May 7, 2025

Fr. John Riccardo

And so it begins. At this very moment, the cardinals are gathered together in the Sistine Chapel. Hopefully, they’re listening at least as much to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit as to one another. My prayer daily has been that the Spirit will clearly single out the one He has chosen, even as He did when the apostles had to choose a successor to Judas so many years ago.

I’m not sure how everybody else feels, but personally this doesn’t feel like just another conclave (not that any of them are run of the mill). Who knows what’s going to happen this week, but it certainly seems like it could be momentous. The Church, that is to say, all of us who are disciples of Jesus, are constantly called to be a prophetic voice, but that voice is increasingly needed now. As the anxiety, fear, loneliness, anger and worse continue to grow in our culture, there is an ever more urgent need for the Church to be a compelling sign and instrument both of intimacy with God and of union amongst the human race. The healing, unity, peace, happiness and more that our culture is crying for can only come from God, the loving Creator of all that is, and He works through the Church, broken and flawed, and sinful as we all are. We are living in days that call more and more for strategies and mindsets that resemble those of the first few centuries. Accordingly, we would do well to read ever more attentively the history of the early Church, to see how profoundly they turned the world upside down (cf. Acts 17:6), and to ask the Lord how He desires to use us in these days in which He has chosen for us to live.

In this Easter season, we are continuously hearing from the Acts of the Apostles at Mass. We recently had the passage where Luke gives us one of the first snapshots of the early Church. “The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. With great power the Apostles bore witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great favor was accorded them all. There was no needy person among them, for those who owned property or houses would sell them, bring the proceeds of the sale, and put them at the feet of the Apostles, and they were distributed to each according to need” (4:32-5). We could translate parts of this passage in this way: “The full number, or the multitude, of those who believed was one. … With great power the Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus … They had a mutual interest for each other.”

Only God can do these things. Many becoming one without ceasing to be many. Unity across all known barriers and divisions – male/female, rich/poor, slave/free, Jew/Gentile, and more. Testifying, not just in words – although they spoke plenty – but above all in transformed lives to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Hearts that suddenly are filled with concern and love for their brothers and sisters who are in need, even though they were not related and perhaps even had been considered the enemy before they met Jesus.

These are some of the many concrete results of Pentecost, when the Spirit fell in power upon the disciples. We desperately need a new Pentecost in our days! And not just the Church needs a new Pentecost, but the world needs a new Pentecost, because the Church is the means by which God answers the cry of this world that He so loves.

I once heard a missionary at a parish retreat ask the parish to ponder this stark question: “If this parish didn’t exist, would this community even notice?”

As we await, then, the white smoke that will announce the latest successor to St. Peter, let us pray fervently for the cardinals and for that man known only to God right now. But let us also pray fervently for ourselves, our marriages, our families, our parishes, our dioceses and our apostolates. May the Holy Spirit use us to turn the world upside down, to give hope, to draw others to the only One who can satisfy the ache in us individually and collectively as a human race. May the Holy Spirit make us grow in genuine unity! May the Holy Spirit enable us to testify with great power in word and deed to the resurrection of Jesus. And may the Holy Spirit change our hearts so that we have a mutual interest for one another.

Image: Vatican Media

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