"Either you are young at heart, young at soul, or you are not fully Christian". The homily of the Mass celebrated by Pope Francis at Santa Marta on the morning of Tuesday 28 May was a veritable hymn to life, to vitality, to the "youthfulness of the Spirit", to be contrasted with the weary drift of so many people "retired" in soul, dejected by difficulties and sadness because "sin grows old". A breath of joy based on the "great gift that Jesus left us": the Holy Spirit.
The starting point for the Pontiff's reflection was the Gospel passage of the day (John, 16, 5-11), which reported an excerpt of the farewell discourse to the apostles during the Last Supper. On that occasion Jesus "says many things", but "the heart of this discourse is the Holy Spirit". The Lord, in fact, offers his friends a veritable "catechesis on the Holy Spirit": he begins by noting their state of mind - "Because I have said this I am leaving, sadness has filled your heart" - and "he gently rebukes them" because, the Pope noted, "sadness is not a Christian attitude".
The inner turmoil of the apostles - who, faced with the drama of Jesus and the uncertainty about the future, "begin to understand the drama of the passion" - can be compared to the reality of every Christian. In this regard, Francis recalled how in the Collect Prayer of the day "we asked
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to the Lord that He may maintain in us the renewed youthfulness of the spirit", thus raising an invocation "against sadness in prayer". This, he added, is precisely the point: "The Holy Spirit ensures that there is always this youthfulness in us, which is renewed every day by his presence".
Expanding on this concept, the Pontiff recalled: "A great saint said that a sad saint is a sad saint; a sad Christian is a sad Christian: he does not go". that "sadness does not enter the heart of the Christian", because he "is young". A youthfulness that is renewed and that "makes him carry on his shoulders so many trials, so many difficulties". This," he explained, referring to the first reading from the Acts of the Apostles (16:22-34), "happened, for example, to Paul and Silas who were beaten and imprisoned by the magistrates in Philippi. At that juncture, the Pope said, "the Holy Spirit enters and renews everything, makes everything new; even makes the jailer young".
The Holy Spirit, therefore, is the one "who accompanies us in life, who sustains us. As expressed by the name Jesus gives him: "Paraclete". An unusual term, the meaning of which often escapes many. The Pontiff also joked about this, recounting a short anecdote about a mass he celebrated when he was a parish priest: "There were more or less 250-300 children, it was a Pentecost Sunday and so I asked them: "Who knows who the Holy Spirit is?". And all: "Me, me!" - "You": "the paralytic," he said. He had heard 'Paraclete' and did not understand what it was" and so said: "paralytic". A funny mispronunciation that however, Francis said, reveals a reality: 'So many times we think that the Holy Spirit is a paralytic, who does nothing.... And instead it is the one who sustains us'.
In fact, the Pontiff explained, "the word paraclete means 'the one who is beside me to support me' so that I do not fall, so that I go forward, so that I retain this youthfulness of the Spirit". That is why "the Christian is always young: always. And when a Christian's heart begins to grow old, his vocation as a Christian begins to diminish. Either you are young at heart, young at soul, or you are not fully Christian".
Some might be frightened of the difficulties and say, "But how can I...?": there is the Spirit. The Spirit will help you in this renewed youthfulness". This does not mean that sorrows are lacking. Paul and Silas, for example, suffered greatly from the beating they received: "the text says that the jailer, when he saw that miracle, wanted to convert them and took them to his house and healed their wounds with oil... ugly, strong wounds...". But despite the pain, they "were full of joy, they sang.... This is youth. A youthfulness that makes you always look forward to hope'.
And how is this youthfulness achieved? "It takes," said the Pope, "a daily dialogue with the Holy Spirit, who is always beside us". It is the Spirit 'the great gift that Jesus left us: this support, which keeps you going'. And so, to those who say: 'Oh yes, Father, it is true, but you know, I am a sinner, I have many, many bad things in my life and I cannot...', you can answer:
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"All right: look at your sins; but look at the Spirit who is beside you and speak to the Spirit: he will be your support and give you back your youth". Because, he added, "we all know that sin grows old: it grows old. It ages the soul, it ages everything. Instead, the Spirit helps us to repent, to leave sin aside and to move forward with that youthfulness."
Therefore Francis urged to leave aside what he called "pagan sadness", explaining: "I do not say that life is a carnival: no, that is not true. In life there are crosses, there are difficult moments. But in these difficult moments we feel that the Spirit helps us to go forward, as in Paul and Silas, and to overcome difficulties. Even martyrdom. Because there is this renewed youthfulness'.
The conclusion of the homily was then an invitation to prayer: 'Let us ask the Lord not to lose this renewed youthfulness, not to be retired Christians who have lost their joy and do not allow themselves to be carried on... The Christian never retires; the Christian lives, lives because he is young - when he is a true Christian".
[Pope Francis, homily s. Martha; https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/it/cotidie/2019/documents/papa-francesco-cotidie_20190528_santamarta.pdf]
