St. Joseph of the Lakes

On Saturday, September 30 Pope Francis raised twenty one men to status of Cardinal. They come from all over the world: they hail from Argentina, Poland, Spain, Tanzania, Malaysia, France, Venezuela, Italy and South Sudan, America, and Hong Kong.

In his homily, Pope Francis reflected on the day’s reading, which recounted the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, focusing on the Jewish community outside of the upper room where the apostles were gathered, and who came from all over but were able to understand one another thanks to the Holy Spirit. Francis said there was a “surprise” hidden in the passage “in which, with joy, I seemed to recognize the humor of the Holy Spirit, so to speak.”

While the Church’s pastors typically associate themselves with the apostles in the upper room, Francis said he associated them with those who “do not belong to the group of disciples” but who gathered outside “upon hearing the noise of the rushing wind.” “The Apostles were ‘all Galileans,’ while the people who gathered were ‘from every nation under heaven,’ just like the Bishops and Cardinals of our time,” he said. Pope Francis said this role reversal makes one thing, and implies “applying to ourselves – I will put myself first – the experience of those Jews who by a gift of God found themselves protagonists of the event of Pentecost, that is of the ‘baptism’ by the Holy Spirit that gave birth to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.”

This perspective, he said, is one of rediscovering “with amazement the gift of having received the Gospel in our own tongues.” He urged the new cardinals to be grateful for the

experience of “having been evangelized” and called from all over the world, yet forming one Church, which he called, “Mother Church, who speaks all languages, is One and is Catholic.” Noting that faith is passed on through one’s family, Francis told the new cardinals that they will only be “evangelizers” to the extent that they allow themselves to “cherish in our hearts the wonder and gratitude of having been evangelized, even of being evangelized.”

Referring to the moment of Christian baptism, the pope said it is not a thing of the past, but is rather a creative act that is continually renewed by God, and a mystery in which faithful perpetually live. The Church, he said, “does not live ‘off of her name,’ still less does she live off of an archeological patrimony, however precious and noble. The Church, and every baptized member, lives the today of God, through the action of the Holy Spirit.”  (from Crux in the news, Sept 30, 2023)