This past Sunday we have celebrated the great feast of Pentecost. In the passage from the book of the Acts of the Apostles that narrates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the gathered community (Acts 2:1-11), it is clear that the spirit comes to transform reality. If before it is poured out on the disciples they are a frightened, inward looking group, after receiving it they are a courageous community that projects itself to the world.
If, beyond this fundamental observation, we look at what their preaching produces, we see that the fruit of the Spirit having been poured out on the community is that the Gospel («the mighty acts of God») is proclaimed in a way that everyone can understand it.
The task of the Church, from the day of Pentecost onward, is to translate the Christian message so that peoples of all ages and cultures can understand it. In the same way that the passage from Acts makes it very clear that people of diverse origins («Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia»…) heard the preaching «each in our own tongue», today we must strive to make the Gospel comprehensible to all.
We will not be carrying out our mission if we speak an opaque language, far removed from the language of the street, no matter how erudite it may be and no matter how elaborate our arguments are —in our opinion. In this case, we will have lost sight of the fact that the mission was, and always will be, to translate: to translate the meaning of the life and the words of Jesus for each new generation, for each new culture, for each person.
Today, in the midst of a rapidly changing society in which cultural categories that we used yesterday are no longer understood, perhaps it is more urgent than ever to know how to translate our message. Assuming that the very language, the expressions and the images that helped us to get closer to Jesus may no longer work for those who ask about him today.
Let us ask the Holy Spirit, this Great Translator, to inspire us with new and necessary ways to express our deepest convictions.
If, beyond this fundamental observation, we look at what their preaching produces, we see that the fruit of the Spirit having been poured out on the community is that the Gospel («the mighty acts of God») is proclaimed in a way that everyone can understand it.
The task of the Church, from the day of Pentecost onward, is to translate the Christian message so that peoples of all ages and cultures can understand it. In the same way that the passage from Acts makes it very clear that people of diverse origins («Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia»…) heard the preaching «each in our own tongue», today we must strive to make the Gospel comprehensible to all.
We will not be carrying out our mission if we speak an opaque language, far removed from the language of the street, no matter how erudite it may be and no matter how elaborate our arguments are —in our opinion. In this case, we will have lost sight of the fact that the mission was, and always will be, to translate: to translate the meaning of the life and the words of Jesus for each new generation, for each new culture, for each person.
Today, in the midst of a rapidly changing society in which cultural categories that we used yesterday are no longer understood, perhaps it is more urgent than ever to know how to translate our message. Assuming that the very language, the expressions and the images that helped us to get closer to Jesus may no longer work for those who ask about him today.
Let us ask the Holy Spirit, this Great Translator, to inspire us with new and necessary ways to express our deepest convictions.
