The Holy Spirit as the
source of every truth
H. H.
John Paul II
General Audience
September 16, 1998
1. Repeating a
statement in the book of Wisdom (1:7), the Second Vatican Ecumenical
Council teaches us that “the Spirit of the Lord”, who bestows his
gifts upon the People of God on pilgrimage through history, “replet
orbem terrarum”, fills the whole universe (cf. Gaudium et spes, n.
11). He ceaselessly guides people to the fullness of truth and love
which God the Father revealed in Jesus Christ.
This profound awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence and action has
always illumined the Church’s consciousness, guaranteeing that
whatever is genuinely human finds an echo in the hearts of Christ's
disciples (cf. ibid., n. 1).
Already in the first half of the second century, the philosopher St
Justin could write: “Everything that has always been affirmed in an
excellent way and has been discovered by those who study philosophy
or make laws has been accomplished by seeking or contemplating a
part of the Word” (Apologia II, 10, 1-3).
2. The opening of the human spirit to truth and goodness always
takes place in the perspective of the “true light that enlightens
every man” (Jn 1:9). This light is Christ the Lord himself, who has
enlightened man’s steps from the very beginning and has entered his
“heart”. With the Incarnation, in the fullness of time, the Light
appeared in this world in its full brilliance, shining in the sight
of man as the splendour of the truth (cf. Jn 14:6).
Already foretold in the Old Testament, the gradual manifestation of
the fullness of truth which is Jesus Christ takes place down the
centuries by the work of the Holy Spirit. This particular action of
the “Spirit of truth” (cf. Jn 14:17; 15:26; 16:13) concerns not only
believers, but in a mysterious way all men and women who, though not
knowing the Gospel through no fault of their own, sincerely seek the
truth and try to live an upright life (cf. Lumen gentium, n. 16).
In the footsteps of the Fathers of the Church, St Thomas Aquinas can
maintain that no spirit can be “so darkened as not to participate in
some way in the divine light. In fact, every known truth from any
source is totally due to this 'light which shines in the darkness',
since every truth, no matter who utters it, comes from the Holy
Spirit” (Super Ioannem, 1, 5 lect. 3, n. 103).
3. For this reason, the Church supports every authentic quest of the
human mind and sincerely esteems the patrimony of wisdom built up
and transmitted by the various cultures. It expresses the
inexhaustible creativity of the human spirit, directed towards the
fullness of truth by the Spirit of God.
The encounter between the word of truth preached by the Church and
the wisdom expressed in cultures and elaborated by philosophies
calls on the latter to be open to and to find their own fulfilment
in the revelation which comes from God. As the Second Vatican
Council stresses, this encounter enriches the Church, enabling her
to penetrate the truth ever more deeply, to express it in the
languages of the different cultural traditions and to present it —
unchanged in its substance — in the form most suited to the changing
times (cf. Gaudium et spes, n. 44).
Trust in the presence and action of the Holy Spirit, even in the
travail of the culture of our time, can serve as a starting point,
at the dawn of the third millennium, for a new encounter between the
truth of Christ and human thought.
4. In view of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, it is necessary to
look more closely at the Council’s teaching on this ever fresh and
fruitful encounter between revealed truth, preserved and transmitted
by the Church, and the many different forms of human thought and
culture. Unfortunately, Paul VI’s observation in the Encyclical
Letter Evangelii nuntiandi that “the division between the Gospel and
culture is without a doubt the tragedy of our time” (n. 20) is still
valid.
To prevent this division which has serious consequences for
consciences and behaviour, it is necessary to reawaken in Christ’s
disciples that vision of faith which can discover the “seeds of
truth” scattered by the Holy Spirit among our contemporaries. This
can also contribute to their purification and maturation through the
patient art of dialogue, whose particular goal is to present
Christ’s face in all its splendour.
It is particularly necessary to keep well in mind the great
principle formulated by the last Council, which I wanted to recall
in the Encyclical Dives in misericordia: “While the various currents
of human thought both in the past and at the present have tended and
still tend to separate theocentrism and anthropocentrism, and even
to set them in opposition to each other, the Church, following
Christ, seeks to link them up in human history, in a deep and
organic way” (n. 1).
5. This principle proves fruitful not only for philosophy and
humanistic culture but also for the areas of scientific research and
art. In fact, the “humble and persevering investigator of the
secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in
spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who
made them what they are” (Gaudium et spes, n. 36b).
On the other hand, the true artist has the gift of perceiving and
expressing the luminous and infinite horizon in which the existence
of man and the world is immersed. If he is faithful to the
inspiration that dwells within him and transcends him, he acquires a
hidden connaturality with the beauty with which the Holy Spirit
clothes Creation.
May the Holy Spirit, the Light that enlightens minds and the divine
“artist of the world” (S. Bulgakov, Il Paraclito, Bologna 1971, p.
311), guide the Church and contemporary humanity on the paths of a
new and surprising encounter with the splendour of the Truth!
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To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
I welcome to this audience the English-speaking pilgrims and
visitors, especially those from Denmark, Sweden, Australia, the
Philippines, Thailand and the United States of America. Upon you and
your families I invoke the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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