POPE FRANCIS
MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE
May the Holy Spirit be the protagonist of our life
Tuesday, 30 April 2019
It is only “with the help of the same power that raised the Lord: the power of God” that we can be reborn from our “sinful existence”. Pope Francis shared this thought with the faithful who had gathered for Mass at Santa Marta on Tuesday, 30 April, as he reflected on the day’s Gospel passage, in which Jesus responds to Nicodemus’ question on how a person may be reborn (Jn 3:7-15).
By way of example, the Holy Father outlined the link between the message of the Lord’s Resurrection and the message of rebirth. Indeed, on the very day of the Resurrection Jesus told the Apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit”. The Holy Spirit, the Pope stressed, is our strength. “We can do nothing without the Spirit”. Christian life is reborn in the Holy Spirit and we must make room for it. “It is the Spirit that allows us to rise from our limitations, from our ‘deaths’, because there is so much necrosis in our life and in our soul”. A Christian life “that leaves no room for the Spirit and does not allow itself to be carried forth by the Spirit is a pagan life disguised as Christian”, he affirmed. “The Holy Spirit”, he continued, “is the protagonist of Christian life”. Thus, there can be no Christian life without the gift of the Holy Spirit.
“Let us ask the Lord to give us this awareness that we cannot be Christians without walking with the Holy Spirit, without acting with the Holy Spirit, without letting the Holy Spirit be the protagonist of our lives”, the Holy Father concluded, inviting the faithful to ask themselves what is the Holy Spirit’s place in their lives: “because you cannot journey along a Christian path without the Holy Spirit” who is “our companion along the way”.
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