Pentecost: "Holy Spirit divine force that changes the world" Homily of the Pope Francisco on the Feast of Pentecost: The Spirit changes hearts, changes events, acts as a strong restorative and guides towards God and towards the world.Vatican City.
Pentecost: "Holy Spirit divine force that changes the world"
Homily of Pope Francis on the Feast of Pentecost: The Spirit changes hearts, changes events, acts as a strong restorative and guides towards God and towards the world.
Vatican City
On the Solemnity of Pentecost, celebrated in Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican, Pope Francis highlighted the qualities bestowed on us by the Holy Spirit, conceived as “the divine force that changes the world”, a force that, like "a wind that blows strongly", "changes reality" and above all, "changes hearts", expressed the Pope during his homily at Holy Mass, and invited us to invoke the Spirit in our environments, before of our activities.
The Holy Spirit changes hearts
Pope Francis, focusing his reflection on the passage from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, explains that the disciples - who at first were full of fear, entrenched with closed doors even after the Master's resurrection - "are transformed by the Spirit" and, as Jesus announces in today's Gospel, "bear witness to him". "From being hesitant they become courageous" - the Pope affirmed - "because the Spirit changed their hearts.” A passage that the Pope used as an example to explain how the Holy Spirit "enters situations and transforms them, changes hearts and changes events."
But it is also the "Spirit" that "Free hearts closed by fear and overcome resistance" Francisco continued, so that - to those who settle for half measures - "it offers impetus to surrender". He also “widens narrow hearts”, “encourages those who slack off in comfort to serve”, “makes those who think they have already arrived walk” and “makes those who fall into lukewarmness dream”.
"Experience teaches that no earthly effort to change things fully satisfies the heart of man," he said, while the change of the Spirit is different: “it does not revolutionize the life around us, but it changes our hearts; it does not suddenly free us from problems, but it makes us free inside to face them; He does not give us everything immediately, but rather makes us walk with confidence, making us never get tired of life”.
The Holy Spirit: strong "restorative"
Furthermore, the Spirit "keeps the heart young", preventing the only unhealthy aging: the interior. And he does it precisely "by renewing the heart, transforming it from a sinner to a forgiven one."
Sometimes we need a real change - the Pope said - especially "when we are sunk, when we are tired by the weight of life, when our weaknesses oppress us, when moving forward is difficult and loving seems impossible". And it is at that moment when the Spirit acts as a "strong" restorative ": "it is he, the strength of God", said the Holy Father, who "also reaches the most unimaginable situations".
The Holy Spirit: soul of the church
Making a comparison like when a child is born in a family, which disrupts schedules, makes you lose sleep, but brings a joy that renews life and drives it forward, the Pope assured that it is the same thing that the Holy Spirit does in the Church: He "reanimates her with hope, fills her with joy and gives her sprouts of life," the Pope said.
The Holy Spirit: centripetal and centrifugal force
The power of the Holy Spirit is unique. On the one hand, it is a centripetal force, that is, "it pushes towards the center, because it acts in the depths of the heart", Francis indicated, in such a way that "it brings unity in fragmentation, peace in afflictions and strength in temptations". .
But at the same time – he pointed out – “it is a centrifugal force”, that is, it “pushes towards the outside”: The one who leads to the center is the same one who sends to the periphery, towards all human periphery; he who reveals God to us pushes us towards the brothers.
It is only in the Comforting Spirit when "we say words of life and really encourage others" - the Pope concluded - because, "Whoever lives according to the Spirit is in this spiritual tension: he finds himself oriented towards God and towards the world at the same time”.
January 26, 2022
Source: Vatican News