“We are truly the Church of the Risen One and the disciples of Pentecost only if there are neither borders nor divisions among us,” said Leone XIV during the homily of the Pentecost Mass, chaired this morning, June 8, in St. Peter’s Square. A strong message, pronounced in front of about 80 thousand faithful and pilgrims from all over the world to participate in the final celebration of the Jubilee of movements, associations and new communities.
The Pope has traced the profile of the authentic Christians, indicating the path of a church that is “welcoming and hospitable space towards everyone”, capable of integrating diversity and practicing dialogue as a daily exercise of communion. “In the Church – he underlined – we know how to dialogue and welcome us mutually”, and only in this way can the testimony of the Gospel in the world be credible.
Since early morning, Piazza San Pietro has filled itself. The Bernini’s miglicl, most of via della Conciliazione and the adjacent roads were crowded with faithful, many of whom brought flags of different nationalities, scarves and colored hats. When the Pope appeared aboard his white jeep, just before 10, the crowd exploded in an irrepressible enthusiasm: “Hurish Leone”, “Long live the Pope”, shouted those present, applauding and approaching to receive a blessing, especially for the little ones.
The pontiff made the usual tour between the sectors, stopping here and there to greet the children and bless them, stroking them with a participatory and paternal look. Then he left the churchyard of the Basilica to wear the liturgical vestments. At that moment, a collected and intense silence dropped in the square. At 10.30 am, the schola of the Sistine Chapel intoned the entrance song and the Eucharistic celebration began.
Below is the full text of his homily.
Brothers and sisters,
“The day in which (…) the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified with his ascent to heaven after the resurrection, sent the Holy Spirit,” S. Agostino, Speech 271, 1). And even today we revive what happened in the Upper Cenacle: like an impetuous wind that shakes us, like a thunder that awakens us, like a fire that illuminates us, the gift of the Holy Spirit descends us (cf. At 2.1-11).
As we listened to from the first reading, the spirit operates something extraordinary in the life of the Apostles. After the death of Jesus, they had locked themselves in fear and sadness, but now they finally receive a new look and an intelligence of the heart that helps them to interpret the events that have happened and to make the intimate experience of the presence of the Risen One: the Holy Spirit wins their fear, breaks the inner chains, soothes the wounds, unge with strength and give them the courage to come out to announce the works of God.
The passage of the acts of the Apostles tells us that in Jerusalem, at that moment, there was a multitude of various origins, yet, “each heard them speak in their own language” (v. 6). Here, then, in Pentecosto The doors of the Upper Cenacle open up Why The spirit opens borders. As Benedict XVI says: «The Holy Spirit gives to understand. It exceeds the break that began in Babel – the confusion of hearts, which puts us against each other – and opens the borders. (…) The Church must always become again to become what it is already: it must open the borders between peoples and break the barriers between classes and breeds. In it they cannot be forgotten or despised. In the Church there are only free brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ “(Homily in PentecostoMay 15, 2005).
Here is an eloquent image of Pentecost on which I would like to focus with you to meditate on.
The spirit opens the borders above all within us. It is the gift that deceives our life to love. And this presence of the Lord dissolves our hardness, our closures, the selfishness, the fears that block us, the narcissisms that make us rotate only around ourselves. The Holy Spirit comes to challenge, in us, the risk of a life that atrophy, sucked into individualism. It is sad to observe how in a world where the opportunities to socialize are multiplying, we risk being paradoxically more alone, always connected yet unable to “network”, always immersed in the crowd while remaining spassed and lonely travelers.
Instead, the Spirit of God makes us discover a new way of seeing and living life: it opens us to the encounter with ourselves beyond the masks we wear; He leads us to meet the Lord by educating us to experience his joy; It convinces us – according to the same words of Jesus just proclaimed – that only if we remain in love do we also receive the strength to observe his word and therefore to be transformed. Opens the borders within us, because our life becomes a hospitable space.
The spiritFurthermore, opens the borders also in our relationships. In fact, Jesus says that this gift is the love between him and the Father who comes to take home in us. And when God’s love lives in us, we become able to open up to the brothers, to win our rigidity, to overcome the fear of those who are different, to educate the passions that are shaking within us. But the spirit also transforms those most hidden dangers that pollute our relationships, such as misunderstandings, prejudices, exploitation. I also think – with a lot of pain – when a relationship is infested by the will to dominate on the other, an attitude that often leads to violence, as unfortunately show the numerous and recent cases of femicide.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, matures in us the fruits that help us live true and good relationships: “Love, joy, peace, magnanimity, benevolence, goodness, loyalty, mildness, self -dominion” (Gal 5,22). In this way, the spirit expands the frontiers of our relationships with others and opens us to the joy of fraternity. And this is a decisive criterion also for the Church: we are truly the Church of the Risen One and the disciples of Pentecost only if there are neither borders and divisions among us, if we know how to dialogue and welcome each other in the church integrating our diversity, if as a church we become a welcoming and hospitable space towards everyone.
In the end, The spirit opens borders also among peoples. In Pentecost, the apostles speak the languages of those they meet and the chaos of Babel is finally pacified by the harmony generated by the spirit. The differences, when the divine breath unites our hearts and shows us in the other the face of a brother, do not become an opportunity for division and conflict, but a common heritage from which we can all draw, and which puts everyone on the way, together, in the fraternity.
The spirit breaks the borders and breaks down the walls of indifference and hatred, because “it teaches us everything” and “reminds us of the words of Jesus” (cf. Jn 14,26); And, therefore, first of all, he teaches, recalls and affects our hearts the commandment of love, which the Lord has placed in the center and at the height of everything. And where there is love there is no room for prejudices, for the security distances that remove us from the next, for the logic of exclusion that we see unfortunately also emerge in political nationalisms.
Just celebrating Pentecost, Pope Francis observed that “today there is a lot of discord in the world, so much division. We are all connected and yet we find ourselves disconnected between us, anesthetized by indifference and oppressed by solitude “(HomilyMay 28, 2023). And of all this I am tragic sign the wars that shake our planet. We invoke the spirit of love and peace, because it opens the borders, breaks down the walls, dissolved hatred and help us live as children of the only father who is in the skies.
Brothers and sisters, it is Pentecost that renews the Church, renews the world! The gagliard wind of the spirit comes to us and in us, open the frontiers of the heart, give us the grace of the encounter with God, widen the horizons of love and support our efforts for the construction of a world in which peace reigns.
Maria Santissima, a woman from Pentecost, a virgin visited by the spirit, mother full of grace, accompanies us and intercedes for us.
Copy
