Pope: think about what the Holy Spirit - who moves the Church - does in my life

The Holy Spirit "does everything, knows everything, reminds us what Jesus said, he knows how to explain the things of Jesus to us. There is only one thing that the Holy Spirit cannot do: Arm chair Christians. This he cannot do! He cannot make 'virtual ' but not virtuous Christians. He makes real Christians"

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - In this week of preparation for Pentecost it would do us all good to reflect on what the Holy Spirit – who moves the Church – does in our life, if he brings us back to the reality of Christianity, our encounter with Jesus”, said the Pope in the Mass celebrated this morning in Casa Santa Marta, drawing inspiration from the dialogue among the first disciples in Ephesus who, while believing in Jesus, did not know who the Holy Spirit was.

Even today, noted Francis, for many Christians, the Holy Spirit is a stranger or even "a luxury prisoner." This is something, he said, that happens today as well as many who believe in Jesus do not know the Holy Spirit. Many, he said, say they have “learnt through Catechism” that the Holy Spirit is “in the Trinity” but they do not know anything more and they wonder what the Spirit does: "The Holy Spirit is the one who moves the Church, he said, the one who works in the Church and  in our hearts” making each Christian unique and yet, together with other Christians, a unit. The Holy Spirit, the Pope continued, opens the doors and invites us to bear witness to Jesus. “At the beginning of Mass we heard the words: ‘you will receive the Holy Spirit and you will be my witnesses in the world’. The Holy Spirit is the one who moves us to praise God, to pray the Lord, the one who is within us and teaches us to see the Father and to call him ‘Father’. The Holy Spirit frees us from this ‘orphan-like’ condition which the spirit of the world wants to put us in".

The Holy Spirit, he said, is "s “the protagonist of the living Church” and he warned against the danger of not living up to this mission of the Holy Spirit thereby reducing faith to "morals  and ethics”. It is not enough, he said, to just respect the Commandments and do “nothing more": "this can be done, this cannot be done; this far, yes, until there no! and from there to the series and to a cold moral".

Christian life, Francis reiterated, “is not just an ethical life: it is an encounter with Jesus Christ.” And it is thanks to the Holy Spirit that this encounter takes place:

"But we keep the Holy Spirit as a ‘luxury prisoner’ in our hearts: we do not allow the Spirit to push us forward, to move us. The Sprit does everything, knows everything, reminds us what Jesus said, can explain all about Jesus. There is only one thing the Holy Spirit can’t do: make us ‘parlour’ Christians (…) The Holy Spirit cannot make us ‘virtual’ Christians who are not virtuous. The Holy Spirit makes real Christians. The Spirit takes life as it is and prophetically reads the signs of the times pushing us forward (…), the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity".

This week "it would do us good to reflect on what the Holy Spirit means in my life" and ask whether we "have learned the path to freedom." The Holy Spirit, who dwells in me, he added, "urges me to go out: Do I fear? Am I courageous, what does the Holy Spirit give to me, so I can come out of myself, to bear witness to Jesus? ". And again, "How patient am I in trials? Because the Holy Spirit is the one who gives me patience". "In this week of preparation for the Feast of Pentecost, we should reflect on this: 'Do I really believe the Holy Spirit has something to say to me?'. And we should try to talk to him and say: 'I know that You are in my heart, that You're in the heart of the Church, that You carry forward the Church, that You make unity between us, but we are all different '... tell him all these things and ask for the grace to learn - but practically, in my life - what He does. And for the grace of obedience to Him: be docile to the Holy Spirit. This week we should do this: we should think of the Spirit, and talk to him".

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