The Church is not just any social group. What creates and makes a group of individuals into a Church is what happened to those gathered on Pentecost day: “everyone was left full of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2, 4). It is the Holy Spirit that produces unity within love.
It is unconditional love that surpasses all knowledge: let yourselves be defeated by my Love and go throughout the world and tell everyone that the Kingdom of God is for all.
The Holy Spirit encourages us to continue living Pentecost in the midst of our frailty: “I make space within myself so my brother can be by my side”…In our intimate relationship with God we are always brought back to our brothers and the enjoyable urgency of sharing with all the wonders that God has created in me. It calls us to live a loyal creativity with God. And this loyalty is expressed in our daily solitary encounter in profound prayer with He who has resurrected. Confirming our certainty that the Lord is alive and walks by my side in my life, and He also walks by my brother´s side.
The spirit of Pentecost in our lives means “to care for all of creation and to be concern for everyone specially the most poor and vulnerable, those who tend to remain at the margins of our heart”. – As Pope Francis reminded us on Easter weekend.
Pentecost renews our hope that it is possible to live within a world full of contradiction and suffering. It is the Lord that sustains our hope. And for this reason we must continually pray, as prayer is the breath of hope.
Defeat is not possible for those who abandons themselves into the Caring Hands of God. As Saint Paul said it is in my weakness that His Strength and His Wonder appear.
(Based on the message of Pope Francis and Father Ignacio Larrañaga’s book “Journey towards God”)
