IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring
By Cindy Wooden
VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Christians are called to be
“sowers of hope,” consoling and defending the poor and anyone in
need, Pope Francis said.
As Christians prepared to celebrate Pentecost June 4, Pope Francis used his
weekly general audience May 31
to speak about the power of the Holy Spirit to strengthen the hope of
believers and to send them forth to instill hope in others.
Sowing bitterness or perplexity, he said, “isn’t
Christian and if you do this, you aren’t Christian. Sow hope. Spread the oil of
hope, diffuse the perfume of hope and not the vinegar of bitterness and
hopelessness.”
In his Letter to the Romans (15:13), St. Paul prays, “May the God of hope fill
you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the
power of the Holy Spirit.”
Having an abundance of hope, Pope Francis said, means not
only hoping that when life is over one will be with God. It also means having
the strength today to continue hoping “even when there is less human
reason for hoping.”
“Hope truly is like a sail,” the pope said.
“It gathers the wind of the Spirit and transforms it into a driving force
that pushes the boat out to sea or to the shore, depending on circumstances.”
“It pushes us to go forward, always forward,” he
said. The Holy Spirit “makes us feel like pilgrims and strangers and does
not allow us to sit back and become a sedentary people.”
Jesus promised his disciples the Holy Spirit as a
“paraclete,” a provider of consolation and a defense, the pope said,
and those who have been blessed with the gifts of the Holy Spirit are in turn
called to console and defend others.
“Console and defend like the Holy Spirit does for each
of us who are here in the square. Console and defend,” he said. “We
must be the same for the neediest, the discarded, those who need it most, those
who suffer most. Console and defend.”
Saying, “This seems strange, but it’s true,” Pope
Francis noted how St. Paul also taught that the Holy Spirit gives hope to all
of creation, which is “groaning in labor pains” but expectant in
hope. “This pushes us to respect creation: one cannot sully a painting
without offending the artist who created it.”
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