When this Saturday, June 7, the vigil of Pentecost in the Plaza de San Pedro del Vatican
The Holy Father arrived at a Plaza de San Pedro Colmada de faithful and pilgrims around 8:00 p.m. (Rome time) to preside over this vigil for the first time in his pontificate, after his election on May 8.
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At the beginning of the liturgy the I came Creator (Come, creative spirit), while representatives of the movements, associations and new communities approached the Pascual Cirio, taking seven lamps on.
At the beginning of his homily, Leo XIV recalled that “the creative spirit, which we have invoked with the song –I came Creator-, It is the spirit that descended on Jesus, the silent protagonist of his mission: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is over me’ ”.
“Asking him to visit our minds, multiply the languages, turn on the senses, instill love, comfort the bodies and donate peace, we have opened to welcome the kingdom of God,” he said.
The Pope stressed that “this is the conversion according to the Gospel: to lead us to the kingdom that is already close. In Jesus we see and of Jesus we hear that everything is transformed, because God reigns, because God is close.”
“In this vigil of Pentecost we are closely linked by the proximity of God, by his spirit that unites our stories to that of Jesus. We are involved in the new things that God does, so that his willingness to life is fulfilled and prevails over the will of death,” he said.
“Farmers with a spirit of unity”
The Holy Father said later that “baptism and confirmation, dear brothers and sisters, have joined us to the transforming mission of Jesus, to the kingdom of God.”
“As love makes us familiar the smell of a loved person, so we recognize the one in each other the perfume of Christ. It is a mystery that surprises us and makes us think,” he said.
“In Pentecosts Mary, the apostles, the disciples and the disciples who were filled with a spirit of unity, which forever filed their diversities in the only Lord Jesus Christ. Not many missions, but a single mission. Not introverted and bellicose, but extroverted and bright,” he said.
The Pope also pointed out that “this Plaza de San Pedro, which is like an open and cozy hug, magnificently expresses the communion of the Church, experienced by each of you in the different associative and community experiences, many of which represent fruits of the Second Vatican Council.”
“God is not loneliness”
Remembering the afternoon in which Pope was chosen, on May 8, he said: “Looking with shock to the people of God gathered here, I remembered the word ‘Sinodality’, which happily expresses the way in which the Spirit models the Church.”
“In this word the syn “That means,” that constitutes the secret of God’s life, “he said, specifying that” God is not loneliness. God is ‘with’ in himself – father, Son and Holy Spirit – and he is God with us. ”
“At the same time, Sinodality reminds us of the way –sake– Because where the spirit is there, there is a way. We are a town on the way. This conscience does not take us away, but immerses us in humanity, as a yeast in the dough, which ferments. ”
Leo XIV stressed that “the year of grace of the Lord, of which the jubilee is expression, has this ferment in itself. In a world broken and without peace the Holy Spirit educates us to walk together. The earth will rest, justice will be affirmed, the poor will be glad and peace will return if we stop moving as predators and begin to do it as pilgrims.”
“Not every one on his own, but harmonizing our steps with the steps of others. Not consuming the world with voracity, but cultivating it and guarding it, as the encyclical laudato teaches us.”
“God has created the world so that we were together”
Going more directly to the different ecclesial realities gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro, the Pope reminded them that “God has created the world so that we were together. ‘Sinodality’ is the ecclesial name of this consciousness.”
“It is the path that asks each one to recognize one’s debt and the treasure itself, feeling part of a totality, outside which everything withers, even the most original of the charisms,” he said.
“Look: all creation exists only in the modality of existing together, sometimes dangerous, but still together always,” he said, stressing that “what we call ‘history’ takes shape only in the modality of meeting, of a coexistence, often in the midst of dissent, but still a coexistence. The opposite is mortally and unfortunately is before our eyes every day.”
“That their aggregations and communities are then places where fraternity and participation are practiced, not only as a meeting places, but as places of spirituality.”
Leo XIV to movements, associations and new communities: be “near your bishops”
The Pope then specified that evangelization “is not a human conquest of the world, but the infinite grace that spreads through lives transformed by the kingdom of God. It is the path of bliss, an itinerary that we travel together.”
“Evangelization is the work of God,” he said, “and, if sometimes it happens through our people, it is because of the links that make it possible.”
Therefore, he encouraged the movements, associations and new communities to be “deeply linked to each of the particular churches and the parish communities where they feed and spend their charisms.”
“Near his bishops and in synergy with all other members of the body of Christ we will act, then, in harmonious tune,” he said.
“The challenges that humanity face will be less frightening, the future will be less dark, the less difficult discernment, if together we obey the spirit,” he said.
David Ramos
Graduate in Communication Sciences by the Private University of the North in Trujillo, Peru. With more than 12 years of experience in Catholic journalism working in ACI Press, I am based in Mexico since 2018. I have covered the trips of Pope Francis to Ecuador, Paraguay, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Panama.