VATICAN CITY (CNS) – The Catholic Church’s current Synod of Bishops should not be a “parliament for demanding rights,” but a “journey in accordance with the Spirit,” Pope Francis said.

The synod, which seeks to gather input from all baptized Catholics on building a listening church, is not “an occasion for following wherever the wind is blowing, but the opportunity to submit to the breath of the Spirit,” he said.

Pope Francis delivers his homily during his Pentecost Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican May 28, 2023. Pope Francis called on Catholics to invoke daily the Spirit who gives “harmony to the world” and “directs the course of time and renews the face of the earth.” (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

In his homily for Pentecost Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica May 28, the pope said that the Holy Spirit is “the heart of synodality and the driving force of evangelization.”

“Without him, the church is lifeless, faith is mere doctrine, morality only a duty” and “pastoral work mere toil,” he said. “We often hear so many so-called thinkers and theologians who give us cold doctrines that seem mathematical because they lack the Spirit.”

Pope Francis, seated to the side of the basilica’s main altar, spoke without difficulty just two days after he had cleared his day’s schedule due to a fever.

Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was the main celebrant at the altar alongside Cardinals Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, and Leonardo Sandri, vice dean.

Reflecting on St. John’s account of Jesus breathing on the apostles to impart the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis urged Christians to seek harmony in the church without doing away with the differences that enrich its character.

“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 charisms,” he explained. The Spirit “does not eliminate differences of cultures but harmonizes everything without reducing them to bland uniformity.”

Embracing difference, the pope said, is key to resisting the temptation to look back in time with nostalgia or become “caught up in our plans and projects.”

At Pentecost, however, “the life of the church began not from a precise and detailed plan, but from the shared experience of God’s love,” he said.

Pope Francis asked Christians to invoke the Holy Spirit daily to create harmony where there is division in the church and beyond.

“Let us think of the wars, so many conflicts, it seems incredible the evil of which we are capable. Yet fueling our hostilities is the spirit of division, the devil, whose very name means ‘divider,'” he said.

Conversely, the Holy Spirit “opposes the spirit of division because he is harmony, the Spirit of unity, the bringer of peace.”

“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,” Pope Francis said, “instead, let us invoke the Holy Spirit.”

The pope encouraged Christians to reflect on their relationship with the Holy Spirit and asked them to develop a faith that is “docile in the Spirit,” and not “stubbornly attached” to “so-called doctrines that are only cold expressions of life.”

“If we want harmony let us seek (the Spirit), not worldly substitutes,” he said.

At the end of Mass, Pope Francis he smiled and waved to onlookers as he was taken down the basilica’s central nave while seated in a wheelchair.

Reciting the “Regina Coeli” prayer with an estimated 15,000 people gathered in St. Peter’s Square after the Mass, Pope Francis again spoke of the synod, asking people to join special prayers planned for May 31, the end of the month traditionally dedicated to Mary.

“At the conclusion of the month of May,” he said, “Marian shrines around the world are planning moments of prayer to support preparations for the upcoming ordinary assembly of the Synod of Bishops,” which is scheduled to meet in October at the Vatican. “We ask the Virgin Mary to accompany this important stage of the synod with her maternal protection.”

“And to her we also entrust the desire for peace of so many peoples throughout the world, especially of the tormented Ukraine,” he said.

VATICAN CITY (CNS) – Christians should pray on Pentecost that the Holy Spirit would give them the courage and strength to share the Gospel, Pope Francis said.

Pope Francis gives his blessing at the end of his weekly general audience May 24, 2023, in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. (CNS photo/Lola Gomez)

“No matter how difficult the situation may be – and indeed, at times it may seem there is no room for the Gospel message – we must not give up and we must not forsake pursuing what is essential in our Christian life, namely evangelization,” the pope said May 24, the Wednesday before Pentecost.

Using the example of St. Andrew Kim Taegon, the 19th-century Korean martyr, Pope Francis continued his weekly general audience talks about the “zeal” to evangelize.

With thousands of visitors and pilgrims – including bands, flag twirlers and dancers – gathered in a sunny St. Peter’s Square, the pope introduced his talk about St. Andrew by pointing out how Christianity was introduced to Korea 200 years before St. Andrew by laypeople who had heard the Gospel proclaimed in China and then shared it when they returned home.

“Baptized laypeople were the ones who spread the faith. There were no priests,” the pope said. “Would we be able to do something like that?”

Ordained in 1844, St. Andrew Kim Taegon was the first Korean-born priest and ministered at a time of anti-Christian persecution.

Pope Francis told the story of how when the saint was still a seminarian, he was sent to welcome missionaries who snuck into the country from abroad. After walking far through the snow, “he fell to the ground exhausted, risking unconsciousness and freezing. At that point, he suddenly heard a voice, ‘Get up, walk!'”

“This experience of the great Korean witness makes us understand a very important aspect of apostolic zeal: namely, the courage to get back up when one falls,” the pope said.

“Each one of us might think, ‘But how can I evangelize,'” he said. Following the example of the “greats” of evangelization history, each Christian can find a way to witness to the Gospel — “talk about Jesus” — in his or her family, among friends and in one’s local community.

“Let us prepare to receive the Holy Spirit this coming Pentecost, asking for that grace, apostolic grace and courage, the grace to evangelize, to always carry forward the message of Jesus.”

 

Martha Callahan is serving as secretary and ‘ex-officio’ member.