On Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis reflected on the Holy Spirit's attitude toward differences, considering the Scriptural account of what happened on that first Feast of Pentecost.
Noting how the Spirit descended with a sound as of a great wind, the Pope said that the disciples were changed by His arrival. "They were no longer as they were before."
From this detail of the languages, the Pope considered that "the Spirit is universal."
"In other words," the pope said, "the Holy Spirit puts different people in communication, achieving the unity and universality of the Church."
Earlier in the day, the Holy Father celebrated Pentecost Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.
Then, too, he reflected on how the Holy Spirit brings unity using diversity.
"The Spirit does not mould isolated individuals, but shapes us into a Church in the wide variety of our charisms, into a unity that is never uniformity. The Paraclete affirms the primacy of the whole. There, in the whole, in the community, the Spirit prefers to work and to bring newness."
The Pope said that an example of this can be found in the Apostles themselves, who "included, for example, Matthew, a tax collector who collaborated with the Romans, and Simon called the zealot, who fought them. They had contrary political ideas, different visions of the world."
Finally, the Pope warned that it is Satan who likes to make diversity into opposition.
How? The pope explains:
"The enemy wants diversity to become opposition and so he makes them become ideologies. Say no to ideologies, yes to the whole," he said.
