THE PENTECOST AND THE RESTORATION OF HUMAN NATURE. READING ACTS 2:1-47 IN A POST-COMMUNIST ROMANIAN FRAMEWORK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6574243Keywords:
The Acts of the Apostles, Christian witness, Holy Spirit, human nature, Pentecost, repentance, Saint Peter, post-communist RomaniaAbstract
This article examines the event of Pentecost as reported by Saint Luke in Acts 2.1-47 emphasizing its relevance for the post-communist Romanian society. The author argues that the community of Jesus’ disciples is empowered by the Holy Spirit to mediate Christ’s divine action of healing individual and social wounds that the communist regime inflicted on the soul of the Romanian people. It also explores the right human answer to God’s healing and saving initiative, according to Saint Peter’s divinely inspired sermon delivered on the day of Pentecost. In Saint Luke’s narrative of the book of Acts, this response is called “repentance”, which is the human reaction to God’s gracious call that consists in regret for personal and collective sin, the invocation of God’s forgiveness in Christ, and the beginning of a new life regenerated by the Holy Spirit. According to the biblical narrator, all the present benefits of divine healing are just the first fruits of the future glory of God’s kingdom for whichChristians bear witness.
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