The Holy spirit,
sanctification, and the forgiveness of sins
H. H.
John Paul II
General Audience
July 22, 1998
1. Jesus’ act of
“breathing” on the Apostles, which communicated the Holy Spirit to
them (cf. Jn 20:21-22), recalls the creation of man, described by
Genesis as the communication of the “breath of life” (Gn 2:7). The
Holy Spirit is the “breath” as it were of the Risen One, who instils
new life in the Church represented by the first disciples. The most
obvious sign of this new life is the power to forgive sins. Jesus in
fact says: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven” (Jn 20:22-23). Wherever “the Spirit of holiness”
(Rom 1:4) is poured out, whatever is opposed to holiness, i.e., sin,
is destroyed. According to Jesus’ word, the Holy Spirit is the one
who “will convince the world of sin” (Jn 16:8).
He makes us aware of sin, but at the same time it is he himself who
forgives sin. St Thomas comments in this regard: “Since it is the
Holy Spirit who establishes our friendship with God, it is normal
for God to forgive sins through him” (Contr. Gent., IV, 21, 11).
2. The Spirit of the Lord not only destroys sin, but also
accomplishes the sanctification and divinization of man. “God chose”
us, St Paul says, “from the beginning to be saved, through
sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth” (2 Thes 2:13).
Let us look more closely at what this “sanctification-divinization”
consists of.
The Holy Spirit is “Person-Love; he is Person-Gift” (Dominum et
Vivificantem, n. 10). This love given by the Father, received and
reciprocated by the Son, is communicated to the one redeemed, who
thus becomes a “new man” (Eph 4:24), a “new creation” (Gal 6:15). We
Christians are not only purified from sin, but are also reborn and
sanctified. We receive a new life, since we have become “partakers
of the divine nature” (2 Pt 1:4); we are “called children of God;
and so we are!” (1 Jn 3:1). It is the life of grace: the free gift
by which God makes us partakers of his Trinitarian life.
In their relationship with the baptized, the three divine Persons
should be neither separated — because each always acts in communion
with the others — nor confused, because each Person is communicated
as a Person.
In reflecting on grace it is important not to think of it as a
“thing”. It is “first and foremost the gift of the Spirit who
justifies and sanctifies us” (CCC, n. 2003). It is the gift of the
Holy Spirit who makes us like the Son and puts us in a filial
relationship with the Father: in the one Spirit through Christ we
have access to the Father (cf. Eph 2:18).
3. The Holy Spirit’s presence truly and inwardly transforms man: it
is sanctifying or deifying grace, which elevates our being and our
acting, enabling us to live in relationship with the Holy Trinity.
This takes place through the theological virtues of faith, hope and
charity, “which adapt man’s faculties for participation in the
divine nature” (CCC, n. 1812). Thus, by faith the believer considers
God, his brethren and history not merely from the standpoint of
reason, but from the viewpoint of divine Revelation. By hope man
looks at the future with trusting, vigorous certitude, hoping
against hope (cf. Rom 4:18), with his gaze fixed on the goal of
eternal happiness and the full achievement of God’s kingdom. By
charity the disciple is obliged to love God with his whole heart and
to love others as Jesus loved them, that is, to the total giving of
self.
4. The sanctification of the individual believer always takes place
through incorporation into the Church. “The life of the individual
child of God is joined in Christ and through Christ by a wonderful
link to the life of all his other Christian brethren. Together they
form the supernatural unity of Christ’s Mystical Body so that, as it
were, a single mystical person is formed” (Paul VI, Apostolic
Constituion Indulgentiarum doctrina, n. 5).
This is the mystery of the communion of saints. An everlasting bond
of charity joins all the “saints”, those who have already reached
the heavenly homeland or are being purified in purgatory, as well as
those who are still pilgrims on earth. There is also an abundant
exchange of gifts among them, to the point that the holiness of one
helps all the others. St Thomas states: “Whoever lives in charity
participates in all the good that is done in the world” (In Symb.
Apost.); and again: “The act of one is accomplished through the
charity of another, that charity by which we are all one in Christ”
(In IV Sent., d. 20, a. 2; q. 3 ad 1).
5. The Council recalled that “all the faithful in any state or walk
of life are called to the fullness of Christian life and to the
perfection of charity” (Lumen gentium, n. 40). Concretely, the way
for the faithful to become saints is that of fidelity to God’s will,
as it is expressed to us in his Word, the commandments and the
inspirations of the Holy Spirit. As it was for Mary and for all the
saints, so for us too, the perfection of charity consists in
trusting abandonment into the Father’s hands, following Jesus’
example. Once again this is possible because of the Holy Spirit,
who, even in the most difficult moments, enables us to repeat with
Jesus: “Lo, I have come to do your will” (cf. Heb 10:7).
6. This holiness is reflected in a special way in religious life, in
which one’s baptismal consecration is lived by the commitment
radically to follow the Lord through the evangelical counsels of
chastity, poverty and obedience. “Like the whole of Christian life,
the call to the consecrated life is closely linked to the working of
the Holy Spirit. In every age, the Spirit enables new men and women
to recognize the appeal of such a demanding choice.... It is the
Spirit who awakens the desire to respond fully; it is he who guides
the growth of this desire, helping it to mature into a positive
response and sustaining it as it is faithfully translated into
action; it is he who shapes and moulds the hearts of those who are
called, configuring them to Christ, the chaste, poor and obedient
One, and prompting them to make his mission their own” (Apostolic
Exhortation, Vita consecrata, n. 19).
An eminent expression of holiness, made possible by the power of
Holy Spirit, is martyrdom, the supreme witness given in blood to the
Lord Jesus. But the Christian commitment is already a significant
and fruitful form of witness, when it is lived — day by day, in the
various states of life — in radical fidelity to the commandment of
love.
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To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
My thoughts and prayers go in a special way this morning to the
people of Papua New Guinea who have been struck by the devastating
tidal wave. As each day brings news of greater loss, our sense of
shock grows deeper and we feel more the need for divine help and
human solidarity. May the many dead find peace in the risen Christ,
and may those who mourn find strength in the God of all consolation.
I welcome the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially the
members of the Congregation of Holy Cross who have come to Rome for
their General Chapter and who are here with their newly elected
Superior General. May the power of the Lord’s Cross always be your
strength. I also welcome the group of Salesian Co-operators, and the
pilgrims and visitors from Scotland, Nigeria, Taiwan, Korea,
Australia, Canada and the United States of America. Upon all of you,
I cordially invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace.
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