Pope Francis continued in the General Audience this Wednesday with his cycle of catechesis on “the Spirit and the wife.” This June 5 he reflected on the Spirit of God and freedom.
Below is the complete catechesis of the Holy Father:
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Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
In today’s catechism I would like to reflect with you on the name by which the Holy Spirit is called in the Bible.
The first thing we know about a person is their name. For him we call it, we distinguish it, and we remember it. The third person of the Trinity also has a name: he is called the Holy Spirit. But “Spirit” is the Latinized version. The name of the Spirit, the one by which the first recipients of the revelation knew him, by which the prophets, the psalmists, Mary, Jesus and the Apostles invoked him, is Fixedwhich means blow, wind, breath.
In the Bible, the name is so important that it is almost identified with the person himself. To sanctify the name of God is to sanctify and honor God himself. It is never a merely conventional appellation: it always says something about the person, his origin or his mission. The same goes for the name. Fixed. It contains the first fundamental revelation about the person and function of the Holy Spirit.
Precisely by observing the wind and its manifestations, the biblical writers were led by God to discover a “wind” of a different nature. It is no coincidence that at Pentecost the Holy Spirit descended on the Apostles accompanied by the “noise of a rushing wind.” (cf. Hch 2,2). It was as if the Holy Spirit wanted to put his signature on what was happening.
What, then, does his name Ruach tell us about the Holy Spirit? The image of the wind serves above all to express the power of the divine Spirit. “Spirit and power,” or “power of the Spirit” is a recurring combination throughout the Bible. Well, the wind is an overwhelming and indomitable force. It is even capable of moving oceans.
Once again, however, to discover the full meaning of the realities of the Bible, we must not stop at the Old Testament, but come to Jesus. Along with power, Jesus will highlight another characteristic of the wind, that of its freedom. To Nicodemus, who visits him at night, he says solemnly: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its voice, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes: so is everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn 3, 8).
The wind is the only thing that cannot be stopped, it cannot be “bottled” or boxed. Do we try to bottle or box the wind? It is not possible, it is free. Trying to enclose the Holy Spirit in concepts, definitions, theses or treatises, as modern rationalism has sometimes tried to do, is to lose it, annul it or reduce it to the pure and simple human spirit. There is, however, a similar temptation in the ecclesiastical sphere, and that is to want to enclose the Holy Spirit in canons, institutions, definitions. The Spirit creates and animates institutions, but it itself cannot be “institutionalized,” reified. The wind blows “where it wants” (1 Cor 12, 11), thus the Spirit distributes his gifts as he wishes.
Saint Paul will make this the fundamental law of Christian action: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Co 3.17), he says. A free person, a free Christian, is one who has the Spirit of the Lord. This is a very special freedom, very different from what is commonly understood. It is not freedom to do what one wants, but freedom to freely do what God wants. Not freedom to do good or evil, but freedom to do good and do it freely, that is, by attraction, not by compulsion. In other words, freedom for children, not slaves.
Saint Paul is very aware of the abuses and misunderstandings that can be made of this freedom; He writes to the Galatians: “You, brothers, were called to freedom; Only do not use freedom as a pretext for the flesh, but serve one another out of love” (Gal 5:13). It is a freedom that is expressed in what seems to be its opposite, it is expressed in service, and in service is true freedom.
We know well when this freedom becomes a “pretext for the flesh.” Paul makes an ever-current list: “Fornication, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, enmities, discord, jealousy, dissensions, divisions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like” (Gal 5,19-21). But so is the freedom that allows the rich to exploit the poor, the strong to exploit the weak, and everyone to exploit the environment with impunity. And this is an ugly freedom, it is not the freedom of the Spirit.
Brothers and sisters, where do we get this freedom of the Spirit, so contrary to the freedom of selfishness? The answer is in the words that Jesus addressed one day to his listeners: “If the Son makes you free, you will be truly free” (Juan 8:36). The freedom that Jesus gives us. Let us ask Jesus to make us, through his Holy Spirit, truly free men and women. Free to serve, in love and joy. Thank you.
Pope Francisco
Pope Francis, born on December 17, 1936 in Buenos Aires (Argentina), is the first Latin American Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, assuming the papacy on March 13, 2013. His approachable style and his emphasis on mercy They have left a distinctive mark on his pontificate.