Editor TLN
The request for the 800,000 people affected by the cyclone on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, after the Pentecost mass that he presided over in St. Peter’s Basilica. The invitation to the faithful: “Docile to the Spirit let us build harmony in the world and in the Church”. “Today there is so much discord, so much division, so many wars, the fruit of the spirit of division. Let us invoke the Spirit of unity that brings peace.”
Vatican City () – “Let’s put the Holy Spirit back at the center of the Church, otherwise our hearts will not burn for love of Jesus, but for love of ourselves.” This was the invitation made by Pope Francis in the homily for the Solemnity of Pentecost, which the pontiff celebrated today presiding over mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. An invitation that he accompanied with a heartfelt call – made during the prayer of the Regina Caeli, which he delivered at noon from the window of his study – in favor of the populations living on the border between Bangladesh and Myanmar, affected by Cyclone Mocha. “There are more than 800,000 people, in addition to the many Rohingia who already live in precarious conditions,” the Pope said. “While I renew my closeness to these populations, I address those responsible to facilitate access to humanitarian aid. And I appeal to the sense of human and ecclesial solidarity to help these brothers and sisters of ours”.
Faced with the mystery of the Holy Spirit that descends on the Apostles, Pope Francis invited in his homily to recognize his action as a bearer of harmony in the world created by God, in the Church and in our hearts. From the beginning, this face of God acts in a very special way. The Spirit – the Pope explained – “is the One who, at the beginning and at all times, causes created realities to pass from disorder to order, from dispersion to cohesion, from confusion to harmony. He gives the world, in a word, harmony. He renews the earth, but be careful: he does not change reality, but harmonizes it; That’s his style.”
“Today in the world there is so much discord, so much division,” he commented. what man can do. But, in reality, the one who feeds our hostilities is the spirit of division, the devil, whose name means precisely ‘divider'”. Faced with the evil of discord, our efforts to build harmony are not enough. That is why the Lord “at the end of his Easter, at the end of salvation, pours out on the created world his good Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who opposes the spirit of division because he is harmony, the Spirit of unity that brings peace. Let us invoke him every day on our world”, exhorted Francisco.
But this same action also occurs in the Church: the Spirit does not set it in motion “by giving instructions and norms to the community, but by descending on each Apostle: each one receives particular graces and different charisms. All this plurality of different gifts could cause confusion, but the Spirit, as in creation, loves to create harmony precisely from plurality: “It is not an imposed and standardized order”, “it does not create an equal language for all, it does not erase differences, cultures, but rather it harmonizes everything without homologating, without standardizing”. The Spirit “does not start with a structured plan, as we would do, who often get lost in our own agendas; no: it begins by bestowing free and superabundant gifts. Thus he creates harmony, inviting us to experience amazement at his love and his gifts in others. Seeing each brother and sister in faith as part of the same body to which I belong: this is the harmonious gaze of the Spirit, the path that it indicates to us.
And it is also the path of the Synod that we are following, which “is not a parliament to claim rights and needs according to the world’s agenda, it is not an opportunity to go where the wind takes us, but an opportunity to be docile to the breath of the Spirit “. Without the Spirit “the Church is inert, faith is just a doctrine, morality just a duty, pastoral just a job. Sometimes we hear so-called thinkers, theologians, who give us cold doctrines, which seem mathematical, because they lack the Spirit within him. With him, on the other hand, faith is life, the love of the Lord conquers us and hope is reborn”. And the Spirit likes to descend when “everyone is together” (cf. Acts 2,1): “To be filled with the Spirit, the people of God must walk together, hold a synod”, Francis commented, “thus renewing harmony in the Church: walking together with the Spirit in the center. Let us build harmony in the Church”.
Finally, the Spirit generates harmony in our hearts. It is given to us “for a precise purpose: to forgive sins, that is, to reconcile souls, to harmonize hearts lacerated by evil, torn apart by wounds, broken by guilt. Only the Spirit brings harmony to the heart. If we want harmony “, warned the Pope, “let us seek Him, not mundane fillers. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit every day, let us begin each day by praying to Him, let us become docile to Him”.
Hence the invitation to ask oneself: “Am I docile to the harmony of the Spirit? Or do I pursue my own projects, my own ideas, without letting myself be shaped, without letting myself be changed by Him? Do I rush to judge, pointing fingers and closing the doors in the face of others, considering myself the victim of everyone and everything? Or do I welcome their harmonious creative force, the “grace of all” that inspires, their forgiveness that gives peace? And in turn, do I forgive, promote reconciliation and create communion?
“If the world is divided, if the Church is polarized, if the heart is fragmented -Francis concluded-, let us not waste time criticizing others and getting angry with ourselves, but let us invoke the Spirit. Come Spirit of forgiveness, harmony of the heart , transform us as You know, through the intercession of Mary”.
