El Greco‘s depiction of Pentecost, with tongues of fire and a dove representing the Holy Spirit’s descent
Pope Francis’s morning meditation in the chapel of the Domus Sanctae Marthae
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
“We teach in the way that the Spirit teaches us “
| 1st Reading – 1 Corinthians 2:10-16 |
10 God has revealed to us through the Spirit.
The Spirit reaches the depths of everything, even the depths of God.
After all, the depths of a man can only be known by his own spirit, not by any other man,
and in the same way the depths of God can only be known by the Spirit of God.
Now instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit that comes from God,
to teach us to understand the gifts that he has given us.
Therefore we teach in the way that the Spirit teaches us: we teach spiritual things spiritually
– not in the way in which philosophy is taught.
An unspiritual person is one who does not accept anything of the Spirit of God.
He sees it all as nonsense;
It is beyond his understanding because it can only be understood by means of the Spirit.
On the other hand, a spiritual man is able to judge the value of everything,
and his own value is not to be judged by other men.
As scripture says: Who can know the mind of the Lord, so who can teach him?
But we are those who have the mind of Christ.
| Gospel Reading: Luke 4:31-37 ‘I know who you are: the Holy One of God’ |
Jesus went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and taught them on the sabbath.
And his teaching made a deep impression on them because he spoke with authority.
In the synagogue there was a man who was possessed by the spirit of an unclean devil,
and it shouted at the top of its voice, ‘Ha! What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth?
Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are: the Holy One of God.’
But Jesus said sharply, ‘Be quiet! Come out of him!’
And the devil, throwing the man down in front of everyone, went out of him without hurting him at all. Astonishment seized them and they were all saying to one another, ‘What teaching!
He gives orders to unclean spirits with authority and power and they come out.’
And reports of him went all through the surrounding countryside.
Pope Francis’ homily – at morning mass in Santa Marta – Tuesday, 2 September 2014
It is the Holy Spirit who gives “identity” to the Christian.
This is why you can have five degrees in theology and still not have the Spirit of God.
You might be a great theologian but you are not a Christian” because you do not have the Spirit of God”.
Among our faithful, we often find simple old women who perhaps didn’t finish elementary school.
Yet, they speak to you about things better than a theologian because they have the Spirit of Christ.
St. Paul, who despite his effective preaching, had no particular academic qualifications .
He did not study “human wisdom” at the Lateran or Gregorian” Pontifical Universities
but he spoke to satisfy the Spirit of God.
In the Gospel of Luke passage proposed for today’s liturgy, the word “authority” appears twice.
The people “were astonished by Jesus’ teaching because his words were authoritative.”
Then, at the end of the passage, the Gospel states that “they were all amazed and said to one another: ‘What is this word?
For with authority and power he commands…’”.
The people were astonished because, when Jesus spoke or preached, he had an authority that the other preachers and legal experts didn’t have.
Ask yourself is: “What is this authority of Jesus?
What is his new thing that astounded the people?
How does it differ from the manner in which the legal experts spoke and taught?”
The answer is definitive:
“This authority” is Jesus’s unique and special identity.
Indeed, “Jesus was not a common preacher.
He did not teach the law like all the others.
He taught in a different way, in a new way, because he had the strength of the Holy Spirit.”
In yesterday’s liturgy, we read the passage in which Jesus visits his synagogue and presents himself in the words of the prophet Isaiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me” and “he has sent me to proclaim”.
This confirms that “the authority Jesus has, comes from this special anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is anointed. He is the first anointed One and the true anointed one”.
“This anointing gives authority to Jesus”.
“The very identity of Jesus is the Anointed Being”.
He is, “the Son of God, anointed and sent to bring salvation and freedom”.
This anointing and sending is Jesus’s identity and, because of it, the people said:
‘This man has special authority, which the legal experts who teach us do not have’.
But some are scandalized by Jesus’ manner and style”.
Jesus’ liberty and freedom are the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Therefore, we should ask ourselves, “What is our identity as Christians?”
In the First Letter to the Corinthians (2:10-16),
St Paul explains that “we teach spiritual things spiritually – not in the way in which philosophy is taught”.
In this regard, Paul’s preaching does not emanate from “human wisdom” because the Holy Spirit taught him what to say.Paul preached with the anointing of the Spirit, expressing spiritual matters in spiritual terms.
In the first reading, St. Paul uses these very expressions:
“An unspiritual person is one who does not accept anything of the Spirit of God.
He sees it all as nonsense;
It is beyond his understanding because it can only be understood by means of the Spirit”.
In other words, if we Christians do not understand the gifts of the Spirit, then we cannot bear witness or offer testimony. We will not have an identity.”
After all, “these gifts of the Spirit” seem like “folly”, to those who lack an identity, w and are unable to understand them”.
Referring again to St Paul’s letter “the spiritual man judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one”.
Indeed, who has known the mind of the Lord?
But now we have the mind of Christ, that is, the Spirit of Christ”.
And “this is the Christian identity.
Ultimately, “the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit, gives authority and identity.”
This is why people don’t love those preachers or legal experts.
They spoke truthfully about theology, but they didn’t touch people’s hearts.
They didn’t offer freedom.
They weren’t capable of doing so in a way people could identify with because they weren’t anointed by the Holy Spirit.
However, “the authority of Jesus — and the authority of the Christian — comes from this very capacity to understand the gifts of the Spirit, to speak the language of the Spirit; it comes from this anointing of the Holy Spirit”.
We must pray to the Lord to give us “the Christian identity which You have:
“give us your Spirit; give us your way of thinking, of feeling, of speaking: that is, Lord grant us the anointing of the Holy Spirit”.