Pope Francis advises putting God at the center to achieve unity

Pope Francis recalled that unity, both in the Church and in marriage and the family, comes from the Holy Spirit and is achieved “when one strives to put God, and not oneself, at the center.”

During his catechesis at today’s General Audience, the Holy Father reflected on the action of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, narrated in the Acts of the Apostles.

Before the faithful and pilgrims who listened to him from St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican, the Pontiff warned that “the unity of the Church is the unity between people and is not achieved by acting theoretically, but in life.”

What is necessary to achieve unity in the Church and the family?

He then noted that “we all want unity, we all desire it from the depths of our hearts.”

However, he continued, “it is so difficult to achieve that, even within marriage and family, unity and harmony are among the most difficult things to achieve and even more difficult to maintain.”

“The reason is that each person wants, yes, unity, but around their own point of view, without thinking that the other person in front of them thinks exactly the same about their point of view. In this way, the unit does nothing but move away,” he added.

For this reason, he stated that the unity of Pentecost, according to the Holy Spirit, “is achieved when one strives to put God, and not oneself, at the center.”

“Christian unity is also built like this: not by waiting for others to join us where we are, but by advancing together towards Christ,” he remarked.

Universality and unity

Later, Pope Francis cast his gaze on the Acts of the Apostles, when at Pentecost, the Apostles, filled with the Holy Spirit, “began to speak in other tongues.”

He pointed out that the evangelist Saint Luke wanted to highlight in this way “the universal mission of the Church, as a sign of a new unity among all peoples.”

In this sense, he explained that the Holy Spirit works for unity in two ways: “On the one hand, it pushes the Church outward, so that it can welcome more and more people and peoples; on the other, it brings it together within itself to consolidate the unity achieved. It teaches him to extend himself in universality and to gather himself in unity. Universal and one, this is the mystery of the Church.”

He stated that universality is composed of ethnic and geographic expansion, like when Saint Paul took the Gospel to Europe, outside of Asia.

Regarding unity, he recalled the Council of Jerusalem and pointed out that “the problem is how to ensure that the universality achieved does not compromise the unity of the Church.”

“The Holy Spirit does not always bring about unity suddenly, with miraculous and decisive interventions, as at Pentecost,” he added.

He explained that “he also does it — and in most cases — with discreet work, respectful of time and human differences, through people and institutions, prayer and confrontation. In a way, we would say today, synodal.”

Finally, he stressed that “the Holy Spirit does not bring about the unity of the Church from the outside, he does not limit himself to ordering us to be united.”

“He himself is the ‘bond of unity’, it is He who makes the unity of the Church,” he concluded.