Pope Leo XIV celebrated Pentecost by highlighting the role of the Holy Spirit in his repeated calls for peace in recent months, saying the spirit also guides the Church to truth amid a world marked by war, division and ideological fragmentation. Source: OSV News.
During Mass in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday, the Pope said the Holy Spirit continues Christ’s work in the world by restoring peace through forgiveness and transforming fear and confusion into communion with God and others.
“Pentecost truly appears as the feast of the New Covenant, the Covenant between God and all the peoples of the world,” the Pope said yesterday in his homily marking the end of the Easter season.
Reflecting on the Gospel passage in which Christ appears to the apostles after the resurrection, Pope Leo said Jesus restored peace between God and humanity through his Paschal Mystery and poured that peace into the world through the Holy Spirit.
“This peace stems from forgiveness and leads us to forgiveness,” he said, emphasising that Jesus first offered forgiveness even after being “betrayed, condemned and crucified”.
“God’s holy law is inscribed in our hearts, engraved by the spirit with letters of love in the flesh of Christ and in his body the Church,” Pope Leo said. “This law is the rule of peace: It is the twofold commandment of love that the spirit reminds us of with every heartbeat.”
Turning to the Church’s mission, the Pope said Christians are called to continue proclaiming Christ through acts of mercy, virtue and witness in daily life. Calling the faithful “coworkers of the Gospel”, he said the Holy Spirit transforms believers into agents of reconciliation and hope.
“The work of God, therefore, is each one of us, who came here today from all parts of the world, invited to the Lord’s table, gathered to listen to his word and called to bear witness to it everywhere,” he said.
Concluding his homily, the Pope prayed for the Holy Spirit to free the world from war, misery and sin.
“Dear friends, with fervent hearts, let us pray today that the spirit of the Risen One may save us from the evil of war, which is overcome not by a superpower, but by the omnipotence of love,” he said.
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Holy Spirit opens doors of peace, truth and forgiveness, Pope says (OSV News)
