Gospel according to Saint John 20:19-23
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

Breeze, gale, and fire

Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, May 24, 2026 | Pentecost

Acts 2: 1-11; 1Cor 12: 3b-7.12-13; Jn 20: 19-23

Although other symbols are used in the Sacraments, the Holy Spirit appears in the New Testament as a dove, fire, and a “powerful wind.”

Only for Christ did the Holy Spirit appear in the form of a dove, but when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples, it did so with the force of a mighty wind and fire descending upon their heads.

We all recall news reports of wildfires that leave experts feeling powerless, due to the combination of wind and fire, which is capable of sweeping through vast swaths of forest.

Fire and wind also possess a powerful symbolic capacity, recognized by all cultures and all poets. But are you and I willing to understand and feel how the arrival of that fire and that wind occurs in our lives?

The Holy Spirit acts with force when confronted with our limitations of every kind. As Pope Leo said on the Feast of Pentecost in 2025: He dissolves our hardness of heart, our closed-mindedness, our selfishness, the fears that paralyze us, and the narcissism that makes us revolve solely around ourselves.

Certainly, he is sometimes called “the Comforter,” but his coming brings, first and foremost, an inner upheaval that we often try to deny, ignore, or gloss over. This occurs during the life of Jesus, for example in Mark 3:22–30, where it is recounted how the scribes who had come down from Jerusalem accuse Jesus of casting out demons “by the power of Beelzebul,” that is, they attribute to the evil spirit what is in reality the work of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus responds with a parable about the divided kingdom and warns: Everything will be forgiven people, but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven.

This is a radical hardening of the heart; not a mere sin, but a persistent attitude of resistance. Jesus does not say that God is unwilling to forgive, but that man places himself in a situation where he refuses to accept either forgiveness or divine help.

We also experience this in our personal lives. Our rejection of the Holy Spirit is almost never expressed through rational arguments or explicit words, but rather through attitudes that deny or distort his work. Here are some everyday examples that reflect what Jesus denounced in the Gospel:

► Denying the obvious good: when someone sees a gesture of generosity or forgiveness and interprets it as manipulation or a hidden agenda. It is calling “evil” what is “good,” judging as merely mundane an act that is moved by the breath of the Holy Spirit.

► Resistance to inner truth: when the heart points to a path of justice and generosity, but one chooses to ignore it out of convenience or fear. Indifference then prevails, or perhaps the limited generosity we all possess.

► Closing the door to forgiveness: refusing to reconcile with someone, even when peace is sincerely offered, because we prefer to hold onto resentment; this seems less demanding to us and spares us the effort of reaching out to someone we judge as undeserving of compassion.

► Contempt for hope: ridiculing another’s faith or trust in God, as if it were naivety, rather than recognizing the strength given by the Spirit, often in unexpected or mysterious ways, but always real.

► Attributing good to evil: for example, criticizing those who help the poor by saying they do so for political gain or to “polish their image,” without recognizing the work of the Spirit in charity, which is stronger than some petty intentions that, certainly, still mingle with our way of loving.

► Rejection of the Holy Spirit also manifests itself in community life as resistance to shared truth. This happens when a community closes itself off to the Church’s correction or teaching, preferring to hold onto its own opinions; thus, the voice of the Spirit speaking within the community is rejected.

All these attitudes signify a fear of that fire, of that impetuous wind that is the Holy Spirit bringing goodness and truth to our hearts, to show us clearly that what comes out of the mouth comes from the heart, and that is what defiles a person. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander (Mt 15:18-19).

—ooOoo—

The examples mentioned explain why the Holy Spirit is called “Lord and Giver of Life” in the Creed. Indeed, the Holy Spirit gives us life when He urges us to step outside of our ego—so intensely that we can say our existence in this world—if we are faithful to that impulse—is a true birth, the true beginning of our authentic existence.

In fact, when we say “to exist,” we are referring to the word ex-sistere (often written with a hyphen to emphasize its etymology) because it comes from the Latin ex (= out of) and sistere (= to stand, to take a position). That ecstasy is the work of the Holy Spirit, and if we renounce it, a sense of bitterness and failure is inevitable, because in reality we have renounced our nature as children, which calls us to work in the Father’s vineyard.

Although we cannot expect to have an experience as spectacular and impressive as that of the disciples at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit presents Himself in our hearts with the same energy and clarity; He illuminates what our next step should be to serve faithfully in the kingdom of heaven and gives us the assurance that we will not be alone. That is how he bursts into the heart of those of good will, even if they are enveloped in fear, like the community in the Upper Room. That is his way of consoling us, giving us the certainty that we have a mission that is always unique, even as we work and walk in community.

► A sign of that transforming power is the radical conversion of those who live in indifference or sin and suddenly experience an inner clarity that moves them to change their lives, leaving behind harmful habits and comfortable attitudes.

► On other occasions, the Spirit impels those who sincerely devote themselves to their apostolic work toward a mission they had never imagined. This was the case with Mother Teresa of Calcutta, who from the age of 12 had felt called to be a missionary and then, in 1946, while carrying out a beautiful work of education in India, found herself impelled to work with lepers, the dying, the sick, and orphans in the poorest neighborhoods of Calcutta. It was what has been called a “call within a call,” something she had never planned.

But this is not limited to those called to be Foundresses and Founders; rather, the Spirit manifests with a personality of its own in you and me.

► Like an inner healing, acting as a fire that burns away resentments and wounds, freeing the heart to love fully and without reserve.

► After certain moments of undeniable spiritual upheaval, the Holy Spirit does not cease to act, doing so in a way that could be described as a “gentle breeze.” Let us recall the experience of the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 19: God was not in the earthquake or in the fire, but precisely in “the whisper of a gentle breeze.”

Perhaps the most beautiful example is the moment of the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will be the mother of the Son of God. She is troubled and asks how this can be. The angel replies: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you (Lk 1:35).

On this occasion there is no thunder or fire, but rather the delicate image of a protective shadow, which envelops and comforts, filling Mary with peace and trust.

Another example full of tenderness is found in the Gospel according to John 14:16–18, when Jesus promises: I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate. The word used is “Paraclete,” that is, defender, companion, comforter—literally, “one called to remain by one’s side.” In that context, the disciples are afraid and saddened by Jesus’ departure. The Spirit is promised as an inner presence that calms, recalls the words of Christ, brings peace to the heart, and accompanies us in solitude or persecution, as is clearly seen in the martyrs or when we suffer persecution or painful misunderstanding.

The Holy Spirit also manifests in the believer’s life as a gentle breeze, calming anxiety and bringing serenity amid doubt. It is the consolation that allows us to say, like Mary: Let it be done to me according to your word. So it was at the Baptism of Jesus,

Sometimes we feel neither fire nor wind, but a silence filled with peace, which is equally the work of the Spirit. In reality, it is a continuous experience (a Canon, as our Founder calls it) that moves our whole being, not just the intellect and the will. It is an experience similar to what happened to St. Augustine, who, after years of searching and resistance, felt an irresistible inner attraction toward the truth and beauty of God, until he could say: You made us, Lord, for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. This continuous action of the Holy Spirit is well described by the word Inspiration, for, like a gentle breeze or a mighty wind, it draws us and lifts us toward Him above the dust and fog of this world.

We experience Him when we feel the desire to seek silence and encounter with the divine Persons in prayer; or when our hearts are drawn toward what is just and good, without fanfare or upheaval; and also, when the suffering of others and their unfulfilled dreams move us to serve, beyond the limits of our natural generosity.

This is also how the Spirit works: without noise, without imposing itself, but filling the soul with a deep peace that restores the strength to keep walking, giving us the certainty that we are not alone and that at every moment, without exception, God the Father expects something from our humble service.

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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President