Open Bible:
June 2003 

la bilbe 

 
The Spirit blows where He wants
 

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The Spirit blows where He wants

That makes now two years that the "Open Bible" is proposing some chosen texts from the Bible. They come most of the time from groups of ordinary people and they are chosen by their profound and compelling meaning and also by the renewed understanding that they bring.

The team who is working on the "open Bible" project is convinced that the Spirit makes understand the teaching of Jesus and gives a meaning to his human activity. "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth (John, 16, 13)."
 
L'Esprit habite toute personne The Spirit is in every person, and nobody has the monopoly of it. It is thanks to the diversity of understanding that we can move toward the truth. The Gospel has not finished to unveil all its meaning. Its spirit still needs to be liberated from the confinements of all made explanations.  
 
There is still novelty and unexpected aspects in the Gospel. We have to let it surge. Directives or norms cannot replace the wind of the Spirit. "Because it is said in the Gospel, so you should do this" is certainly more comfortable for the institution but such a way of using the Gospel impairs its power of interrogation. And it is more risky than to stay passive and submissive, the spirit of the Gospel drives you where you had not even thought to go before. What does Jesus do when he meets a person? He does not give him specific norms: he opens his perspectives, gives him confidence, opens his liberty of action and says: "Go".

In this liturgical time of Pentecost, do we sufficiently believe that the Spirit speaks to each one of us, making us understood by the others? "They were all filled with the Holly Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them utterance, (Acts, 2, 4)". We can form a link with somebody if we can speak his language. Would there be a common maternal language for all humanity? 

fête de la Pentecôte

 
It is when you reach somebody in his profound intimate and you let him known how he is important for you that you can fully communicate with him. We are on the same wavelength, the one of the fundamental question: Who is man? Who is God? What is the meaning of existence? It is together, with many other different people that it is possible to go further into these existential questions.
Paul the Apostle was the first to be surprised to find out that him and his followers did not have the monopoly of the Spirit, he was also spreading over those Paul was considering as pagans (Acts 10,11). Having to justify in front of his followers why he had baptized them without any other testing, he said: "If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us (…) who was I that I could withstand God?"
 
voire l'audace The assurance that the Sprit is shed on every one of us makes us confident and gives us responsibility and even audacity. 
 
That does not prevent us to make mistakes, but it is not so bad as far as we stay open to the Spirit present in ourselves and in others.
Reinforced by this conviction, we open up the Bible to all of you, in order that together we can benefit of its light.