Homilies
Homily of the Apostolic Nuncio, Chapel of the Apostolic Nunciature, Thursday 10 October 2019

Gospel: Luke 12:8-12

As always when Jesus has an important thing to teach, He has recourse to a comparison, a parable. Today, He tells us a strange story which ends with a question. He addresses the question to the people who listened to Him and also to us. 

Before Jesus himself gives the answer, He wants our opinion. Jesus gives his response. The response of Jesus strengthens the message on prayer: God always expects our prayer. This parable reminds us of another one, also found in Luke's Gospel: the parable of the widow who insists to obtain her rights before the judge. He pays attention to the widow only because he wants to free himself from her insistence. If we ask, we will receive. If we search, we will find. If we knock, the door will be opened for us. Jesus does not say how much time the request should last, this knocking at the door, but the result is certain.

The greatest gift that God has for us is the gift of the Holy Spirit. When we were created, He breathed his spirit into our nose and we became living beings. In the second creation through Faith in Jesus, He gives us the Holy Spirit again. This is the same Spirit which made the Word become incarnate in Mary. With the help of the Holy Spirit, the process of the Incarnation of the Word continues up to the hour of his death on the Cross. At the end, at the hour of death, Jesus commits the spirit to the Father. This Spirit cannot be bought with money. The only way of obtaining it is through prayer. After nine days of prayer the abundant gift of the Spirit is obtained on the day of Pentecost.