Pope: faith in the Holy Spirit opens us to eternal life

At the general audience Francis' commentary on the words of the Creed on the third person of the Trinity. New appeal to continue to ‘pray and fight for peace’. The memory of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko killed by the communist regime 40 years ago in Poland: ‘He taught to overcome evil with good’.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) - It is faith in the Holy Spirit that frees the believer from the emptiness of death and injustice without redemption. This was said today by Pope Francis addressing the faithful during the Wednesday General Audience held in St. Peter's Square.

Continuing the cycle of catechesis dedicated to the Holy Spirit, today the pontiff dwelt on the verse of the Creed in which faith in the third person of the Trinity is proclaimed. ‘We move from what has been revealed to us about the Holy Spirit in Sacred Scripture to how He is present and at work in the life of the Church,’ he said.

Francis recalled how in the first three centuries the Church did not feel the need to give an explicit formulation of its faith in the Holy Spirit. So much so that in the Apostolic Symbol, whose 1700th anniversary falls next year, it says: ‘I believe in the Holy Spirit’, without any specification. ‘It was heresy,’ the pope explained, ’that then pushed the Church to specify this faith of hers. And this happened at the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople in 381, which defined the divinity of the Holy Spirit with the words that we still repeat in the Creed today.

‘The strongest affirmation is that to Him is due the same glory and adoration as to the Father and the Son. It is the argument of equality in honour, dear to St Basil the Great, who was the main architect of that formula,’ the pontiff recalled, evoking also the discussions between East and West on the Latin translation of the word “Filioque”. ‘It has been the reason (or the pretext) for so many disputes and divisions that it is not the case to deal with here’, also because “this issue in the climate of dialogue established between the two Churches, has lost the harshness of the past and allows one to hope for full mutual acceptance, as one of the main reconciled differences”.

But beyond this stumbling block, the most important idea proclaimed by this article of the Creed is that ‘the Holy Spirit gives life’. ‘In the beginning, in creation, the breath of God gives Adam natural life; from a statue of mud, it makes him a living being,’ Francis commented. ’Now, in the new creation, the Holy Spirit is the One who gives believers new life, the life of Christ, supernatural life, as children of God. And ‘the great and consoling news for us’ is that this is ‘eternal life’. ‘Faith frees us from the horror of having to admit that everything ends here, that there is no redemption for the suffering and injustice that reign supreme on earth’.

‘Let us cultivate this faith,’ Francis concluded, ’also for those who, often through no fault of their own, are deprived of it and cannot make sense of life. And let us not forget to thank the One who, with his death, obtained for us this priceless gift'.

In his greetings to the faithful, the Pope recalled St Ignatius of Antioch, a great figure of the Christian East, whose liturgical feast falls tomorrow: ‘may his example,’ he said, ‘help everyone rediscover the joy of being Christian. And let us not forget,' he added, ’the countries at war: the tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Myanmar. Let us not forget that war is always a defeat and let us pray and fight for peace'.

In his greetings in Polish, Francis also recalled the testimony of Blessed Jerzy Popiełuszko, a priest killed 40 years ago by the communist regime in Poland and who is being remembered in Rome these days at a conference. ‘May this blessed, who taught to overcome evil with good,’ he said, “support you in building unity in the spirit of truth and respect for the dignity of the human person”.

Finally, he also addressed a greeting to the participants of the World Radio Maria convention, urging them ‘to spread the values of fraternity and solidarity by echoing the life of the Church’.