Spirit teaches understanding and tolerance

1. As we saw in our preceding catechesis, the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, according to the Christian tradition founded on the teaching of Christ and the Apostles, but we must immediately add that St Paul, in drawing his analogy of the Church as a human body, emphasizes for us that "in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, ... and we were all given to drink of one Spirit" (II Cor 12:13). If the Church is like a body, the Holy Spirit is like her soul, that is, the principle of her divine life, if, on the other hand, on the day of Pentecost the Spirit established the Church by descending on the primitive community in Jerusalem (cf. Acts 1:13), from that day on and for all other generations that enter the Church, He cannot fail to be the principle and the source of unity, as the soul is for the human body.

2. Let us say right off that, according to the texts of the Gospel and St Paul, this is a matter of a unity in multiplicity. The Apostle expresses this explicitly in his First Letter to the Corinthians: "As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ" (I Cor 12:12).

Once this premise of the ontological order on the unity of the Corpus Christi has been posited, the exhortation which we find in the Letter to the Ephesians is explained: "Strive to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace" (Eph 4:3). It is apparent that this is not a question of a mechanical unity, nor of a merely organic one (like that of every living being), but rather of a spiritual unity which entails an ethical involvement. In fact, according to Paul, peace is the result of reconciliation through the Cross of Christ, "for through Him we both have Access in one Spirit to the Father" (Eph 2:18). In this text "both" refers to converts from Judaism and from paganism; the Apostle asserts and describes at length their reconciliation with God who makes of everyone one people, one body in one Spirit (cf. Eph 2:11-18). However, this argument holds true for all peoples, nations and cultures from which those who believe in Christ come. With St Paul we can say about all of them what we find in the next part of the text: "So, then, you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ Himself as the capstone. Through Him the whole structure is held together and grows into a temple sacred in the Lord; in Him you (converts from paganism) also (in addition to converts from Judaism) are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit" (Eph 2: 19-22).

3. "In Him (Christ) every construction grows". There is therefore a dynamism in the unity of the Church, which tends towards an ever fuller participation in the Trinitarian unity of God Himself. The unity of the ecclesial communion is an image of the communion of the Trinity, the summit of infinite height, to which it looks at all times. It is the greeting and wish which is addressed to the faithful at the beginning of the Mass in the renewed liturgy of Vatican II, using the words of Paul himself: The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you" (II Cor 13:13). They contain the truth about the unity in the Holy Spirit as the unity of the Church, which St Augustine commented upon as follows: "The communion of the Church's unity is as it were a work of the Holy Spirit Himself, with the participation of the Father and the Son, because in a way the Spirit Himself is the communion of the Father and the Son.... The Father and the Son have the Spirit in common, because He is the Spirit of both of them" (Sermon 71, 28.33: PL, 38, 463-464).

4. This concept of Trinitarian unity in the Holy Spirit as the source of the Church's unity in the form of "communion" is one of the main points of ecclesiology; the Second Vatican Council repeatedly affirms this. We can cite the closing words of the fourth paragraph of the Constitution LumenGentium, dedicated to the Spirit who sanctifies the Church, which quotes a famous text of St Cyprian of Carthage (DeOrat. Dominica, 23: PL, 4, 536): "Hence the universal Church is seen to be 'a people brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit"' (LG, 4; see also LG, 9; GS, 24; UR, 2).

5. We should also note that, according to Paul's recommendation which we have just heard, ecclesial "communion" is expressed in the readiness to remain in unity, and in constancy, regardless of the multi-faceted plurality and differences among individuals, ethnic groups, nations and cultures. The Holy Spirit, the source of this unity, teaches mutual understanding and indulgence (or at least tolerance), showing each person the spiritual wealth of the others; he teaches how to share spiritual gifts with one another, in order to unite people and not divide them. As the Apostle says: "One body and one Spirit, as you were also called to the one hope of your call; one Lord, one faith, one baptism" (Eph 4:4-5). On the spiritual and ethical level, yet having profound repercussions on the psychological and social planes, the force which unites is most of all love which is shared and practiced according to Christ's commandment: "Love one another, as I have loved you" (Jn 13:34; 15:12). According to St Paul, this love is the supreme gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. I Cor 13:13).

6. Unfortunately, this unity of and in the Holy Spirit, which is proper to the Body of Christ, runs up against sin. Thus it came about that, during the course of the centuries, Christians have experienced quite a few divisions, some of which were greater and enduring. These divisions are explained—but not justified—by the weakness and limitation which are part of our fallen human nature, and which remain and are also expressed in the members of the Church and in her leaders too. However, we must also proclaim our conviction, based on the certainty of faith and the experience of history, that the Holy Spirit is working tirelessly to build up unity and communion, despite our human weakness. This is the conviction, which the Second Vatican Council expressed in the Decree Unitatis Redintegratio on ecumenism, when it acknowledges that "today, in many parts of the world, under the influence of the grace of the Holy Spirit, many efforts are being made in prayer, word and action to attain that fullness of unity which Jesus Christ desires" (UR, 4). Unum corpus, anus Spiritus. This sincere tending towards unity in the Body of Christ comes from the Holy Spirit, and it is only through His work that the ideal of unity can be fully realized.

7. Yet, in the Church, in addition to the unity of Christians, the Holy Spirit brings about a universal openness to the entire human family, and is the source of universal communion. On the religious plane the Church's missionary activity has emerged from this wonderful and deep source, from the age of the Apostles to our own day. The tradition of the Fathers tells us that from the very first centuries the mission was carried out with attention to and understanding of those "seeds of the Word" (semina Verbi) contained in various cultures and nonChristian religions, to which the last Council dedicated a document (Nostra Aetate: see especially n. 2 in regard to the ancient Fathers, including the Apologia by St Justin, 10. See also Ad Gentes, 15; Gaudium et Spes, 22). This is because the Spirit who "blows where He wills" (cf. Jn 3:8) is the source of inspiration for all that is true, good and beautiful, according to the magnificent phrase of an unknown author from the time of Pope Damasus (366-384) which states that: "Every truth, no matter who says it comes from the Holy Spirit" (cf. PL, 191 1651). St Thomas, who repeated this text several times in his writings, commented upon it in this way in his Summa: "Whatever truth, no matter who says it, comes from the Holy Spirit who infuses the natural light (of intelligence) and moves the person to understand and express the truth". Then the Spirit, according to Aquinas, intervenes with the gift of grace added to nature, when it is a question of "knowing and expressing certain truths and especially the truths of faith, to which the Apostle is referring when he affirms that 'no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit' (I Cor 12:3)" (I-II, q. 109, a.l, ad.l). Discerning and bringing to light in all their richness the truths and values present in the fabric of cultures is a fundamental task of missionary activity, nourished in the Church by the Spirit of Truth, who as Love leads people to a more perfect knowledge in charity.

8. It is the Holy Spirit who pours Himself out into the Church as Love, the saving force which tends to draw together all people and all of creation. This energy of love ends up overcoming all resistance even though, as we know all too well from experience and history, it must continually struggle against sin and everything there is in the human being which is opposed to love, that is, selfishness, hatred, and jealous and destructive rivalry. But the Apostle assures us that "love builds up" (I Cor 8:1). The building up of the ever new and ever ancient unity will also depend on love.