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Homily for the 6th Sunday of Easter, 25 May 2025
Readings: Acts 15:1–2, 22–29; Revelation 21:10–14, 22–23; John 14:23–29
Thank you all for your prayers, I have just returned home safely from Rome. I stayed there for almost one month to attend the funeral of our late Holy Father, Pope Francis, and to participate in the meetings of the College of Cardinals in preparation for the conclave and the election and inauguration of a new pope. Thanks be to God for the election of Pope Leo XIV, in the person of Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost.
On this Sixth Sunday of Easter, I would like to share a reflection on how I experienced the guidance of the Holy Spirit during the Conclave. Someone had asked me, “Isn’t the Conclave just like any other election? You cardinals are the ones who chose the new pope. So how can you say that it was the Holy Spirit who elected him?”
That’s a fair question. It’s true—we were the ones who voted. But I can personally attest to how the Holy Spirit moved in our deliberations and decisions. (Of course, I can’t share any details—those are under strict secrecy, and I wouldn’t want to be excommunicated!) As I’ve said before, it’s not like any regular election where candidates campaign and seek votes. People tend to project onto the conclave what they know of political elections—often tainted with human weaknesses like fraud or vote-buying. But I did not experience any of that.
There were discussions—but these were meant to help us understand the immense responsibilities of the one we were to elect. It took two weeks of deep conversations. And if you had heard what I heard, you’d probably also say: only someone crazy would aspire to take on a role with such a tremendous burden. It’s truly daunting.
In fact, many cardinals expressed something like this before we entered the Sistine Chapel: “God already knows whom He wants to choose—but we don’t yet. We need to pray and discern so we can recognize that person. He’s already among us. And to whoever you are, if you are the one chosen, don’t refuse. Accept it. We’re all here—we’ll support you. You can count on our collaboration.”
Although the details of the Conclave remain confidential, I can say with conviction that the entire process was carried out in the guidance of the Holy Spirit, because it was marked by silence, prayer, and a sincere effort to discern God’s will. (Even the act of casting our ballots took more than an hour in complete silence—each one of us lined up to drop the ballot in the urn, praying in front of Michelangelo’s fresco of the Last Judgment.)
At every stage, I felt the gentle whisper of the Spirit encouraging us to trust and to listen. But the Spirit did not dictate or override us—we had to cooperate. He moved through our openness, our capacity to listen, and our willingness to serve in unity and humility. We were not automatons; we were human instruments cooperating with the Spirit.
As we heard in today’s First Reading from the Acts of the Apostles, when the early Church resolved a crisis between Jewish and Gentile Christians, they said: “It is the decision of the Holy Spirit and of us.” This shows that, after intense dialogue and discernment, they were convinced their decision reflected God’s will. That was also our experience in choosing the new pope—a movement of the Spirit that worked with our minds, hearts, and faith to accomplish God’s will for the Church.
With this in mind, I invite you to reflect on how the Holy Spirit continues to guide each of us—especially in the important decisions we make as a community of baptized believers. We are not alone. This is the assurance that Jesus gave His disciples before He left them: that the Spirit would remain with them, to teach and remind them of everything He had said.
This also applies to the major decisions we make in our lives—personally, as families, and as communities. It is the same spirit behind the Synod on Synodality, championed by the late Pope Francis and the bishops of the world. It calls us to journey together, to be open in listening and speaking, to engage in “conversations in the Spirit”—that is, to listen attentively to one another under the light of the Holy Spirit, so that our decisions as Church are fruits of true discernment.
When we make decisions in this way—grounded in prayer and attentive listening to the Spirit—we walk together in deeper unity and become more faithful to our shared mission as Church.
