The Holy Spirit teaches, reminds, and leads us to speak, Pope says in Pentecost homily
June 09, 2014
Preaching in St. Peter’s Basilica at Mass on Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis said that the Holy Spirit “teaches us and reminds us and makes us speak.”
The Holy Spirit is the “interior Teacher” who guides us to the right path in life, the Pope said. Jesus is the way, he added, and the Holy Spirit “teaches us to follow him, to walk in his footsteps. More than a teacher of doctrine, the Holy Spirit is a teacher of life.”
The Holy Spirit is “the living memory of the Church” who reminds the Church and her members of what Jesus said and did, Pope Francis added. As the Holy Spirit recalls Jesus’ words to our minds, Christ’s words become “attitudes, choices, gestures, testimony.” Thus “a Christian without memory is not a true Christian”; the Holy Spirit can help us grow in the wisdom of memory.
Noting that there are “mute Christians,” the Pope said that the Holy Spirit also causes us to speak: to speak with God the Father in prayer, to speak with others in fraternal dialogue, and at times to speak in prophecy against injustices, “but always with meekness and constructive intent.”
On Pentecost, the Pope concluded, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, allowing the Church to go forth, evangelize, and serve. Both the Church and Mary, he added, are virgins, mothers, and women “who departed to serve.” Without the Holy Spirit, “there is no mission, there is no evangelization. For this reason, with the whole Church, with our Mother the Catholic Church, we call: Come, Holy Spirit!”
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Jun. 09, 2014 11:00 AM ET USA
"A Christian without memory is not a true Christian." Whoa! The Holy Father going upside the head of all those who think they don't need to maintain apostolic succession? Of course he did it in a kinder, gentler way than some of us less gifted Catholics are wont to do. And too, its exactly the same message as Pope Emeritus Benedict's hermaneutic of continuity.
