Pope Francis recalled that ” the Holy Spirit frees us from the prisons of fear,” on the Solemnity of Pentecost that marks the end of Easter time on 28 May, Sunday.
The Holy Father explained that “with the gift of the Spirit, Jesus wants to free the disciples from the fear that keeps them locked in their homes, so that they can go out and become witnesses and announcers of the Gospel.”
“How many times do we close in on ourselves? How many times, because of a difficult situation, because of some personal or family problem, because of the suffering we suffer or because of the evil that we breathe around us, do we run the risk of gradually losing hope and lacking courage? to move forward?” asked Pope Francis.
Along these lines, he remarked that “closing in on ourselves happens when, in the most difficult situations, we allow fear to take control and make its ‘great voice’ resonate within us .”
According to the Pontiff, this fear causes us to believe that we are not capable of facing something, a fear “of being alone in the face of daily battles, of taking risks and then being disappointed, of making wrong decisions .”
“Fear blocks, paralyzes. And it isolates: let’s think about the fear of the other, of the foreigner, of the different, of the one who thinks differently ”, he pointed out. For Pope Francis, “where there is fear, there is closure. And that’s not right”.
He then pointed out that the Gospel, however, “ offers us the remedy of the Risen One: the Holy Spirit. He frees from the prisons of fear.”
“Thanks to Him, fears are overcome and doors are opened. Because this is what the Spirit does: it makes us feel the closeness of God and thus his love casts out fear, lights the way, comforts, sustains in adversity”.
Therefore, in the face of fears and closures, the Holy Father proposed invoking the Holy Spirit “for us, for the Church and for the whole world: so that a new Pentecost drives away the fears that assail us and revives the fire of love of God”.