Pope: The Spirit guides us and the Church towards the mission of Christ

At the Regina Caeli, Francis comments on today's Gospel, centered on the Paraclete: "In order to realize the mission that God has entrusted to us, the Church cannot remain static.  It is a question of freeing oneself from the worldly bonds represented by our views, our strategies, our goals, which often weigh down the journey of faith, and place ourselves in docile listening to the Word of the Lord "

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - The task of the Holy Spirit "is to make people remember, that is, to fully understand and induce to concretely implement the teachings of Jesus. And this is also the mission of the Church, which realizes it through a precise  lifestyle, characterized by some necessities: faith in the Lord and the observance of His Word;  docility to the action of the Spirit, which continually makes the Risen Lord alive and present;  the acceptance of his peace and the testimony given to it with an attitude of openness and encounter with the other, ” observed Pope Francis today before reciting the Regina Caeli Marian prayer.

The pontiff comments were inspired bytoday's Gospel, a passage from the discourse that Jesus addressed to the Apostles at the Last Supper.  He speaks of the work of the Holy Spirit and makes a promise: "The Paraclete, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you".

Jesus, the Pope says, sees the Cross approaching but wants "to reassure the Apostles that they will not remain alone:  there will always be the Holy Spirit with them, the Paraclete, who will support them in the mission of bringing the Gospel to the whole world".

In the original Greek language, adds Francis, "the term" Paraclete "means the one who stands next to support and console.  What is the mission of the Holy Spirit that Jesus promises as a gift?  He says it himself: "He will teach you everything and remind you of everything I have told you."  In the course of his earthly life, Jesus has already transmitted all he wanted to entrust to the Apostles: he brought the divine Revelation to completion, that is all that the Father wanted to say to humanity with the incarnation of the Son ".

The task of the Holy Spirit, therefore, "is to make people remember, that is, to fully understand and induce to concretely implement the teachings of Jesus. And this is also the mission of the Church, which realizes it through a precise lifestyle,  characterized by some needs: faith in the Lord and the observance of his Word;  docility to the action of the Spirit, which continually makes the Risen Lord alive and present;  the acceptance of his peace and the testimony given to it with an attitude of openness and encounter with the other”.

Francis concludes, to achieve this "the Church cannot remain static.  It is a question of freeing ourselves from the worldly bonds represented by our views, our strategies, our goals, which often burden the journey of faith, and place ourselves in docile listening to the Word of the Lord.  Thus is the Spirit of God to guide us and guide the Church, so that the authentic face, beautiful and luminous, willed by Christ, may shine from it ”.