Holy Spirit Encyclical (cont'd) - Part I -paragraphs 13 and 14

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Today we conclude section 3 with paragraphs 13 and 14 of this Encyclical on the Holy Spirit:

1. It seems then that even the words spoken by Jesus in the farewell discourse should be read again in the light of that “beginning,” so long ago yet fundamental, which we know from Genesis. “If I do not go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” Describing his “departure” as a condition for the “coming” of the Counselor, Christ links the new beginning of God’s salvific self-communication in the Holy Spirit with the mystery of the Redemption. It is a new beginning, first of all because between the first beginning and the whole of human history-from the original fall onwards-sin has intervened, sin which is in contradiction to the presence of the Spirit of God in creation, and which is above all in contradiction to God’s salvific self- communication to man. St. Paul writes that, precisely because of sin, “creation…was subjected to futility…, has been groaning in travail together until now” and "waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God."43

1. Therefore Jesus Christ says in the Upper Room "It is to your advantage I go away; …if I go, I will send him to you."44 The “departure” of Christ through the Cross has the power of the Redemption-and this also means a new presence of the Spirit of God in creation: the new beginning of God’s self-communication to man in the Holy Spirit. “And that you are children is proven by the fact that God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of his Son who cries: Abba, Father!” As the Apostle Paul writes in the Letter to the Galatians.45 The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Father, as the words of the farewell discourse in the Upper Room bear witness. At the same time he is the Spirit of the Son: he is the Spirit of Jesus Christ, as the Apostles and particularly Paul of Tarsus will testify.46 With the sending of this Spirit “into our hearts,” there begins the fulfillment of that for which “creation waits with eager longing,” as we read in the Letter to the Romans.

The Holy Spirit comes at the price of Christ’s “departure.” While this “departure” caused the Apostles to be sorrowful,47 and this sorrow was to reach its culmination in the Passion and Death on Good Friday, "this sorrow will turn into joy."48 For Christ will add to this redemptive “departure” the glory of his Resurrection and Ascension to the Father. Thus the sorrow with its underlying joy is, for the Apostles in the context of their Master’s “departure,” an “advantageous” departure, for thanks to it another “Counselor” will come.49 At the price of the Cross which brings about the Redemption, in the power of the whole Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit comes in order to remain from the day of Pentecost onwards with the Apostles, to remain with the Church and in the Church, and through her in the world.

In this way there is definitively brought about that new beginning of the self-communication of the Triune God in the Holy Spirit through the work of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of man and of the world.

What a joy to know that “self-cpmmunication of the Triune God in the Holy Spirit through the work of Jesus” has begun! Come Holy Spirit, enighten our minds and hearts that we may fully cooperate with you. Enable us to separate ourselves from any sin or attachment to anything or anyone that might prevent our hearing your "still small voice’ guiding the Church into all Truth.