Pope Leo XIV celebrated Pentecost Mass this Sunday in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, as part of the Jubilee of movements, associations, and new communities.
Below is the full text of Pope Leo XIV’s homily on Pentecost Sunday 2025.
Brothers and sisters:
“The day of grace is shining for us, brothers, when […] Jesus Christ, the Lord, after having risen and been glorified by his ascension, sent the Holy Spirit” (St. Augustine, Sermo 271, 1).
And today too, what happened in the Upper Room is rekindled; the gift of the Holy Spirit descends upon us like a mighty wind that shakes us, like a roar that awakens us, like a fire that illuminates us (cf. Acts 2:1-11).
As we heard in the first reading, the Spirit accomplishes something extraordinary in the lives of the Apostles. After Jesus’ death, they had shut themselves away in fear and sadness, but now they finally receive a new perspective and an understanding of the heart that helps them interpret the events that have taken place and have an intimate experience of the presence of the Risen Lord: the Holy Spirit conquers their fear, breaks their inner chains, heals their wounds, anoints them with strength, and gives them the courage to go out to meet everyone to proclaim the works of God.
The text from the Acts of the Apostles tells us that, in Jerusalem at that time, there was a multitude of people from the most varied backgrounds, and yet, “each one heard them speaking in his own language” (v. 6). And so, at Pentecost, the doors of the Upper Room open because the Spirit opens the borders. As Benedict XVI states: “The Holy Spirit gives the gift of understanding. He overcomes the rupture begun at Babel—the confusion of hearts, which sets us against one another”—and opens the borders. […] The Church must always become anew what she already is: she must open the borders between peoples and tear down the barriers between classes and races.
In her, there can be no forgotten or despised people. In the Church, there are only free brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ (Homily for Pentecost, May 15, 2005).
This is an eloquent image of Pentecost on which I would like to pause and meditate with you. The Spirit opens the borders, above all, within us. It is the Gift that opens our lives to love. And this presence of the Lord dissolves our hardness, our closed-mindedness, the selfishness, the fears that paralyze us, the narcissisms that make us revolve only around ourselves.
The Holy Spirit comes to challenge, within us, the risk of a life that is atrophied, absorbed by individualism. It is sad to observe how, in a world where opportunities for socializing multiply, we run the risk of paradoxically becoming more alone, always connected and yet incapable of “making connections,” always immersed in the crowd, yet less of a disoriented and lonely traveler.
The Spirit of God, on the other hand, helps us discover a new way of seeing and living life. It opens us to an encounter with ourselves, beyond the masks we wear; it leads us to an encounter with the Lord, teaching us to experience his joy; it convinces us—in accordance with Jesus’ own words, just proclaimed—that only if we remain in love do we also receive the strength to observe his Word and, therefore, to be transformed by it.
It opens the borders within us, so that our lives may become a space of hospitality. The Spirit also opens the borders in our relationships. Indeed, Jesus says that this Gift is the love between Himself and the Father who comes to dwell within us. And when the love of God dwells within us, we are capable of opening ourselves to our brothers and sisters, of overcoming our rigidities, of overcoming fear of those who are different, of nurturing the passions that rise within us.
But the Spirit also transforms those more hidden dangers that contaminate our relationships, such as misunderstandings, prejudices, and exploitation. I also think—with great pain—of
cases in which a relationship is poisoned by the desire to dominate the other, an attitude that frequently leads to violence, as unfortunately demonstrated by the numerous recent cases of femicide.
The Holy Spirit, on the other hand, matures within us the fruits that help us live authentic and healthy relationships: “love, joy, peace, generosity, kindness, gentleness, trust” (Gal 5:22). In this way, the Spirit expands the boundaries of our relationships with others and opens us to the joy of brotherhood. And this is a decisive criterion for the Church as well; we are truly the Church of the Risen One and the disciples of Pentecost only if there are no borders or divisions among us, if in the Church we know how to dialogue and welcome one another, integrating our differences, if as a Church we become a welcoming and hospitable place for all.
In conclusion, the Spirit also opens borders between peoples. At Pentecost, the Apostles speak the languages ​​of those they encounter, and the chaos of Babel is finally calmed by the harmony generated by the Spirit. Differences, when the divine Breath unites our hearts and allows us to see in each other the face of a brother, are not an occasion for division and conflict, but a common heritage from which we can all benefit, and which sets us all on a journey together in brotherhood.
The Spirit breaks down barriers and tears down the walls of indifference and hatred, because “he teaches us everything” and “reminds us of the words of Jesus” (cf. Jn 14:26). Therefore, the first thing he teaches, reminds us of, and imprints on our hearts is the commandment of love, which the Lord has placed at the center and summit of everything. And where there is love, there is no room for prejudice, for the safe distances that distance us from our neighbors, for the logic of exclusion that we unfortunately also see emerging in political nationalism.
While celebrating Pentecost, Pope Francis observed that “Today in the world there is so much discord, so much division. We are all connected, yet we find ourselves disconnected from one another, anesthetized by indifference and oppressed by loneliness” (Homily, 28 May 2023). And the wars that ravage our planet are a tragic sign of all this.
Let us invoke the Spirit of love and peace, so that he may open borders, tear down walls, dissolve hatred, and help us live as children of the one Father who is in heaven.
Brothers and sisters, at Pentecost the Church and the world are renewed! May the vigorous wind of the Spirit come upon us and within us, open the borders of our hearts, give us the grace of encounter with God, broaden the horizons of love, and sustain our efforts to build a world where peace reigns.
May Mary Most Holy, Woman of Pentecost, Virgin visited by the Spirit, Mother full of grace, accompany us and intercede for us