June 16, 2024 - "The Holy Spirit"

Pope Francis preached a very memorable homily on Pentecost Sunday in 2020.  In that homily he pointed out that the Holy Spirit brought about unity among Christ’s followers in the early Church despite the diversity of backgrounds and ethnicities that were present even at that time.  Pope Francis continued by saying that today we also have our differences, such as opinions, choices, or sensibilities.  But when we yield to the temptation to defend fiercely our own ideas as being good for everyone, the Holy Father said that becomes a “faith created in our own image,” “not what the Spirit wants.”
 
He continued, “We might think that what unites us are our beliefs and our morality.  But there is much more:  our principle of unity is the Holy Spirit.”  The Spirit comes to us in our differences and unites us as “God’s beloved children.”  We are brothers and sisters because we have one Lord—Jesus—and one Father.
 
In taking a closer look at the day of Pentecost, the Holy Father said that the first task of the Church is proclamation.  The Holy Spirit does not want the Apostles to be locked in upper rooms where it is easy to “nest.” On the contrary, He “opens doors and pushes us to press beyond what has already been said and done, beyond the precincts of a timid and weary faith.”
 
After Pentecost, one thing that kept the Apostles going was “the desire to give what they had received.” In the Church, Pope Francis said that the Spirit guarantees unity to those who proclaim the message.
 
Pope Francis pointed out that the “secret of unity” of the Holy Spirit is a gift, as He Himself is gift.  It is important, then, to believe that “God is gift”—that He acts not by taking away, but by giving.
 
If we realize what we are is owing to His free and unmerited gift, then “we too will want to make our lives a gift.” We do this by loving humbly, serving freely and joyfully.  In this way we will offer to the world the true image of God.
 
However, the Pope warns us, that in this gift of self, there are three enemies for which we need to be on guard:  narcissism, victimhood, and pessimism.
 
Narcissism, Pope Francis said, makes us concerned only with how we can profit from it.  In this time of pandemic, the Pope lamented the tendency to think only of our own needs and to be indifferent to the needs of others.
 
Victimhood, he said, was equally dangerous.  Victims complain every day about their neighbors—that no one understands them, no one experiences what they experience and everyone is against them.  In the present crisis, Pope Francis noted, we are experiencing how ugly victimhood is.
 
Pessimism is an unending complaint that “nothing is going well in society, politics, the Church….”  A pessimist gets angry with the world, but sits back and does nothing.  In the current crisis, the Pope said it is damaging to “see everything in its worst light and to keep saying that nothing will return as before.”
 
“When someone thinks this way,” the Pope observed, “the one thing that certainly does not return is hope.” “We are experiencing a famine of hope,” he said, “and we need to appreciate the gift of life, the gift that each of us is.” “We need the Holy Spirit, the gift of God who heals us of narcissism, victimhood, and pessimism.”
 
Until next week,
Fr. John