The Holy Father’s catechesis on the Spirit

16 September 1998 18:31

THE SPIRIT AND “SEEDS OF TRUTH” IN HUMAN THOUGHT

VATICAN CITY, SEP 16, 1998 – At today’s general audience in St. Peter’s Square, the Pope spoke on the theme of “The Spirit and the ‘Seeds of Truth’ in Human Thought.”

In an apparent reference to his forthcoming encyclical on faith and reason, the Holy Father said: “The Church is always ready for a meeting between human thought and the truth of Jesus Christ.”

“The Spirit of the Lord,” said the Holy Father, “fills the entire universe. He unceasingly leads men and women to the plenitude of truth and love which God the Father has communicated in Christ Jesus.”

This action of the “Spirit of truth” is addressed “not only to believers, but mysteriously to men and women who, even though ignorant of the Gospel through no fault of their own, sincerely seek the truth and try to live justly.”

“The encounter between the word of truth preached by the Church and the wisdom expressed by cultures and elaborated on by philosophies, invites these (philosophies) to open up and find in their own fulfillment the revelation which comes from God. As the Second Vatican Council highlights, such a meeting enriches the Church, making it capable of penetrating the truth even more deeply, expressing through the languages of different cultural traditions and presenting her – unchanged in essence – in the most fitting way for the changing times.”

Having recalled Paul VI’s observation that “the division between the Gospel and culture is undoubtedly the tragedy of our time,” the Pope said that in order to overcome this division “it is necessary to reawaken in the disciples of Jesus Christ that look of faith capable of discovering the ‘seeds of truth’ spread by the Holy Spirit in our contemporaries.”