Holy Spirit Encyclical (cont'd) - Part II -Section 3, paragraph 38

[MariaChristi]

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In this Encyclical, written in 1986, we hear Pope St. John Paul II, speaking of “atheistic theologies” and we can see how far they have progressed in the darkness of this present year of 2016. Many people are living “as if” God were dead – He means little or nothing to them – He may as well not exist in their minds, for they want him to be out of sight and conversations. How we need to pray for the Holy Spirit to convince us all of our neglect and indefference toward God and toward ourselves and every member of the human family created in His Image and Likeness!

1. For in spite of all the witness of creation and of the salvific economy inherent in it, the spirit of darkness142 is capable of showing God as an enemy of his own creature, and in the first place as an enemy of man, as a source of danger and threat to man. In this way Satan manages to sow in man’s soul the seed of opposition to the one who “from the beginning” would be considered as man’s enemy-and not as Father. Man is challenged to become the adversary of God!

The analysis of sin in its original dimension indicates that, through the influence of the “father of lies,” throughout the history of humanity there will be a constant pressure on man to reject God, even to the point of hating him: “Love of self to the point of contempt for God,” as St. Augustine puts it.143 Man will be inclined to see in God primarily a limitation of himself, and not the source of his own freedom and the fullness of good. We see this confirmed in the modern age, when the atheistic ideologies seek to root out religion on the grounds that religion causes the radical “alienation” of man, as if man were dispossessed of his own humanity when, accepting the idea of God, he attributes to God what belongs to man, and exclusively to man! Hence a process of thought and historico-sociological practice in which the rejection of God has reached the point of declaring his “death.” An absurdity, both in concept and expression! But the ideology of the “death of God” is more a threat to man, as the Second Vatican Council indicates when it analyzes the question of the “independence of earthly affairs” and writes: "For without the Creator the creature would disappear…when God is forgotten the creature itself grows unintelligible."144 The ideology of the “death of God” easily demonstrates in its effects that on the “theoretical and practical” levels it is the ideology of the “death of man.”

Come Holy Spirit, enable us to repent truly and believe in the Good News of Jesus. Renew in us the graces of our Baptism and Confirmation, to strengthen Your Life in us. Heal us in the Sacrament of Penance from all that separates us from You. Nourish us with your Word and Your Eucharist, at every Mass and enable us to give ourselves wholeheartedly in union with your sacrifice as we live our call to holiness as single, married, religious, or clergy – members of Your Body, serving You in one another.