Pope: the children of God are open to the 'new' brought by the Spirit
Closure and openness: two opposing poles that describe how man can react before the breath of the Holy Spirit. The second is precisely "of the disciples, of the apostles": the initial resistance is not only human, but it is also "a guarantee that they cannot be deceived by anything and then find their way through prayer and discernment".
Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In the history of man "there will always be resistance" to the news brought by the Holy Spirit - that "always comes to meet us with something new" and "original" - and to "change", but the children of God, who despite having perhaps an initial reticence, are free and able to open themselves to the new, said Pope Francis at mass this morning at Casa Santa Marta.
Pope Francis, speaking about the close-mindedness of the doctors of the Law in the Gospel of John (10:22-30), explained how their observance of the law became rigidity. Since they placed themselves at the center, they remained untouched before the works the Holy Spirit accomplishes. Pope Francis highlights their inability to “discern the signs of the times” as a type of prison: They received a law that was life, but they “distilled” it, they transformed it into an ideology and thus they toss and turn it and are unable to move beyond. Anything new for them is a threat.
The opposite is true of the child of God for whom the Holy Spirit is central. The Acts of the Apostles (11:19-26) shows us the first disciples who were docile before what was new to them, Pope Francis said. That is the attitude which led them to sow the Word of God in ways that were not tried and true. “They remained docile to the Holy Spirit and accomplished something that was more than a revolution”, the Pope said. They put the Church in motion showing us that a Church can only achieve its balance like a bicycle—only when it is in motion.
Pope Francis continued by saying that there are two contrary ways to describe a person’s reaction to the breath of the Holy Spirit: closure or openness. It is openness which characterizes the disciples and the apostles, Pope Francis said.
Before the fact that there will always be resistance to the Holy Spirit in the Church, the Pope concluded with this prayer. He concluded “ May the Lord grant us the grace of knowing how to resist those that we must resist, those who come from the evil one, those who deprive us of our freedom. May we know how to open ourselves to new things, but only those that come from God. May he grant us, with the strength of the Holy Spirit, the grace to discern the signs of the times in order to make the decisions that we need to make in that moment”.
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