Pope Francis noted that “the Lord has not left us theology notebooks or a pastoral manual to apply, but rather the Holy Spirit who inspires the mission.”
This Wednesday, December 6, Pope Francis continued his cycle of catechesis on apostolic zeal and passion for evangelization.
From the Paul VI Hall of the Vatican, the Holy Father indicated that he is now “much better” from the flu that has caused lung inflammation, although, he specified, “I get tired if I talk a lot.”
For this reason, like last Wednesday, the person responsible for delivering the catechism under the title “the announcement is in the Holy Spirit” was Mons. Filippo Ciampanelli, member of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See.
According to Pope Francis, “to communicate God, the joyful credibility of the testimony, the universality of the proclamation and the timeliness of the message are not enough. Without the Holy Spirit all zeal is vain and falsely apostolic: it would be ours alone and would bear no fruit.”
In this sense, he stressed that “the Spirit is the protagonist, always precedes the missionaries and makes the fruits sprout.”
“In its apostolic zeal the Church does not announce itself, but rather a grace, a gift, and the Holy Spirit is precisely the Gift of God,” he clarified.
Although, he noted, trust in the Holy Spirit “does not justify withdrawal” and reiterated that his primacy “should not induce us to indolence.”
He explained that “the Lord has not left us theology notebooks or a pastoral manual to apply, but rather the Holy Spirit who inspires the mission. And the brave audacity that the Holy Spirit instills leads us to imitate the style, which always has two characteristics: creativity and simplicity.”
He then noted that creativity is essential “to announce Jesus with joy, to everyone and today.”
He lamented that “in this time of ours, which does not help to have a religious outlook on life and in which the proclamation has become in various places more difficult, tiring, apparently fruitless, the temptation can arise to give up on pastoral service.”
For Pope Francis, these are temptations “that disguise themselves as fidelity to tradition, but often, more than responses to the Spirit, they are reactions to personal dissatisfactions.”
However, he stressed that “pastoral creativity, being bold in the Spirit, ardent with his missionary fire, is proof of fidelity to Him” and recalled that “Jesus Christ can also break the boring schemes in which we try to enclose him and surprises us with his constant divine creativity.”
He also highlighted simplicity, precisely “because the Spirit takes us to the source, to the first announcement.”
Finally, he invited the faithful to allow themselves to be “captivated by the Holy Spirit” and to invoke him every day: “may He be the beginning of our being and our actions; “Let him be the beginning of every activity, meeting, meeting and announcement.”
“He vivifies and rejuvenates the Church: with Him we should not fear, because He, who is harmony, always maintains creativity and simplicity together, raises communion and sends on mission, opens to diversity and leads back to unity. “He is our strength, the breath of our proclamation, the source of apostolic zeal,” he concluded.
At the end of the catechesis, Pope Francis asked to pray “for those who suffer the drama of war,” particularly in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. “War is a defeat, only the weapons manufacturers win,” he reiterated.