From Saint Peter’s Square, the Pope resumed his cycle of catechesis on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Father called on the faithful to cultivate faith in the Holy Spirit, who gives “eternal life” and “liberates from the horror of having to admit that everything ends here.”
Alexandra Sirgant – Vatican City
Despite gloomy weather and due to the work of the Synod in progress in the Paul IV room of the Vatican, the general audience of Pope Francis was held this Wednesday, October 16 in Saint Peter’s Square in Rome. Based on the reading of the day, taken from the Gospel according to Saint John (Jn 14, 15-17), the Holy Father was interested in the way in which the Holy Spirit “is present and at work in the life of the Church».
The Council of Constantinople
Pope Francis first recalled that during the first three centuries, “the Church did not feel the need to explicitly formulate its belief in the Holy Spirit» more than «heresy“, the process of which began in the fourth century with Saint Anthanasius of Alexandria, “pushed the Church to clarify this faith». «It is the Church’s experience of the sanctifying and divinizing action of the Holy Spirit which has led the Church to the certainty of its full divinity» continued the Sovereign Pontiff. The divinity of the Holy Spirit was later defined by the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381, with the terms well known today: “I believe in the Holy Spirit, who is Lord and gives life; he proceeds from the Father and the Son; with the Father and the Son, he receives the same adoration and the same glory; he spoke through the prophets“. Saint Basil the Great, the main architect of this formula, thus affirms the equality of the three persons of the Trinity who receive the same glory and the same adoration.
The Holy Spirit gives “eternal life”
However, François clarified, “the conciliar definition was not a point of arrival, but a point of departure“. The Pope then asked: “What does the article of faith that we proclaim every Sunday at Mass tell us, to us believers today?“. Recalling in a few words the disputes and divisions which will arise from the Nicene Creed between the Eastern Church and the Western Church, the Holy Father called on the faithful to value “the most important prerogative (…) which is proclaimed in the article of the Creed, namely that the Holy Spirit is “vivifier”, that is to say he gives life“. During Creation, the Holy Spirit made Adam, originally “a mud statue», and «to be alive» (cf. Gn 2.7). NOW, “in the new creation, it is the Holy Spirit who gives believers new life, the life of Christ, supernatural life, as children of God“. Thus, the Holy Spirit gives “eternal life» because, François continued, “faith frees us from the horror of having to admit that everything stops here, that there is no redemption for the suffering and injustice that reign supreme on earth».
The Bishop of Rome concluded by calling on believers to cultivate this faith in the Holy Spirit and making “thanks to Christ who obtained for us this precious gift at the cost of his life».
At the end of the general audience, Pope Francis had a thought for the countries affected by the war, such as Ukraine, Palestine, Israel and Burma. He urged not to forget that “war is a defeat».
