Pope
Francis: the gift of the Holy Spirit renews the earth
(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis against the backdrop of St Peter’s
Basilica and dressed in scarlet vestments, celebrated Mass on Pentecost
Sunday. In his homily, the Holy Father began by focusing on Sunday’s
readings saying that, “the word of God, tells us that the Spirit is at work in
individuals and communities filled with the Spirit.
Expanding on this theme of the Spirit, Pope Francis said that,
in the Gospel, Jesus promises his disciples that, when he has returned to the
Father, the Holy Spirit will come to guide them into all the truth. Indeed he
calls the Holy Spirit “the Spirit of truth”.
Today’s world Pope Francis stressed, “needs men and women who
are not closed in on themselves, but filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Closing oneself off from the Holy Spirit, he said, means not only a lack
of freedom; it is a sin. There are many ways one can close oneself off to
the Holy Spirit, the Pope continued, “by selfishness for one’s own gain; by
rigid legalism – seen in the attitude of the doctors of the law to whom Jesus
referred as “hypocrites”; by neglect of what Jesus taught; by living the
Christian life not as service to others but in the pursuit of personal
interests; and in so many other ways.”
He underlined that the gift of the Holy Spirit “has been
bestowed upon the Church and upon each one of us, so that we may live lives of
genuine faith and active charity, that we may sow the seeds of reconciliation
and peace.”
The Holy Father explained to those gathered that, “the gift of
the Holy Spirit renews the earth". The Holy Spirit, he went on to
say, “whom Christ sent from the Father, and the Creator Spirit who gives life
to all things, are one and the same.” Therefore, the Pope said, respect
for creation, is a requirement of our faith and the “garden” in which we live
is not entrusted to us to be exploited, he added, but rather to be cultivated
and tended with respect
Concluding his homily, Pope Francis prayed that strengthened by
the Spirit and his many gifts, we would be able uncompromisingly to battle
against sin and corruption, devoting ourselves with patient perseverance to the
works of justice and peace.
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