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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)."
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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. |
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- 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? |
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- 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 (
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who was I that I could withstand God?"
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The assurance that the Sprit is shed on every one of us makes
us confident and gives us responsibility and even audacity. |
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- 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.
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