The Spirit is also the source of our prayer, the only sure foundation from which we can address God. We have now, imperfectly and initially, what will be fulfilled and perfected in eternity. The Spirit is to continue Jesus mission of reconciliation, the heart of which is not preaching, but living what one preaches in a word, forgiveness. This forgiveness of sins should not be taken in a narrow legalistic sense, but should be seen as the entirety of God s saving power which is his gift to the Church. The Christian community s success or failure will be measured only by the degree to which its members are reconciled to one another in other words, love.
Forgiveness is the catalyst that enables reconciliation and love to happen.
We are not vending machines for God s forgiveness. Our forgiveness of one another is the perceptible and genuine sign that God s forgiveness is happening. Forgiveness and love are not merely ethical precepts, they are the overflow of the new life that is God s gift. Just as the Jewish feast of Pentecost, celebrated fifty days after Passover, was seen as the completion of the covenant, so the coming of the Spirit is celebrated as the completion of the new covenant accomplished in the Easter mystery of Jesus death and resurrection. As narrated in Acts, the Holy Spirit is the source of the mission of witness to the resurrection and lordship of Jesus, which characterizes the entire life of the Church.