During his homily at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis said that to receive the gift of faith, people have to open their hearts to the Holy Spirit and the Church.
POPE FRANCIS
'Faith is a gift from God! But faith comes if you are part of His people. If you are, right now, in the Church, if you are helped by the sacraments, brothers and sisters, by the assembly. If you believe that this Church is the People of God. â?
In addition, Pope Francis also explained that there are two types of people: the sweet, humble kind, open to the Holy Spirit, and those proud and arrogant. He said these last ones resist faith because they 'think they know everything,â? so they distance themselves from others.
EXCERPT FROM THE POPE'S HOMILY
Source: Vatican Radio
'Other times, the Holy Spirit leads us gently and the virtue is in allowing ourselves to be carried by the Holy Spirit, in not resisting the Holy Spirit, in being docile to the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit works in the Church today, is acting in our lives today. Some of you may say: 'I have never seen him!'. 'But, pay attention to what is happening, to what comes to your mind, to what comes in your heart. Good things? It is the Spirit that invites you to take that path. It takes docility! Docility to the Holy Spirit.â?
'And you give them their explanations and, not convinced, they return with more questions . This is their way: they spin round and round ... As they spun Jesus around throughout his life, until the time that they were able to take him and kill him! These people do not open their hearts to the Holy Spirit! They believe that the things of God can be understood only with the head, with ideas, with their own ideas. They are proud. They think they know everything. And what does not fit into their intelligence is not true. You can raise a dead man in front of them , but they do not believe.â?
'These people had become detached from the people of God and therefore could not believe. Faith is a gift from God! But faith comes if you are in His people . If you are - right now - in the Church, if you are helped by the sacraments, brothers and sisters, by the assembly. If you believe that this Church is the People of God. These people had distanced themselves, they did not believe in the people of God, they only believed in their own things, and thus built a whole system of commandments that chased the people away: they chased people away and would not let them come into the Church, the people. They could not believe! This is the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit.â?
YJA/RCA
CTV
FA
-BN
Up:RCA
