Pope Francis warns of a “fear of freedom” and of “adolescent progressivism”

From Pope Francis’ morning homily, Wednesday, June 12 (via Vatican radio):

The Pope’s homily centered around Jesus’ words in the Gospel of the day, (Mt 5:17) “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.” …

“The hour of the law’s fulfillment is when the law reaches its maturity when it becomes the law of the Spirit. Moving forward on this road is somewhat risky, but it is the only road to maturity, to leave behind the times in which we are not mature. Part of the law’s journey to maturity, which comes with preaching Jesus, always involves fear; fear of the freedom that the Spirit gives us. The law of the Spirit makes us free! This freedom frightens us a little, because we are afraid we will confuse the freedom of the Spirit with human freedom.”

…The Pope warned that this fear “brings two temptations with it.” The first, is to “go backwards” to say that “it’s possible up to this point, but impossible beyond this point” which ends up becoming “let’s stay here.” This, he warned, “is the temptation of fear of freedom, fear of the Holy Spirit.” …

“This is the temptation to go backwards, because we are ‘safer’ going back: but total security is in the Holy Spirit that brings you forward…We cannot control the Holy Spirit: that is the problem! This is a temptation.”

Pope Francis noted that there is another temptation: that of “adolescent progressivism,” that de-rails us. This temptation lies in seeing a culture and “not detaching ourselves from it.”

“We take the values of this culture a little bit from here, a little bit from there…They want to make this law? Alright let’s go ahead and make this law. Let’s broaden the boundaries here a little. In the end, let me tell you, this is not true progress. It is adolescent progressivism: just like teenagers who in their enthusiasm want to have everything, and in the end? You slip up…It’s like when the road is covered in ice and the car slips and go off track…This is the other temptation at the moment! We, at this moment in the history of the Church, we cannot go backwards or go off the track!”