From the Cardinal: Seeking Joy, Guidance from the Holy Spirit | May 17, 2024
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Vol. 5. No. 17
My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,
Easter is the season of hope.
As the Letter to the Hebrews assures us, “We have [hope] as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Heb 6:19). We are truly anchored regardless of the storms we encounter every day. For Christians, life’s difficulties are not eliminated. They are endured with confidence and transformed by the joyful hope of the Risen Christ.
We know that we need the help of God’s grace to face the pain and the weariness of daily life. We know that we need the Spirit’s sevenfold gifts (wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety and fear of the Lord) to sustain us in life’s journey.
That was certainly true for the first disciples of Jesus. Many faced bitter persecution and death as they carried out the Lord’s great commission to go out to the whole world as missionaries and to preach the Gospel and heal the sick in his name. They experienced no end of suffering and disappointment, but they served the Lord joyfully because they were empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and they were burning with the fire of God’s love.
In every generation the whole Church receives gifts from the Holy Spirit. We call these “charisms” from a Greek word that means “favor” or “freely given gift.” The charisms given to the Church by the Holy Spirit reflect the richness and diversity of the Christian life. They help us to experience life in Christ in a variety of ways and in distinct circumstances.
As noted in the 2023 Synod Synthesis Report: A Synodal Church in Mission (see below), “The Church has always benefitted from the gift of charisms, be it from the most extraordinary to the simplest. Through them the Holy Spirit rejuvenates and renews the Church with joy and gratitude…. The Church’s charismatic dimension is made manifest in the rich and varied forms of consecrated life. This testimony has contributed to renewing the life of the ecclesial community in every age and provides an antidote to the perennial temptation towards worldliness.”
I am blessed to be a member of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists). Founded by St. Alphonsus Liguori in Scala, Italy in 1732, we are a community of missionaries dedicated to caring for poor and vulnerable people in more than 100 countries throughout the world. Our charism (or freely given gift of the Holy Spirit) can be discerned in the life and teaching of Alphonsus, our founder, and in the ways Redemptorist priests and brothers have responded to changing needs and circumstances of the people we have served during the past nearly 300 years. When Redemptorists are at our best, that gift of the Holy Spirit leads us to witness to Jesus in places where the Church cannot or will not go.
There are many different Religious Institutes, sometimes called Orders, Societies, Congregations, that include women and men living different styles of consecrated life after the example of their founders (Benedict and Scholastica of Nursia, Francis and Clare of Assisi, Dominic de Guzman, Ignatius Loyola, Vincent de Paul, Angela Merici, Theodore James Ryken, Anne Thérèse Guérin (Mother Theodore), Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Teresa of Calcutta), and many more). As the Synthesis Report observes:
The diverse families that compose religious life demonstrate the beauty of discipleship and holiness in Christ, whether in their distinctive forms of prayer, their service among the people, whether through forms of community life, the solitude of the contemplative life or at the frontier of new cultures.
The witness of these different forms of consecrated life teach us that the Gospel can be lived in different ways based on the Evangelical Counsels of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. “Like a mosaic or a quilt, which requires many diverse pieces to create a beautiful, unified image,” writes Sr. Annie Klapheke, a contemporary Sister of Charity, “so the Church needs many ways of expressing the Gospel.”
When the dark days come—in our personal lives and in our common life as a Church comprised of many diverse followers of Jesus Christ—we exclaim: Come, Holy Spirit, Renew the face of the earth! We long for the joy that never ends. As Pope Francis tells us, this joy is available to us if we can step out of our comfort zones and become missionary disciples who give ourselves wholeheartedly to proclaiming the Good News. Not everyone is called to live as a religious but all are called to live as missionary disciples. Everyone. The Holy Spirit gives us all the gifts we need to proclaim the gospel in our words and in the way we live.
So, let us pray: Holy Spirit of God, come, pour your dew on our dryness. Melt our frozen hearts and guide us when we go astray. Give us endless joy. Amen. Alleluia!
Have a blessed Pentecost Sunday!
Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer,
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R.
Archbishop of Newark
A Synodal Church in Mission: Synthesis Report
(A Selection from the 2023 Synod Synthesis Report’s Part II: All Disciples, All Missionaries #10 “Consecrated Life and Lay Associations and Movements: A Charismatic Sign Convergences.”)
a) The Church has always benefitted from the gift of charisms, be it from the most extraordinary to the simplest. Through them the Holy Spirit rejuvenates and renews the Church with joy and gratitude. The Holy People of God recognize in these charisms the providential help with which God sustains, directs and illuminates His mission.
b) The Church’s charismatic dimension is made manifest in the rich and varied forms of consecrated life. This testimony has contributed to renewing the life of the ecclesial community in every age and provides an antidote to the perennial temptation towards worldliness. The diverse families that compose religious life demonstrate the beauty of discipleship and holiness in Christ, whether in their distinctive forms of prayer, their service among the people, whether through forms of community life, the solitude of the contemplative life or at the frontier of new cultures. Those in consecrated life have often been the first to sense important historical changes and to heed the promptings of the Spirit. Today, too, the Church needs their prophetic voice and action. The Christian community also recognizes and wishes to be attentive to the practices of synodal life and discernment that have been tried and tested in communities of consecrated life, maturing over the centuries. We know that we can learn from them wisdom in how to walk the synodal path. Many Congregations and Institutes practice conversation in the Spirit or similar forms of discernment in the conduct of provincial and general chapters, in order to renew structures, rethink lifestyles, and activate innovative forms of service and proximity to the poorest. In other cases, however, we find the persistence of an authoritarian style, which makes no room for dialogue.
c) With equal gratitude, the People of God recognize the seeds of renewal in communities with a long history that has blossomed into new ecclesial communities. Lay associations, ecclesial movements and new communities are a precious sign of the maturation of the co-responsibility of all the baptized. They hold particular value because of their experience in promoting communion among different vocations, the impetus with which they proclaim the Gospel, their proximity to those on the margins economically and socially and through their promotion of the common good. They are often models of synodal communion and of participation for mission.
A Message from Pope Francis: Words of Challenge and Hope
(A selection from the homily given by Pope Francis on the Solemnity of Pentecost, May 28, 2023)
Today the word of God shows us the Holy Spirit in action. We see him acting in three ways: in the world he created, in the Church, and in our hearts.
First, in the world he created, in creation. From the beginning, the Holy Spirit was at work…. He is in fact the Creator Spiritus (cf. SAINT AUGUSTINE, In Ps. XXXII, 2.2), the Creator Spirit: for centuries the Church has invoked him as such. Yet we can ask ourselves: What does the Spirit do in the creation of the world? If everything has its origin from the Father, and if everything is created through the Son, what is the specific role of the Spirit? One great Father of the Church, Saint Basil, wrote: “if you attempt to remove the Spirit from creation, all things become confused and their life appears unruly and lacking order” (De Sancto Spiritu, XVI, 38). That is the role of the Spirit: at the beginning and at all times, he makes created realities pass from disorder to order, from dispersion to cohesion, from confusion to harmony.
In our world today, there is so much discord, such great division. We are all “connected”, yet find ourselves disconnected from one another, anesthetized by indifference and overwhelmed by solitude. So many wars, so many conflicts: it seems incredible the evil of which we are capable! Yet in fact, fueling our hostilities is the spirit of division, the devil, whose very name means “divider”. Yes, preceding and exceeding our own evil, our own divisions, there is the evil spirit who is “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9). He rejoices in conflict, injustice, slander; that is his joy. To counter the evil of discord, our efforts to create harmony are not sufficient. Hence, the Lord, at the culmination of his Passover from death to life, at the culmination of salvation, pours out upon the created world his good Spirit: the Holy Spirit, who opposes the spirit of division because he is harmony, the Spirit of unity, the bringer of peace. Let us invoke the Spirit daily upon our whole world, upon our lives and upon any kind of division!
Second, along with his work in creation, we see the Holy Spirit at work in the Church, beginning with the day of Pentecost. We notice, however, that the Spirit does not inaugurate the Church by providing the community with rules and regulations, but by descending upon each of the apostles: every one of them receives particular graces and different charisms. Such an abundance of differing gifts could generate confusion, but, as in creation, the Holy Spirit loves to create harmony out of diversity…..In a word, the Spirit does not create a single language, one that is the same for all. He does not eliminate differences or cultures but harmonizes everything without reducing them to bland uniformity. And this must make us stop and reflect at this current time, when the temptation of “back-stepping” seeks to homogenize everything into merely apparent disciplines lacking any substance. Let us think about this: the Spirit does not begin with a clearly outlined program, as we would, who so often become caught up in our plans and projects. No, he begins by bestowing gratuitous and superabundant gifts. Indeed, on that day of Pentecost, as the Scripture emphasizes, “all were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:4). All were filled: that is how the life of the Church began, not from a precise and detailed plan, but from the shared experience of God’s love. That is how the Spirit creates harmony; he invites us to experience amazement at his love and at his gifts present in others…
And the Synod now taking place is – and should be – a journey in accordance with the Spirit, not a Parliament for demanding rights and claiming needs in accordance with the agenda of the world, nor an occasion for following wherever the wind is blowing, but the opportunity to be docile to the breath of the Spirit….Let us put the Holy Spirit back at the center of the Church; otherwise, our hearts will not be consumed by love for Jesus, but by love for ourselves. Let us put the Spirit at the start and heart of the Synod’s work. For “it is he above all whom the Church needs today! Let us say to him each day: Come!” (cf. ID., General Audience, 29 November 1972). And let us journey together because, as at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit loves to descend when “all come together” (cf. Acts 2:1). Yes, to manifest himself to the world, he chose the time and place where all were gathered together. The People of God, in order to be filled with the Spirit, must therefore journey together, “do Synod”. That is how harmony in the Church is renewed: by journeying together with the Spirit at the center. Brothers and sister, let us build harmony in the Church!
Finally, the Holy Spirit creates harmony in our hearts. We see this in the Gospel, where Jesus, on the evening of Easter, breathes upon the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (Jn 20:22). He bestows the Spirit for a precise purpose: to forgive sins, to reconcile minds and to harmonize hearts wounded by evil, broken by hurts, led astray by feelings of guilt. Only the Spirit restores harmony in the heart, for he is the one who creates “intimacy with God” (SAINT BASIL, De Spiritu Sancto, XIX, 49). If we want harmony let us seek him, not worldly substitutes. Let us invoke the Holy Spirit each day. Let us begin our day by praying to him. Let us become docile to him!
And today, on his feast, let us ask ourselves: Am I docile to the harmony of the Spirit? Or do I pursue my projects, my own ideas, without letting myself be shaped and changed by him? Is my way of living the faith docile to the Spirit or is it obstinate? Am I stubbornly attached to texts or so-called doctrines that are only cold expressions of life? Am I quick to judge? Do I point fingers and slam doors in the face of others, considering myself a victim of everyone and everything? Or do I welcome the Spirit’s harmonious and creative power, the “grace of wholeness” that he inspires, his forgiveness that brings us peace? And in turn, do I forgive? Forgiveness is making room for the Spirit to come. Do I foster reconciliation and build communion, or am I always on the lookout, poking my nose into problems and causing hurt, spite, division and breakdown? Do I forgive, promote reconciliation and build communion? If the world is divided, if the Church is polarized, if hearts are broken, let us not waste time in criticizing others and growing angry with one another; instead, let us invoke the Spirit. He is able to resolve all of this.
My Prayer for You
Please join me in this Pentecost prayer of Pope Francis:
Holy Spirit, Spirit of Jesus and of the Father, inexhaustible wellspring of harmony, to you we entrust the world; to you we consecrate the Church and our hearts. Come, Creator Spirit, harmony of humanity, renew the face of the earth. Come, Gift of gifts, harmony of the Church, make us one in you. Come, Spirit of forgiveness and harmony of the heart, transform us as only you can, through the intercession of Mary.