting of the Spirit that dispelled his hesitation (cf. Acts 11 :12) and, finally, of the descent of the Holy Spirit on those in the centurion's house (cf. Acts 11 :16), and he concluded his account as follows: "I remembered the word of the Lord, how he said, ‘John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit’. If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could withstand God?" (Acts 11 :16-17).

This, according to Peter, was the real question, not the fact of his having accepted hospitality from a pagan converted from paganism, an unusual case and regarded as unlawful by the Christians of Jewish origin at Jerusalem. It is interesting to note the effect of Peter’s words, for we read in Acts that "when they heard this, they were silenced. And they glorified God, saying, ‘Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance unto life’ " (Acts 11:18).

It was the first victory over the temptation to socio-religious particularism which threatened the primitive Church inasmuch as it had its origin in the Jewish community at Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul, with Peter’s help, would achieve another victory, in a still more striking manner. We shall speak of this later.

2. Let us pause now to consider how Peter continues on the way begun with Cornelius’s baptism. Once again it will be seen that it is the Holy Spirit that guides the apostles in this direction.

The Acts tell us that the converts at Jerusalem, "scattered because of the persecution that arose over Stephen", continued the work of evangelization wherever they happened to be, but that "they spoke the word to none except Jews" (Acts 11:19). Some of them, however, citizens of Cyprus and Cyrene, on coming to Antioch, the capital of Syria, began to speak also to the Greeks (that is, to the non-Jews), preaching the Good News of the Lord Jesus. "And the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number that believed turned to the Lord. News of this came to the ears of the Church in Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch" (Acts 11: 21-22).

It was a kind of inspection decided upon by the community which, as the original one, claimed the right of vigilance over the other Churches (cf. Acts 8:14; 11:1; Gal 2:2).

Barnabas went to Antioch, and when he arrived there and "saw the grace of God, he was glad; and he exhorted them all to remain faithful to the Lord with steadfast purpose; for he was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith. And a large company was added to the Lord. So Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul; and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met with the Church, and taught a large company of people; and in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Christians" (Acts 11:23-26).

It is another decisive moment for the new faith based on the covenant in Christ, crucified and risen. Moreover, the new name "Christians" manifests the strength of the bond that unites the members of the community among themselves. The "Pentecost of the pagans" illumined by Peter’s preaching and behaviour brings progressively to fulfilment Christ's prediction about the Holy Spirit: "He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you" (Jn 16:14). Christianity’s assertion of itself under the influence of the Holy Spirit realizes with increasing evidence the glorification of the "Lord Jesus".

3. In the context of the relations between the Church of Antioch and that of Jerusalem, Saul of Tarsus appeared upon the scene; he was brought to Antioch by Barnabas. The Acts tell us that "for a whole year they remained in that community and taught a large company of people " (Acts 11: 26). A little later we are told that one day "while they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’. Then after fasting and praying they laid their hands on them and sent them off. So, being sent out by the Holy Spirit, they went down to Seleucia; and from there they sailed to Cyprus" (Acts 13: 2-4), the homeland of Barnabas (cf. Acts 4:36). Saul’s vocation and mission in the company of Barnabas is indicated as willed by the Holy Spirit who thus initiates the new phase of development in the life of the primitive Church.

4. We all know the story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus and its importance for the evangelization of the ancient world, which he undertook with all the drive and enthusiasm of his Herculean soul, when Saul became Paul, the Apostle of the Nations (cf. Acts 13:9).

Here we shall recall only the words addressed to him by the disciple Ananias of Damascus, when by the Lord's command he went to find "in the house of Judas, in the street called Straight" (Acts 9:10), the persecutor of the Christians, who was spiritually transformed after his meeting with Christ.

According to Acts, " Ananias departed and entered the house. After laying his hands on him he said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit’ " (Acts 9:17). In fact, Saul regained his sight and immediately began to bear witness in the synagogues first at Damascus "by proving that Jesus was the Christ" (Acts 9:22), and then at Jerusalem where, presented by Barnabas, he went in and out, "preaching boldly in the name of the Lord" and "disputing against the Hellenists" (Acts 9:29). These Greek-speaking Jews, violently opposed to all the Christian preachers (cf. Acts 6:9 f.; 7:58; 9:1; 21:27; 24:19), were particularly ferocious against Saul, even to the point of trying to kill him (cf. Acts 9:29). "And when the brethren knew it, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus" (Acts 9:30). And it was there that Barnabas went to look for him to bring him to Antioch (cf. Acts 11:25-26). 

Endowed with charisma and apostolic ministries

5. We already know that the development of the Church of Antioch, due in large part to the influx of the "Greeks" who were converted to the Gospel (cf. Acts 11:20) had aroused the interest of the Church at Jerusalem, in which however, even after Barnabas's inspection, there remained some perplexity about the procedure followed in admitting pagans into the Church without following the Mosaic observances. Indeed, on a certain occasion "some men came down from Judea (to Antioch) and were teaching the brethren, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’. And when Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question" (Acts 15: 1-2).

It was a fundamental problem, which touched the very essence of Christianity as a doctrine and as a life based on faith in Christ, and its originality and independence from Judaism.

The problem was resolved in the "Council of Jerusalem (as it is usually called), by the apostles and elders, but under the action of the Holy Spirit. The Acts tell us that "after there had been much debate, Peter rose and said to them, ‘Brethren, you know that in the early days God made choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us; and he made no distinction between us and them, but cleansed their hearts by faiths’ " (Acts 15:7-9).

It was the outstanding moment of the awareness of the "Pentecost of the pagans" on the part of the mother community in Jerusalem, where the highest representatives of the Church were gathered together. The whole community felt that it was living and acting "filled with the comfort of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 9:31). It knew that not only the apostles but also other "brethren" had taken decisions and acted under the movement of the Spirit, as for example, Stephen (Acts 6:5; 7:55), Barnabas and Saul (Acts 13:2, 4, 9).

It would soon have learned of a fact that happened at Ephesus, where Saul, who had now become Paul, had arrived. It is narrated by Acts as follows: "While Apollos (another preacher of the Gospel) was at Corinth, Paul passed through the upper country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. And he said to them ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ And they said, ‘No, we have never even heard that there is a Holy Spirit’.... On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them; and they spoke with tongues and prophesied" (Acts 19:1-2, 5-6). The Jerusalem community knew therefore that that kind of epic of the Holy Spirit was unfolding by means of many endowed with charisma and apostolic ministries. That first Council, however, presented an ecclesiasticalinstitutional fact recognized as decisive for the evangelization of the whole world, in intimate connection between the assembly, presided over by Peter, and the Holy Spirit.

7. In fact, the apostles communicated the conclusions arrived at and decisions taken in a very significant formula: "It has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us" (Acts 15:28). It was-the expression of their complete awareness of acting under the guidance of this Spirit of truth which Christ had promised them (cf. Jn 14:16-17). They knew that they derived from him the authority to make that decision, and the certainty of the decision taken. It was the Paraclete, the Spirit of truth, who at that moment ensured that the "Pentecost" of Jerusalem should become to an ever greater extent the "Pentecost of the pagans ". Thus God’s New Covenant with humanity "in the blood of Christ" (cf. Lk 22:20) was opened to all peoples and nations, to the very ends of the earth.