Vatican
City, 19 May 2013 (VIS) – The Mass that Pope Francis celebrated
this morning in St. Peter's Square in front of over 200,000 people
was the concluding event of the two days of pilgrimage for the
ecclesial movements, communities, and lay associations to Rome as
part of the Year of Faith celebrations. In his homily, Francis noted
that, on the Solemnity of Pentecost, “we contemplate and re-live in
the liturgy the outpouring of the Holy Spirit sent by the Risen
Christ upon his Church; an event of grace which filled the Upper Room
in Jerusalem and then spread throughout the world.”
“Newness,”
he said, “always makes us a bit fearful, because we feel more
secure if we have everything under control, if we are the ones who
build, programme, and plan our lives ... This is also the case when
it comes to God. ... It is hard to abandon ourselves to him with
complete trust, allowing the Holy Spirit to be the soul and guide of
our lives ... We fear that God may force us to strike out on new
paths and leave behind our all too narrow, closed and selfish
horizons in order to become open to his own. Yet throughout the
history of salvation, whenever God reveals himself, He brings
newness—God always brings newness—and demands our complete trust:
Noah, mocked by all, builds an ark and is saved; Abram leaves his
land with only a promise in hand; Moses stands up to the might of
Pharaoh and leads his people to freedom; the apostles, huddled
fearfully in the Upper Room, go forth with courage to proclaim the
Gospel. This is not a question of newness for novelty’s sake, the
search for something new to relieve our boredom ... The newness which
God brings into our life is something that actually brings
fulfilment, that gives true joy, true serenity, because God loves us
and desires only our good. Let us ask ourselves today: Are we open to
'God’s surprises'? Or are we closed and fearful before the newness
of the Holy Spirit? Do we have the courage to strike out along the
new paths which God’s newness sets before us, or do we resist,
barricaded in transient structures which have lost their capacity for
openness to what is new? We would do well to ask ourselves these
questions all through the day.”
“The
Holy Spirit,” the pontiff continued, “would appear to create
disorder in the Church, since he brings the diversity of charisms and
gifts; yet all this, by his working, is a great source of wealth, for
the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of unity, which does not mean
uniformity, but which leads everything back to harmony. In the
Church, it is the Holy Spirit who creates harmony. ... Only the
Spirit can awaken diversity, plurality, and multiplicity, while at
the same time building unity. Here too, when we are the ones who try
to create diversity and close ourselves up in what makes us different
and other, we bring division. When we are the ones who want to build
unity in accordance with our human plans, we end up creating
uniformity, standardization. But if instead we let ourselves be
guided by the Spirit, richness, variety and diversity never become a
source of conflict, because he impels us to experience variety within
the communion of the Church. ... Having a sense of the Church is
something fundamental for every Christian, every community, and every
movement. It is the Church which brings Christ to me, and me to
Christ; parallel journeys are very dangerous! When we venture beyond
the Church’s teaching and community ... and do not remain in them,
we are not one with the God of Jesus Christ.”
In
his last point, the Pope observed that “early theologians used to
say that the soul is a kind of sailboat, the Holy Spirit is the wind
which fills its sails and drives it forward, and the gusts of wind
are the gifts of the Spirit. Lacking his impulse and his grace, we do
not go forward. The Holy Spirit draws us into the mystery of the
living God and saves us from the threat of a Church which is gnostic
and self-referential, closed in on herself; He impels us to open the
doors and go forth to proclaim and bear witness to the goodness of
the Gospel ... The Holy Spirit is the soul of mission. The events
that took place in Jerusalem almost two thousand years ago are not
something far removed from us; they are events which affect us and
become a lived experience in each of us. The Pentecost of the Upper
Room in Jerusalem is the beginning, a beginning which endures. ... It
is the Paraclete, the 'Comforter', who grants us the courage to take
to the streets of the world, bringing the Gospel! The Holy Spirit
makes us look to the horizon and urges us toward the very outskirts
of existence in order to proclaim life in Jesus Christ.”
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