Holy Spirit Encyclical (cont'd) - Part II -Section 3, paragraph 34 and 35

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We have two paragraphs to ponder today from St. JP II’s Encyclical on the Holy Spirit, Part II, section 3:

1. “The Spirit of God,” who according to the biblical description of creation "was moving over the face of the water,"130 signifies the same “Spirit who searches the depths of God”: "searches the depths of the Father and of the Word-Son in the mystery of creation. Not only is he the direct witness of their mutual love from which creation derives, but he himself is this love. He himself, as love, is the eternal uncreated gift. In him is the source and the beginning of every giving of gifts to creatures. The witness concerning the beginning, which we find in the whole of Revelation, beginning with the Book of Genesis, is unanimous on this point. To create means to call into existence from nothing: therefore, to create means to give existence. And if the visible world is created for man, therefore the world is given to man.131 And at the same time that same man in his own humanity receives as a gift a special “image and likeness” to God. This means not only rationality and freedom as constitutive properties of human nature, but also, from the very beginning, the capacity of having a personal relationship with God, as “I” and “you,” and therefore the capacity of having a covenant, which will take place in God’s salvific communication with man. Against the background of the “image and likeness” of God, “the gift of the Spirit” ultimately means a call to friendship, in which the transcendent “depths of God” become in some way opened to participation on the part of man. The Second Vatican Council teaches; "The invisible God out of the abundance of his love speaks to men as friends and lives among them, so that he may invite and take them into fellowship with himself."132

1. The Spirit, therefore, who “searches everything, even the depths of God,” knows from the beginning "the secrets of man."133 For this reason he alone can fully “convince concerning the sin” that happened at the beginning, that sin which is the root of all other sins and the source of man’s sinfulness on earth, a source which never ceases to be active. The Spirit of truth knows the original reality of the sin caused in the will of man by the “father of lies,” he who already "has been judged."134 The Holy Spirit therefore convinces the world of sin in connection with this “judgment,” but by constantly guiding toward the “righteousness” that has been revealed to man together with the Cross of Christ: through "obedience unto death."135

Only the Holy Spirit can convince concerning the sin of the human beginning, precisely he who is the love of the Father and of the Son, he who is gift, whereas the sin of the human beginning consists in untruthfulness and in the rejection of the gift and the love which determine the beginning of the world and of man

Again, I’ve underlined what impressed me and emphasized especially the final words of today’s post, but I welcome your own special insights into the words of St. John Paul II. The final sentence above stresses for me the importance of God’s Truth. We need the Holy Spirit to bring us into all the Truth – Who is Jesus. How we need to come into deeper and truer friendship with God Who loves us so much! Come Holy Spirt, fill the hearts of Your Faithful. Convict us of all that is not true in us, help us to renounce the “father of lies” and help us to empty ourselves of the spirit of the world and make room for You. Enable us to live in Your Spirit of Truth.