Pentecost, the Spirit, and Societal Reconciliation
Pope Leo XIV's Remarks at the Pentecost Vigil on the Work of the Spirit
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In his remarks to an estimated 70,000 people who gathered in St. Peter’s Square for evening prayer on the vigil of Pentecost, Pope Leo XIV offered reflections that were not only grounded in the biblical wellsprings of our tradition but also foster the retrieval of social doctrine toward which he is calling us in response to the signs of our times.
As an article at National Catholic Reporter summarizes:
The vigil was part of the Jubilee of Ecclesial Movements, Associations and New Communities. The program began about 90 minutes before Pope Leo arrived in the popemobile. The Focolare movement's international Gen Verde choir and band performed; and members of the Sant'Egidio Community, the Neocatechumenal Way, Nuovi Orizzonti and Communion and Liberation gave testimonies about how the groups helped them grow closer to Jesus and motivated them to help others.
In what follows, I will offer his complete remarks with brief comments.
[Pope Leo Arrives in St. Peter’s Square for Pentecost Vigil, June 7, 2025]
Leo opens his remarks as follows.
Dear sisters and brothers,
The Creator Spirit, whom we invoked in the hymn – Veni Creator Spiritus – is the Spirit who descended upon Jesus as the quiet driving force of his mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Lk 4:18). When we ask the Spirit to enlighten our minds, to multiply our languages, to awaken our senses, to instill love, to strengthen our bodies and to grant us peace, we become open to God’s Kingdom. This is, according to the Gospel, the meaning of conversion. It is a “turning toward” the Kingdom already close at hand.
Here Pope Leo XIV builds upon the Luke’s theology of the Spirit. For Luke, this Spirit not only inspired the Prophet Isaiah whose text Jesus proclaims, but “is upon” Jesus, who proclaims the in-breaking of God’s rule in the Kingdom he inaugurates. Just as Luke presents—in his Acts of the Apostles—the Spirit as guiding the early Christians to continue the mission of Jesus, Pope Leo XIV writes of the Spirit in the lives of Christians today. Thus, he writes that “we ask the Spirit to enlighten our minds, to multiply our languages, to awaken our senses, to instill love, to strengthen our bodies and to grant us peace, we become open to God’s Kingdom.”
The Holy Father continues as follows.
In Jesus we see, and from Jesus we hear, how everything changes because God is king, God is close to us. On this vigil of Pentecost, we are deeply aware of this closeness of God, of his Spirit who joins our lives to that of Jesus. We are caught up in the new things that God brings about, so that his desire for the fullness of life will prevail over the power of death.
Here Pope Leo puts us in touch with key themes from the synoptic Gospels: “In Jesus,” who is Emmanuel, “God is close to us.” The Holy Father encourages his audience on the “vigil of Pentecost” to be aware of this “closeness” of God in Christ through the Spirit, “who joins our lives to that of Jesus.” This last point is much like the theology of St. Paul for whom the Spirit incorporates us “in Christ,” and reproduces in believers the pattern of life exemplified by Jesus. In this way, God reconciles the world to himself in Christ (see 2 Cor 5:18-20).
Leo continues.
“He has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19). Here tonight, we sense the fragrance of the chrism with which our foreheads have been anointed. Dear brothers and sisters, Baptism and Confirmation united us to Jesus’ mission of making all things new, to the Kingdom of God. Just as love enables us to sense the presence of a loved one, so tonight we sense in one another the fragrance of Christ. This is a mystery; it amazes us and it leads us to reflect.
Just as, in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus proclaims that his ministry and kingdom entails reversal of fortune for the oppressed, Pope Leo—consistent with the theology of Luke-Acts in which the Spirit reproduces Jesus’ mission in believers—exhorts believers this Pentecost to identify with this “mission of making all things new.”
Leo continues by recalling the theme of synodality, which had been emphasized by Pope Francis, and which Leo has vowed to continue.
On the evening of my election, moved as I looked out at the people of God gathered here, I spoke of “synodality,” a word that aptly expresses how the Spirit shapes the Church. That word begins with the Greek word syn – meaning “with” – which speaks of the secret of God’s life. God is not solitary. God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is a “with” in himself, and God with us. At the same time, the word “synodality” speaks to us of a road ahead – hodós – for where there is the Spirit, there is movement, a journey to be made. We are a people on the move.
Here Pope Leo XIV explains synodality based on the etymology of the word and an allusion to the Gospel image of the disciples on the road to emmaus. This is consistent with the understanding of synodality articulated by the International Theological Commission in 2018, with deep roots in the tradition. Sadly, some of Pope Francis’s most vehement critics in the United States regularly expressed their inability to understand what he meant by synodality. We should hope and pray that all Catholics will come to understand not just the word, but the reality of walking together on the road of discipleship with Jesus.
Leo continues.
This does not set us apart but unites us to humanity like the yeast in a mass of dough, which causes it to rise. The year of the Lord’s grace, reflected in the current Jubilee, has this fermentation within it. In a divided and troubled world, the Holy Spirit teaches us to walk together in unity. The earth will rest, justice will prevail, the poor will rejoice and peace will return, once we no longer act as predators but as pilgrims. No longer each of us for ourselves, but walking alongside one another. Not greedily exploiting this world, but cultivating it and protecting it, as the Encyclical Laudato Si’ has taught us.
Through reference to our union with humanity, this text clearly reflects the fundamental stance of solidarity with the human family as articulated—for example—by the Second Vatican Council’s Gaudium et spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Pope Leo has also promised to follow this council, as did all of his predecessors, even if influential American postliberals are sadly leading many down an alternative path. Notice also, how Leo roots his reflection in the Jubilee Year of Hope, in honest recognition of the grave state of our “divided and troubled world.” At a time when many are tempted to despair, Leo affirms a path of hope, also for our troubled planet. When we “no longer act as predators…greedily exploiting this world, but cultivating and protecting it,” it “will rest… and peace will return.”
He continues.
Dear friends, God created the world so that we might all live as one. “Synodality” is the ecclesial name for this. It demands that we each recognize our own poverty and our riches, that we feel part of a greater whole, apart from which everything withers, even the most original and unique of charisms. Think about it. All creation exists solely in the form of coexistence, sometimes dangerous, yet always interconnected (cf. Laudato Si’, 16; 117). And what we call “history” only takes place as coexistence, living together, however contentiously, but always together.
Here we see another strong affirmation of Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’, and especially the emphasis on how everything is interconnected, and that the only hope for the human family is to live in recognition of human solidarity. At a time when aspiring autocrats are dividing populations into tribes by fostering populism, polarization and a post-truth world, Pope Leo XIV calls upon the members of these ecclesial movements to recognize the signs of the times and respond from the heart of Christian revelation.
The opposite is lethal, but sadly, we are witnessing this daily. May your meetings and your communities, then, be training grounds of fraternity and sharing, not merely meeting places, but centres of spirituality. The Spirit of Jesus changes the world because he changes hearts. The Spirit inspires the contemplative dimension of life that rejects self-assertion, complaining, rivalry and the temptation to control consciences and resources. The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom (cf. 2 Cor 3:17). An authentic spirituality thus commits us to integral human development, to making Jesus’ words a reality in our lives. When this happens, there is always joy: joy and hope.
With the whole of postwar Catholic Social Doctrine (CSD), the successor of Peter reminds us that an “authentic spirituality…commits us to integral human development, to making Jesus’ words a reality in our lives.” This is the path to joy and hope, which is possible even if a dystopian future threatens the human family.
In this context, Leo calls the members of these ecclesial movements to properly understand evangelization, which is inseparable from addressing “[t]he challenges facing the human family.” This understanding of evangelizing by taking the lead in addressing social challenges was clearly understood by American social Catholics in the late 19th century, as we could see in Archbishop John Ireland of St. Paul, MN and Msgr. John A. Ryan as I have previously written. In understanding the clear links between evangelization and work for social justice, Leo reflects the teaching of Catholic Social Doctrine that a Catholic understanding of evangelization is inseparable from advancing the “integral and solidary humanism” of CSD. Leo continues.
Evangelization, dear brothers and sisters, is not our attempt to conquer the world, but the infinite grace that radiates from lives transformed by the Kingdom of God. It is the way of the Beatitudes, a path that we tread together, between the “already” and the “not yet,” hungering and thirsting for justice, poor in spirit, merciful, meek, pure of heart, men and women of peace. Jesus himself chose this path: to follow it, we have no need of powerful patrons, worldly compromises, or emotional strategies.
Notice how for Pope Leo, evangelization is not about “our attempt to conquer the world” and that those who follow the path of Jesus “have no need of powerful patrons, worldly compromises, .... Although I don’t want to put words in Leo’s mouth, this reminds me of American Catholic postliberals and integralists who see the model of illiberal democracy exemplified by the Hungarian strongman Victor Orbán as a way to evangelize. The basic idea seems to be that Christians should help put an autocrat in office so the coercive power of the state could be used to win the culture wars and thereby supposedly establish a Christian nation. As we would hope and expect, Pope Leo knows better so he reminds us the following.
Evangelization is always God’s work. If at times it takes place through us, it is thanks to the bonds that it makes possible. So be deeply attached to each of the particular Churches and parish communities in which you cultivate and exercise your charisms. Together with the bishops and in cooperation with all the other members of the Body of Christ, all of us will then work together harmoniously as one.
Pope Leo concludes with a statement that “The challenges facing humanity will be less frightening, the future will be less dark and discernment will be less complicated… if together we obey the Holy Spirit!”
Let us pray that the graces of this Pentecost will help especially American Catholics who have been alienated from CSD—or have come to distorted understandings of it through ideological or partisan commitments—to recognize that it is simply a way to live out the gospel ministry of reconciliation in the modern world (see 2 Cor 5:18-20).