""At a time when Christians worldwide are facing persecutions of historic nature, Pope Francis, in his homily delivered Sunday at Mass in the Santa Marta residence in Vatican City, expressed concern that “World War II is upon us” and urged Christians to proclaim their faith fearlessly, without concern for the consequences.
“The path of the Church is openness, to speak frankly, with liberty,” Pope Francis said, reading from New Testament scriptures of the days after the Resurrection of Jesus, when the Holy Spirit descended upon the apostles and gave them the courage to go forth and proclaim their faith without fear.
Pope Francis based his homily from the Acts of the Apostles, recalling the words of Saint Peter and Saint John expressing the courage they felt after the Resurrection when the Holy Spirit had descended upon them, urging them to shed their fear of reprisals, going forth openly into the world to proclaim, “We can speak openly now of what we have seen and heard Jesus do.”
“Even today, the message of the Church is the message of the openness in the path of Christian courage,” the pope said. “These two apostles, Peter and John, as the Bible says, found they had the courage without having to be told what to do. The Bible conveys this in simple words, translated as ‘courage,’ ‘openness,’ ‘freedom to speak,’ and ‘to not be afraid” to say what they felt. Even in the original, the Bible has so much significance with the simple assurance that all our fears will pass when we find the courage to express our faith in Christ openly.”
The pope’s homily at the Mass in the Santa Marta residence in Vatican City followed a High Mass celebrated in the St. Peter’s Cathedral to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 1915 massacre of the Armenians by the Turks, in which the pope caused uproar in Turkey by utilizing the Armenian genocide of a hundred years ago to explain that Christians once again are seeing “heinous crimes committed against Christians daily, in bloody massacres and the madness of destruction.”
“I fear we are already in World War III,” Pope Francis said, explaining that genocides such as happened to the Armenians in World War I and were repeated with the atrocities of Hitler and Stalin in World War II are being repeated today.
“I fear World War III is upon us when we hear daily the muffled cries of our brothers and sisters who are killed in unimaginable violence. These martyrs, simply because they believe in Jesus Christ or because of their ethnicity, are forced to abandon their land or be murdered horribly – decapitated, crucified, and burned alive.”
In reporting on the pope’s homily at Mass in the Santa Marta residence in Vatican City, the Vatican Radio noted the hero of the story is the Holy Spirit.
“The message is not that we should go forth proselytizing our faith as if we were engaged in advertising to get others to join with us in our spiritual society,” Pope Francis said. “No, this will not work, it is not truly Christian.
“What is Christian,” he distinguished, “is to have the courage to proclaim Jesus Christ, as Christ explained in ‘the mysterious dialogue’ with the Pharisee Nicodemus, the courage to be ‘born again,’ through the action of the Holy Spirit. The path of Christian courage is the path of proclaiming our astonishment at the word of Jesus Christ that keeps our faith alive and moving ahead.”
The pope explained that when Jesus speaks of being “born again,” Jesus means for us to understand the Holy Spirit brings upon us, as he did coming upon the Apostles after the Resurrection, the courage to proclaim our faith openly without fear of consequence.
“We hear his voice come upon us as he came upon the Apostles like the wind, descending upon them as they huddled in that room after Christ died, giving them the courage to turn to God and not flee, but instead face their fears squarely and proclaim His Word totally openly, boldly, without fear,” Pope Francis said.
“Only the Holy Spirit has the power to change the history of our lives, to place us in union with Jesus Christ,” he concluded. “That courage of our faith in Jesus Christ must come from the Holy Spirit, because only God has the power to transform without instruction simple men like Peter and John, removing their fear and imparting unto them even the courage to proclaim their final witness to Jesus Christ, even if it meant surrendering their lives in martyrdom.""
