Earlier this month, most Christians in the world celebrated the great feast of Pentecost. The ultimate resolution to the divided Christian family lies in the divine ministry of the Holy Spirit.
As Pope Francis notes in his Pentecost homily, “In our world today, there is much discord, such great division! We are all ‘connected,’ yet find ourselves disconnected from one another, anesthetized by indifference and overwhelmed by solitude. If the world is divided, if the Church is polarized, if hearts are broken, let us not waste time in criticizing others and growing angry with one another; instead, let us invoke the Holy Spirit. He is capable of resolving these things.”
The Pope’s homily was beautiful and meaningful on several levels. He is concerned about the disharmony in the world, in our own Catholic Church, in our division from other Christians, and by wars and conflicts. At the root of all these divisions is a dividing force. Pope Francis posits, “Yet in fact, fueling all our hostilities is the spirit of division, the devil, whose very name means ‘divider.’ He rejoices in conflict, injustice, slander; that is his joy.”
Pope Francis notes that Jesus has not abandoned His Church or the world. He said, “The Lord, at the culmination of salvation, pours out upon the created world His good Spirit: The Holy Spirit, who opposes the spirit of division because he is harmony, the Spirit of unity, the bringer of peace. Let us invoke the Spirit daily upon our whole world, upon our lives and upon any kind of division.”
He instructs the Church, “Let us put the Holy Spirit back at the center of the Church; otherwise, our hearts will not be consumed by love for Jesus but by love of ourselves.” He puts forth a different course in the search for unity among Christians when he says, “We see the Holy Spirit at work in the Church, beginning with the day of Pentecost. We notice, however, that the Spirit does not inaugurate the Church by providing the community with rules and regulations, but by descending upon each of the apostles: Every one of them receives particular graces and different charisms. Such an abundance of differing gifts could generate confusion, but as in creation, the Holy Spirit loves to create harmony out of diversity. The harmony of the Spirit is not a mandatory, uniform order; in the Church, there is indeed an order, but it is ‘structured in accordance with the diversity of the Spirit’s gifts.’” (Saint Basil, “De Spiritu Sancto,” XVI, 39)
For Pope Francis, the unity that we seek does not mean some kind of bland uniformity. He said, “He [the Spirit] does not eliminate differences or cultures, but harmonizes everything without reducing them to bland uniformity. … All were filled: That is how the life of the Church began, not from a precise and detailed plan, but from the shared experience of God’s love. That is how the Spirit creates harmony; he invites us to experience amazement at his love and at his gifts present in others.”
Pope Francis took a closer look at Saint Paul’s insight at the beginning of the establishment of the Church. Saint Paul said in his second letter to the Corinthians, “There are a variety of gifts, but the same Spirit. … For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body.”
This, of course, has direct implications for Christian unity, as Pope Francis says, “To see each of our brothers and sisters in the faith as part of the same body of which I am a member: This is the harmonious approach of the Spirit; this is the path that he points out to us!” As we all know by now, Pope Francis sees the vehicle of unity within the Church, with other Christians in the world, with other people of different faiths, as well as the entire world, walking together, companions on the journey of life. He invoked a worldwide synod on synodality so that the Church can learn to walk together in the Spirit toward greater unity. As he said in his homily, “The People of God, in order to be filled with the Spirit, must therefore journey together, ‘do Synod.’ That is how harmony in the Church is renewed: by journeying together with the Spirit at the center. Brother and sister, let us build harmony in the Church!”
Pope Francis’ prayer at the end of this beautiful Pentecost homily is worth sharing: “Holy Spirit, Spirit of Jesus and of the Father, inexhaustible wellspring of harmony, to you we entrust the world; to you we consecrate the Church and our hearts. Come, Creator Spirit, harmony of humanity, renew the face of the earth. Come, Gift of gifts, harmony of the Church, make us one in you. Come, Spirit of forgiveness and harmony of the heart, transform us as only you can, through the intercession of Mary.”
Father Joseph D. Wallace is diocesan director of Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs and pastor of Christ the Redeemer Parish, Atco.
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