THE HOLY SPIRIT, SOURCE OF TRUE FREEDOM

02 September 1998 19:15

VATICAN CITY, SEP 2, 1998 – Following his arrival at the Vatican from Castelgandolfo, the Holy Father this morning held the general audience in St. Peter’s Square. The theme of this Wednesday’s catechesis was: “The Holy Spirit, source of true freedom.”

John Paul II said that the Holy Spirit is “both light which illuminates man’s conscience and source of his true freedom.” Adhering to the plan of God for man, revealed in Jesus Christ and realized in his very existence, signifies discovering the true vocation of human freedom.

It is not merely a question of listening to a message and obediently accepting a commandment. It means something much more radical: following the person of Jesus Himself.

The Pope explained that “the act of faith with which (the Christian) responsibly chooses God, believes in His love manifest in the crucified and risen Christ and abandons themselves responsibly to the influence of the Holy Spirit, is a supreme expression of freedom.

Following the example of Christ, who has freed me with his love, giving me his Spirit, I can and must give myself freely out of love for my neighbour. … Jesus’s ‘new’ commandment is summed up in the law of grace; the person who receives it realizes their freedom more fully.”

The Holy Father ended the catechesis by recalling that “the plenitude of freedom, which is the gift of the Spirit, has sublimely manifested itself precisely through Mary’s faith, through her ‘obedience in faith’, truly ‘happy is she who believed’.”