During the Mass for the Solemnity of Pentecost, Pope Leo XIV recalls how the Holy Spirit accomplished ‘something extraordinary’ in the lives of the Apostles, and suggests that today, the Holy Spirit likewise descends upon us, ready to shatter our inner chains, fears, and hardened hearts, to make us new.
By Deborah Castellano Lubov
“Today, too, what took place in the Upper Room takes place anew in our midst. Like a mighty wind that overtakes us, like a crash that startles us, like a fire that illuminates us, the gift of the Holy Spirit descends upon us.”
Pope Leo XIV offered this comforting reminder during his Mass for the Solemnity of Pentecost, which also marked the Mass for the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations and New Communities, on Sunday morning in St. Peter’s Square.
During his homily, the Holy Father underscored how the Holy Spirit accomplished “something extraordinary” in the lives of the Apostles.
Shatters inner chains of Apostles and anoints them
While “following Jesus’ death, they had retreated behind closed doors, in fear and sadness,” now, Pope Leo observed, “they receive a new way of seeing things, an interior understanding that helps them to interpret the events that occurred and to experience intimately the presence of the Risen Lord.”
In this context, the Pope marveled that the Holy Spirit “overcomes their fear, shatters their inner chains, heals their wounds, anoints them with strength and grants them the courage to go out to all and to proclaim God’s mighty works.”
Pope Leo XIV delivers homily (@Vatican Media)
Pope Leo XIV recalled that at Pentecost, the doors of the Upper Room were opened because the Spirit opens borders, as he quoted the late Pope Benedict XVI’s words in a 2005 Pentecost homily: “The Holy Spirit bestows understanding. The Spirit overcomes the ‘breach’ that began in Babel, the confusion of mind and heart that sets us one against the other. The Spirit opens borders…”
‘The Spirit opens borders’
Calling this an eloquent image of Pentecost, Pope Leo XIV went on to reflect on this idea, noting the Spirit “opens border” first of all in our hearts, and “is the Gift that opens our lives to love.”
“His presence,” the Pope reassured, “breaks down our hardness of heart, our narrowness of mind, our selfishness, the fears that enchain us and the narcissism that makes us think only of ourselves.”
The Holy Spirit, he went on to suggest, comes “to challenge us.”
New way of approaching life
Moreover, the Spirit, Pope Leo stressed, allows us to find a new way of approaching and experiencing life, observing, “He puts us in touch with our inmost self, beneath all the masks we wear. He leads us to an encounter with the Lord by teaching us to experience the joy that is His gift.”
“He convinces us, that only by abiding in love,” the Pope suggested, “will we receive the strength to remain faithful to His word and to let it transform us.”
Pope Leo XIV on Pentecost Sunday (@Vatican Media)
Opening our hearts, overcoming our rigidity and passions
He also observed that the Spirit also opens borders in our relationship with others.
Recalling Jesus’ explanation that the gift of the Spirit “is the love between Him and the Father that comes to dwell within us,” the Pope said this enables us to “open our hearts to our brothers and sisters, overcoming our rigidity, moving beyond our fear of those who are different, and mastering the passions that stir within.”
Moreover, he said, the Spirit “transforms those deeper, hidden dangers that disturb our relationships, like suspicion, prejudice or the desire to manipulate others,” adding, ” I think too, with great pain, of those cases where relationships are marked by an unhealthy desire for domination, an attitude that often leads to violence, as is shown, tragically, by numerous recent cases of femicide.”
‘Critical yardstick for the Church’
The Pope explained that the Holy Spirit brings the fruits within us to maturity in order to cultivate good and healthy relationships, and in doing so, broadens the borders of our relationships and opens us to the joy of fraternity.
“This,” he stressed, “is also a critical yardstick for the Church,” reminding that we are only “truly the Church of the Risen Lord and disciples of Pentecost,” “if there are no borders or divisions among us; if we are able to dialogue and accept one another in the Church, and to reconcile our diversities; and if, as Church, we become a welcoming and hospitable place for all.”
Pentecost renews
The Holy Father also recognized that the Holy Spirit also opens borders between peoples, underscoring that “God’s ‘breath’ unites our hearts,” “makes us view others as our brothers and sisters,” and “breaks down barriers and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred.”
With this in mind, Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed, “Pentecost renews the Church, renews the world!”
“May the strong wind of the Spirit,” Pope Leo concluded before imploring the Blessed Mother in prayer, “come upon us and within us, open the borders of our hearts, grant us the grace of encounter with God, enlarge the horizons of our love and sustain our efforts to build a world in which peace reigns.”
Pope Leo XIV on Pentecost Sunday (@Vatican Media)
