The Spirit calls to witness

18. Every believer, enlightened by the knowledge of the faith, is called to know and recognise Jesus as Lord; and in Him to recognise himself. But that is the fruit not only of a human desire or the good will of mankind. Even after having lived a prolonged experience with the Lord, the disciples continue to need God. Indeed, on the eve of the Passion, they experience a certain anxiety (Jn 14, 1) and are afraid of being alone; and Jesus encourages them with a promise that had never before been heard: "I will not leave you orphans" (Jn 14, 18). Those who were first to be called in the Gospel will not be left alone: Jesus assures them of the enduring company of the Spirit.

a) Consoler and friend, guide and memory

"He is the 'Consoler', the Spirit of bounty, whom the Father will send in the name of the Son, the gift of the risen Lord",(³⁵) "so that he may remain with you always" (Jn 14, 16).

In this way the Spirit becomes the friend of every disciple, to make them countercurrent witnesses to the most confusing event in the world: the death and resurrection of Christ. In fact, he is a "memory" of Jesus and his Word: "He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn 14, 26); indeed "he will guide you into all the truth" (Jn 16, 13).

The enduring newness of the Spirit consists in guiding towards a progressive and profound understanding of the truth, the truth that is not an abstract notion, but God's plan in the life of every disciple. It is the transformation of the Word into life, and life according to the Word.

b) Vocational promoter and accompanier

In this way the Spirit becomes the great promoter of every vocation, He who accompanies the journey in order to reach the goal, the interior icon that, with infinite imagination, moulds the face of each one in the likeness of Jesus.

His presence is always close to every man and woman, in order to lead all to the discernment of their own identity as believers and as people who have been called, to mould and model this identity exactly according to the model of divine love. As the patient artisan of our souls and the "perfect consoler", the Spirit sanctifier seeks to reproduce this "divine imprint" in each one.

Above all the Spirit enables those called to bear "witness": "He will bear witness to me, and you also are my witnesses" (Jn 15, 26-27). This way of being of each one called is the convincing word, the very content of the mission. Witnessing does not consist only in suggesting the words of the proclamation as in the Gospel of Matthew (Mt 10, 20); rather in keeping Jesus in your heart and proclaiming Him as the life of the world.

c) Holiness, the vocation of all

And so the demand for a leap in quality for pastoral ministry today becomes a question that without doubt commits us to listening to the Spirit: because He is the one who proclaims "the things that are to come" (Jn 16, 13), who gives a new spiritual intelligence for understanding history and the life that flows from the death and resurrection of the Lord, in whose victory is the future of every person.

Therefore it is legitimate to ask: where is the Holy Spirit's call for our time? Where must we adjust our directions in our vocations programmes? But the response will come only if we welcome the great call to conversion, addressed to the ecclesial community and to everyone in it, as a real path of asceticism and interior rebirth, so that each one may recover fidelity to his own vocation.

There is a primacy of life in the Spirit, which is at the base of every vocations programme. It requires us to overcome a widespread pragmatism and a sterile exteriority that leads one to forget the theological life of faith, hope and charity. Attentive listening to the Spirit is the new breath of every pastoral action in the ecclesial community.

The primacy of the spiritual life is the premise for responding to the nostalgia for holiness, which, as we have already said, is also current in this era of the Church in Europe. Holiness is the universal vocation of every man,(³⁶) it is the main road onto which converge all the little paths that are particular vocations. Therefore the great appointment of the Spirit for this period of post-conciliar history is the holiness of those called.

d) Vocations at the service of the vocation of the Church

However, proceeding effectively towards this goal signifies adhering to the mysterious action of the Spirit in certain precise directions, which prepare and constitute the secret of a real vitality for the Church of the year two thousand.

Firstly the eternal, central role of communion, which is reflected in the icon of the ecclesial community, visible in the plurality of gifts and ministries,(³⁷) is suitable to the Holy Spirit. In fact it is precisely in the Spirit that each Christian discovers his absolute originality, the uniqueness of his call and, at the same time, his natural and indelible tendency towards unity. It is in the Spirit that vocations in the Church are so many and, at the same time, are one single vocation, to unity of love and witness. It is also the action of the Spirit that makes possible the plurality of vocations in the unity of the ecclesial structure: vocations in the Church are necessary in their variety in order to realise the vocation of the Church, and the vocation of the Church — in its turn — is that of making possible and practicable vocations of and in the Church. All of the different vocations, therefore, are directed towards bearing witness to love, towards the proclamation of Christ, the only saviour of the world.

This is the originality of the Christian vocation: to integrate the fulfilment of the person with the realisation of the community; this means — yet again — to make the logic of love prevail over the logic of private interests, the logic of sharing over the logic of a narcissistic selfishness with regard to one's talents (cf 1 Cor, 12-14).

Holiness, therefore, becomes the true epiphany of the Holy Spirit in history. If each person of the Trinitarian Communion has his face, and if it is true that the faces of the Father and the Son are familiar enough because Jesus, in becoming man like us, has revealed the face of the Father, then the saints become the most expressive icon of the mystery of the Spirit. In this way also everyone who faithfully believes in the Gospel bears and reveals the face of the Holy Spirit in his own particular vocation and in the universal call to holiness.

e) The "yes" to the Spirit in Confirmation

The sacrament of Confirmation is the moment that expresses in the clearest and most aware manner the gift of and the meeting with the Holy Spirit.

The one to be confirmed, in the face of God and His gift of love ("Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit"),(³⁸) but also before his own conscience and the ecclesial community, answers "amen". It is important to recover at the formational and catechetical level the rich meaning of this "amen".(³⁹)

Above all it means "yes" to the Holy Spirit and, with him, to Jesus. This is why the celebration of the sacrament of Confirmation provides for the renewal of baptismal promises and asks the one to be confirmed to renounce sin and the works of evil, which are always ready to disfigure the Christian image; and above all the commitment to live the Gospel of Jesus and, particularly, the great precept of love. This is about confirming and renewing the vocational fidelity to one's identity as a child of God.

The "amen" is a "yes" also to the Church. In Confirmation the young person declares himself ready to undertake the mission of Jesus continued in the community. Committing himself in two directions, so as to make his "amen" more concrete: to witness and to mission. The one who has been confirmed knows that faith is a talent to be used; it is a message to be transmitted to others through one's life, through the coherent witness of one's whole being; and through the word, with the missionary courage of spreading the good news.

And finally the "amen" expresses docility to the Holy Spirit in reflecting and deciding on one's future according to God's plan. Not only according to one's own aspirations and abilities; not only in the spaces which the world allows; but above all in harmony with the plan, always hidden and unforseeable, that God has for each one.