The Holy Spirit brings harmony and unity in a world of stark contradictions, the pope said on Pentecost.
Celebrating Mass on the solemnity of Pentecost on 9 June in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis said that peace is not a matter of resolving outward problems, it’s about receiving the Holy Spirit.
“What makes a difference is the peace of Jesus, the harmony of the Spirit,” he said.
“Filled with his peace, our hearts are like a deep sea, which remains peaceful, even when its surface is swept by waves.”
Pope Francis said that “in today’s frenzied pace of life”, harmony is often swept aside and we look for fixes, like pills or thrill-seeking to “feel alive”.
But more than anything else, he said, we need the Spirit, he said.
“The Spirit is peace in the midst of restlessness, confidence in the midst of discouragement, joy in sadness, youth in ageing, courage in the hour of trial,” he said.
According to Francis, a lack of harmony is what has caused the many stark divisions seen in today’s world.
“There are those who have too much and those who have nothing, those who want to live to a hundred and those who cannot even be born”, he said.
He said that in “the age of the computer, distances are increasing: the more we use the social media, the less social we are becoming”.
We need the Spirit of unity, Pope Francis said, to regenerate us as Church, as God’s People and as a human family.
He urged people not to “cling to our little group” saying that the Holy Spirit “brings together those who were distant, unites those far off, brings home those who were scattered.”
“He blends different tonalities in a single harmony, because before all else he sees goodness,” he said.
He said that those who live by the Spirit “ “bring peace where there is discord, concord where there is conflict. Those who are spiritual repay evil with good. They respond to arrogance with meekness, to malice with goodness, to shouting with silence, to gossip with prayer, to defeatism with encouragement.”
Pope Francis concluded his homily with an invitation to adopt the Spirit’s way of seeing things.
“Then everything changes: with the Spirit, the Church is the holy People of God, mission is the spread of joy, as others become our brothers and sisters, all loved by the same Father,” he said.