The Holy Spirit shows Man
God's presence in History
H. H.
John Paul II
General Audience
September 23, 1998
1. In the Apostolic
Letter Tertio millennio adveniente, I urged the whole Church, with
regard to the year dedicated to the Holy Spirit, to “gain a renewed
appreciation of the Spirit as the One who builds the kingdom of God
within the course of history and prepares its full manifestation in
Jesus Christ, stirring people’s hearts and quickening in our world
the seeds of the full salvation which will come at the end of time”
(n. 45).
With the eyes of faith we can see history, especially after the
coming of Jesus Christ, as totally enveloped and penetrated by the
presence of God’s Spirit. It is easy to understand why, today more
than ever, the Church feels called to discern the signs of this
presence in human history, with which she — in imitation of her Lord
— “cherishes a feeling of deep solidarity” (Gaudium et spes, n. 1).
2. So that the Church may fulfil this “responsibility she carries at
all times” (cf. ibid., n. 4), she is invited to rediscover in an
ever deeper and more vital way that Jesus Christ, the crucified and
risen Lord, is “the key, the centre and the purpose of all human
history” (ibid., n. 10). He is “the focal point of the longings of
history and of civilization, the centre of the human race, the joy
of every heart and the answer to all its yearnings” (ibid., n. 45).
At the same time, the Church recognizes that only the Holy Spirit,
by impressing on the hearts of believers the living image of the Son
of God made man, can enable them to search history and to discern in
it the signs of God’s presence and action.
The Apostle Paul writes: “What person knows a man’s thoughts except
the spirit of the man which is in him? So also no one comprehends
the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that
we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God” (1 Cor
2:11-12). Sustained by this unceasing gift of the Spirit, the Church
experiences with deep gratitude that “faith throws a new light on
all things and makes known the full ideal which God has set for man,
thus guiding the mind towards solutions that are fully human” (Gaudium
et spes, n. 11).
3. The Second Vatican Council, using an expression taken from the
language of Jesus himself, describes the significant clues to the
presence and action of God's Spirit in history as the “signs of the
times” (ibid., n. 4).
Today, Jesus’ admonition to his contemporaries rings clear and
salutary for us as well: “You know how to interpret the appearance
of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil
and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be
given to it except the sign of Jonah” (Mt 16:3-4).
In the eyes of Christian faith, the invitation to discern the signs
of the times corresponds to the eschatological newness introduced
into history by the coming of the Logos among us (cf. Jn 1:14).
4. In fact, Jesus invites us to discern the words and deeds which
bear witness to the imminent coming of the Father’s kingdom. Indeed,
he indicates and concentrates all the signs in the enigmatic “sign
of Jonah”. By doing so, he overturns the worldly logic aimed at
seeking signs that would confirm the human desire for
self-affirmation and power. As the Apostle Paul emphasizes: “Jews
demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified,
a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” (1 Cor 1:22-23).
As the first-born among many brethren (cf. Rom 8:29), Christ was the
first to overcome in himself the diabolic “temptation” to use
worldly means to achieve the coming of God’s kingdom. This happened
from the time of the messianic testing in the desert to the
sarcastic challenge flung at him as he hung upon the cross: “If you
are the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Mt 27:40). In the
crucified Jesus a kind of transformation and concentration of the
signs occurs: he himself is the “sign of God”, especially in the
mystery of his Death and Resurrection. To discern the signs of his
presence in history, it is necessary to free oneself from every
worldly pretense and to welcome the Spirit who “searches everything,
even the depths of God” (1 Cor 2:10).
5. If we were to ask when the kingdom of God will be fulfilled,
Jesus would reply as he did to the Apostles that it is not for us to
“know times (chrónoi) or seasons (kairói) which the Father has fixed
by his own authority (exousía)”. Jesus asks us, too, to welcome the
power of the Spirit, in order to be his witnesses “in Jerusalem and
in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:7-8).
The providential ordering of the signs of the times was at first
hidden in the secret of the Father’s plan (cf. Rom 16:25; Eph 3:9),
broke into history and made its advance in the paradoxical sign of
the crucified and risen Son (cf. 1 Pt 1:19-21). It was welcomed and
interpreted by Christ’s disciples in the light and power of the
Spirit, in watchful and diligent expectation of the definitive
coming which will bring history to fulfilment beyond itself, in the
heart of the Father.
6. By the Father's design, time is thus extended as an invitation
“to know the love of Christ which surpassess all knowledge”, to “be
filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3:18-19). The secret of
this path is the Holy Spirit, who guides us “into all the truth” (Jn
16:13).
With a heart trustfully open to this vision of hope, I implore from
the Lord an abundance of the Spirit's gifts for the whole Church,
“so that the 'springtime' of the Second Vatican Council can find in
the new millennium its 'summertime', that is to say, its full
development” (Address at the Ordinary Public Consistory, 21 February
1998, n. 4; L’Osservatore Romano English edition, 25 February 1998,
p. 2).
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To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
I extend a special greeting to the members of the General Chapter of
the Sisters of Notre Dame. May the Chapter be for all the sisters a
time of grace and rededication. I warmly welcome the pilgrims from
the Diocese of Hiroshima, led by Bishop Misue. Upon all the
English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially those from
England, Ireland, Finland, Japan, the Philippines, Australia and the
United States of America, I invoke the joy and peace of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
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