… as ashes … Francis makes us startle … our conscience ripples, and perhaps is demoralized. If we look inside ourselves we see ashes … I we look around, we see ashes… I don’t want to scrutinize our present times with a critical gaze, observe the heaps of other people’s ashes while I look at myself and my environment rich with blossoming buds. In reality, I find myself daubed with ashes. Could there be a more blunt and out-of-place message that praises the descent of the Spirit? Indeed, if Francis had rested complacently on the ashes. Hence, the answer is unquestionably no, for he clearly showed us the way. The fifty-day Easter season reverberated within us the passage of the Sea of Rushes; it made us experience the painful mystery of the Passion of the Messiah Jesus Christ; it enwrapped us in the light of the Risen Christ. After which, do we relapse in the greyness of dissent, of tragedies, as if nothing had happened? The Risen Christ did not leave the history of humanity unenlightened, it left us the Holy Spirit, which is “the Easter Gift par excellence.” Francis teaches us that it brings with it two new elements:
- “The Spirit makes of the disciples a new people”:everyone is called into question; the Spirit has descended upon everyone. And everyone – each and every person – is connected through Him;
- “He creates in the disciples a new heart”: a creation that reshapes our innermost feelings, our decision-making capacities, that shows freedom how to accomplish self-bestowal and self-giving to the great mystery of Love.
It doesn’t happen automatically. As it did not happen automatically with the Apostles. The entire history of the Church, which permeates the history of peoples, nations, and individuals, testifies to this. Once again: ashes. Only ashes? If we glimpse a heap of ashes, we assume there has been a fire, that it blazed, burned, consumed. If we let the Spirit blow away the ashes and disperse them, we will be able to experience the burning Fire, into which, as Francis said at the Prayer Vigil of Catholic Charismatic Renewal upon the feast of Pentecost, we should plunge:
“to announce together the love of the Father for all his children! To announce the Good News to all peoples! To show that peace is possible. Showing to the world that peace is possible isn’t always so easy, but in the name of Jesus we can prove with our testimony that peace is possible! It is possible if we have peace among us.”
If we let ourselves be transfixed by the Fire we shall avoid two recurring temptations, which are:
- “To seek diversity without unity. This happens when we want to separate, when we take sides and form parties, when we adopt rigid and airtight positions, when we become locked into our own ideas and ways of doing things, perhaps even thinking that we are better than others, or always in the right.”
- “To seek unity without diversity. Here, unity becomes uniformity, where everyone has to do everything together and in the same way, always thinking alike. Unity ends up being homogeneity and no longer freedom. But, as Saint Paul says, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
He guides us to a precious, arduous, yet safe destination:
“Showing that we have differences – but that is obvious, we do have differences – and yet we want to be a reconciled diversity. We must not forget this expression. Let’s all say it: reconciled diversity. This expression is not mine. It was uttered by a Lutheran brother. Reconciled diversity.”
It is our commitment, and most of all it is a gift of the Gift: the only path that can remove our and other people’s ashes, allowing the enlightening Fire to reverberate in its fervour. We must learn to ask, to supplicate:
“The Spirit is the first gift of the risen Lord, and is given above all for the forgiveness of sins. Here we see the beginning of the Church, the glue that holds us together, the cement that binds the bricks of the house: forgiveness. Because forgiveness is gift to the highest degree; it is the greatest love of all. It preserves unity despite everything, prevents collapse, and consolidates and strengthens. Forgiveness sets our hearts free and enables us to start afresh. Forgiveness gives hope; without forgiveness, the Church is not built up.”
Only then will we stop being afraid, we will cease producing waste. Blind spots will turn into rays of light:
““Spirit of God, Lord, who dwell in my heart and in the heart of the Church, guiding and shaping her in diversity, come! Like water, we need you to live. Come down upon us anew, teach us unity, renew our hearts and teach us to love as you love us, to forgive as you forgive us. Amen.”
