Pope Francis has said that the Holy Spirit brings Christians beyond our natural limits, “and we should not block him with our own plans.”

The Supreme Pontiff who said this while delivering his daily homily noted that “to use a word of St. John XXIII: it is the Holy Spirit that updates the Church: Really, he really updates it and keeps it going,” the Pope observed in his May 12 daily Mass.

Addressing those present in the Vatican’s Saint Martha guesthouse, the pontiff recounted the day’s first reading, taken from the Acts of the Apostles, in which Peter baptizes a group of pagans and is criticized by the Christian community for doing so because they were “unclean.”

However, when Peter described the vision he had telling him to go to the pagans and how he saw the Holy Spirit descend on them as it did with the Apostles on Pentecost, the Christian community then rejoices that the Gentiles were saved, the Pope continued.

The Roman Pontiff then noted that the Holy Spirit goes where it wills, and that one of the greatest temptations of believers is to block its action by trying to force it go in one direction or the other.

Drawing attention to how Peter first hesitated to go near the pagans, Pope Francis explained that when he baptized them it was an internal moment of crisis for the early Christian community, because to touch the “unclean” was something “unthinkable.”

“If – for example – tomorrow an expedition of Martians came, and some of them came to us, here … Martians, right? Green, with that long nose and big ears, just like children paint them… And one says, ‘But I want to be baptized!’ What would happen?”

Continuing, the Bishop of Rome observed how Peter realized the truth through a vision, which is that whatever has been purified by God cannot be called “profane” by anyone else, and that by recounting this to them, his criticizers changed their attitude.

“If then God gave them the same gift he gave to us when we came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to be able to hinder God?” he asked, quoting the scripture passage.

“When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, ‘No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, let’s do it this way,’” the Pope went on to say, adding that “Peter in that first diocese – the first diocese was Antioch – makes this decision: ‘Who am I to admit impediments?’”

This is “A nice word for bishops, for priests and for Christians. Who are we to close doors?” he questioned, pointing out that “In the early Church, even today, there is the ministry of the ostiary (usher).”

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