Pope: The Spirit makes us free, without compromise,
rigidity
(Vatican Radio) Never forget that our faith is concrete, and
rejects compromises and idealizations. That was the message of Pope Francis at
the morning Mass at the Casa Santa Marta.
Among those present at the Mass were the Cardinal counselors
of the C-9, who are meeting with the Holy Father on Monday. The Pope reflected
on the liberty the Holy Spirit gives us, which brings about the proclamation of
the Gospel without compromises or rigidity.
Following the Easter break, Pope Francis on Monday resumed
his regular morning Masses, focusing his homily on the Gospel account of Jesus’
meeting with Nicodemus. The Holy Father said that Jesus, with love and
patience, explained to Nicodemus that he must be “born from above… born of the
Holy Spirit.”
To understand this better, the Pope said, one can consider
the first Reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles. Peter and John have
healed a crippled man, and the doctors of the Law don’t know what to do, how
“to hide” what happened, “because the event was public.” When they were
questioned, Peter and John “answered with simplicity”; and when they were
ordered not to speak about what happened, Peter responded, “No! We cannot
remain silent about what we have seen and heard. And we will continue to do as
we have been doing.”
The Word became flesh; our faith is concrete
See, then, the Pope said, “the concreteness of a fact, the
concreteness of the faith” in contrast to the position of the doctors of the
law who “wanted to enter into negotiations, to come to a compromise”: Peter and
John “have courage, they have frankness, the frankness of the Spirit,” “which
means speaking the truth openly, with courage, without compromises.” This is
“the point,” “the concreteness of the faith”:
“At times we forget that our faith is concrete: the Word
was made flesh; it is not made an idea. And when we recite the Creed,
everything we say is concrete: ‘I believe in God the Father, Who made heaven
and earth; I believe in Jesus Christ Who was born, Who died…’ These are all
concrete things. Our Creed does not say, ‘I have to do this, I have to do that,
I have to do something else, or that some things are for these ends.’ No! They
are concrete things. [This is] the concreteness of the faith that leads to
frankness, to bearing witness even to the point of martyrdom, which is against
compromises or the idealization of the faith.”
At times, even the Church has fallen into “a theology of
‘yes you can,’ ‘no you can’t”
For these doctors of the law, he continued, the Word “was
not made flesh: it was made law: and you must do this up to this point, and no
further”; “you must do this, and nothing else”:
“And so they were imprisoned in this rationalistic
mentality, which did not end with them. Because in the history of the Church –
although often the Church Herself has condemned rationalism, illuminism – later
it often happened that it fell into a theology of ‘yes, you can, no you can’t;
up to this point, thus far.’ And it forgot the strength, the liberty of the
Spirit, this rebirth of the Spirit that gives you liberty, the frankness of
preaching, the proclamation that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
The Lord gives us the Spirit in order to proclaim the
Gospel without rigidity
“Let us ask the Lord,” the Pope said, for “this experience
of the Spirit Who comes and goes and bears us onward; of the Spirit Who gives
us the anointing of the faith, the anointing of the concreteness of the faith”:
“The wind blows where it will and you hear the voice, but
you don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going. So it is for
anyone who is born of the Spirit: He hears the voice, he follows the voice, he
follows the voice of the Spirit without knowing where it will end. Because he
has made an option for the concreteness of the faith and the rebirth of the
Spirit. May the Lord grand to all of us this paschal Spirit, of going forward
along the path of the Spirit without compromises, without rigidity, with the
liberty of proclaiming Jesus Christ as He Who has come: in the flesh.”
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