Homily of Pope Francis at the Pentecost Vigil Mass in Verona

At the end of an intense day of travel to Verona (Italy), Pope Francis presided over the Holy Mass of the Vigil of Pentecost at the Bentegodi stadium before embarking on his return to the Vatican.

Below we reproduce the full text of the homily delivered that the Pontiff completely improvised:

Once the apostle Paul went to a Christian community and asked if they had received the Holy Spirit and they said: What is the Holy Spirit? They did not know what the Holy Spirit was. I think that today, if I ask many Christian communities what the Holy Spirit is, they will not know how to answer. Once, at a children’s mass, on a day like this, Pentecost, there were at least 200 children, I asked: Who is the Holy Spirit? The children said: Me, me, me. Everyone wanted to respond. I said: You. And he told me: He is the paralytic, because he had heard paraclete and he said paralytic. And many times, if I ask, I don’t say that the answer will be “the paralytic,” but we don’t know who the Holy Spirit is.

Brothers and sisters, the Holy Spirit is the protagonist of our lives. He is the one who takes us forward, who helps us move forward, who helps us develop our Christian life. The Holy Spirit is within us. Pay attention. We had all received the Holy Spirit through Baptism and also with Confirmation, much more. But I listen to the Holy Spirit who is within me. I listen to the Holy Spirit that moves the heart, do not do this, do this. Does the Holy Spirit not exist for me? Today we celebrate the feast of the day on which the Holy Spirit came.

But think, the apostles were all there, locked in the cenacle. They were afraid. The doors closed. And the Holy Spirit came and changed their hearts and they went out to preach boldly. The Holy Spirit gives us the courage to live the Christian life. And with this courage our lives change. Many times we go with the same sins: “But Father, I would like to change my life, I don’t know how to do it.” Listen to the Holy Spirit, pray to the Spirit and He will be the one to change your life. Trust in the Holy Spirit. “Father, I am 90 years old, I can no longer change.” How many days to live do you have left? With only the Holy Spirit you can change your life, you can change your heart. The Spirit is before anything else, it is the one who changes our lives. Have you understood this? Let’s repeat together. The Spirit changes our lives, all of us. The Spirit changes our lives. And this is beautiful.

The second thing, the apostles who were so afraid when they received the Holy Spirit… They bravely went forward to preach the Gospel. The Holy Spirit gives us courage to live Christianly. Many times we find Christians who are like warm water, neither hot nor cold. They need courage. “But, Father, where can we take a course to have courage, bravery?” No, pray to the Spirit, trust in the Spirit. The Spirit gives us the courage to live Christianly. Have you understood this? All together: “The Spirit gives us courage.” Let us ask this, that the Spirit helps us move forward.

And another very beautiful thing is that the Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, there were people from all nations, from all languages, from all cultures. And the Spirit, with those people, built the Church. The Spirit builds up the Church. What does it mean? That he makes us all equal. No, all different, but with one heart, with the love that unites us. The (Holy) Spirit is the one who saves us from the danger of making us all equal. No, we are all redeemed, loved by the Father. All of us have learned from Jesus, but it is the Spirit who does that thing that brings us all together. There is a word that expresses this well: the Spirit makes the harmony of the Church, each one different from the other, but in a climate of harmony. All together: “The Spirit makes us create harmony.”

Dear brothers and sisters, this is today’s miracle. Take cowardly men with fear and make them brave. Take men and women from all cultures and make them, make a unity of all, make the Church, take these people and not make them equal. What does the Spirit do? -The last one-: “The Spirit creates harmony.” All together: “The Spirit creates harmony.” Now each one of us, each one think about his life. We all need harmony. We all need the Holy Spirit to give us harmony in our soul, in the family, in the city, in the workplace. The opposite of harmony is war, it is fighting one against another. And when war is waged, when one fights against another, does the Spirit do this, yes or no? No. A little stronger. No. Not this. The Spirit makes harmony. And with the apostles, the day he came, was the Virgin Mary. Let us ask her to give us the grace of the Holy Spirit, that she, as her mother, teach us to receive the Holy Spirit. Thank you.