John Paul II's continuing instruction on the role of the Holy Spirit centered (21 Feb.) on the Spirits function as Sanctifier. This is a translation of the Pope's speech at the General Audience:

1. The divine spirit, according to the Bible, is not only a light which illumines by giving knowledge and prompting prophecy, but also a force which sanctifies. In fact, God s spirit communicates holiness, because he himself is "a spirit of holiness", "holy spirit." This title is attributed to the divine spirit in chapter 63 of the Book of Isaiah when, in the long poem or psalm devoted to praising the benefits of Yahweh and deploring the people's strayings during Israel's history, the sacred author says that "they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit(Is 63:10). But he adds that, after God's punishment, "they remembered the days of old and Moses his servant", and they wondered: Where is he who put his holy spirit in their midst...?" (Is. 63:11)

This title is echoed also in Psalm 50/51 where, in asking pardon and mercy of the Lord (Miserere me, Deus secundum misericordiam tuam), the author pleads: " Do not cast me out from your presence nor take your holy spirit from me" (Ps. 50/51:13). This is a reference to the intimate principle of good which operates within leading one to holiness ("spirit of holiness").

2. The Book of Wisdom affirms the incompatibility of the holy spirit with all lack of sincerity and justice: "The holy spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsels; and when injustice occurs, it is rebuked" (Wis. 1:5). There is thus expressed a very close relationship between wisdom and the spirit. In wisdom, the inspired author says, "there is an intelligent and holy spirit" (7:22), which is therefore "unstained" and "loving the good". This spirit is the very spirit of God, because he is "all-powerful and all-seeing" (7:23). Without this "holy spirit of God" (cf. 9: 17) which God "sends from on high", human beings cannot discern the holy will of God (9:13-17) and obviously, even less, carry it out faithfully.

God's house a spiritual house

3. The necessity of holiness is strongly linked in the Old Testament to the cultural and priestly dimension of Israel's life. Worship must be carried out in a " holy " place, a place of the Dwelling of God thrice holy (cf. Is. 6:1-4). The cloud is the sign of the Lord's presence (cf. Ex. 40:34-35; I Kgs. 8:10-11); everything, within the Tent, in the Temple, on the Altar, on the priests, starting with Aaron., the first to be consecrated (cf. Ex. 29:1ff.), must respond to the demands of the "holy," which is like a halo of respect and veneration created around persons, rites and places privileged by a special relationship with God.

Some Biblical texts affirm God s presence in the tent in the desert and in the Jerusalem Temple (Ex. 25:8, 40 34-35, 1 Kgs. 8:10-13, Ez. 43:4-5). Still, in the very account of the dedication of the Temple of Solomon, a prayer is recounted in which the king places this claim in doubt, saying: " Can it indeed be that God dwells among men on earth? If the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain you, how much less this Temple which I have built" (I Kgs. 8:27). In the Acts of the Apostles, St Stephen expresses the same conviction regarding the Temple: "Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands" (Acts 7:48). The reason for that is explained by Jesus himself in his conversation with the Samaritan woman; "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth" (Jn. 4:24). A house made of materials cannot fully receive the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit and therefore cannot be truly " the dwelling of God". The true house of God must be a "spiritual house", as St Peter will say, formed of " living stones," that is, of men and women sanctified interiorly by God's Spirit (cf. I Pt. 2:4-10; Eph. 2:21-22).

4. For that reason God promises the gift of the Spirit in hearts, in Ezekiel's famous prophecy where it says: " I will prove the holiness of my great name, profaned among the nations, in whose midst you have profaned it... I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols; I will give you a new heart and place a new spirit within you... 1 will put my spirit within you..." (Ez. 36:23-27). The result of this wonderful gift is holiness in the concrete, lived with sincere attachment to God's holy will. Thanks to the intimate presence of the Holy Spirit, hearts will be finally docile to God and the life of the faithful will conform to the Lord's law.

God says: "I will put my spirit within you and I will make you live according to my statutes and will make you observe my laws and put them into practice" (Ez. 36:27). Thus the Spirit sanctifies the entire existence of the human person.

5. The "spirit of lies" fights against God's spirit (cf. I Kgs. 22:21-23): the "unclean spirit" overpowers persons and peoples making them bow to idolatry. In the oracle on Jerusalem's liberation, found in the Book of Zechariah, within the messianic perspective, the Lord himself promises to effect the conversion of the people, making the unclean spirit vanish: "On that day there shall be open to the House of David and to the inhabitant of Jerusalem a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanliness. On that day... I will destroy the names of the idols from the land ...: I will also take away the prophets and the spirit of uncleanliness from the land.... (Zec. 13:1-2; cf. Jer. 23:9f; Ez. 13:2ff).

The "unclean spirit" will be fought by Jesus (cf. Lk. 9:42; 11:24), who will speak, in this regard, of the intervention of the spirit of God and say: "If I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you" (Mt. 12:28). To his disciples Jesus promises the help of the "Consoler", who "will convict the world... in regard to condemnation, because the rules of this world has been condemned" (Jn. 16:8-11). In his turn, Paul will speak of the Spirit which justifies by faith and love (cf. Gal. 5:5-6), and will put in the place of the "works of the flesh" the "fruits of the Spirit" (cf. Gal. 5:19ff), teaching the new life "according to the Spirit": the new Spirit of which the prophets spoke.

6. All those, individuals or peoples, who follow the spirit that is in conflict with God, "grieve" God's spirit. That is an expression used by Isaiah which we have already cited and which is timely to repeat in this context. It is found in the meditation of the so-called Trito-Isaiah on the history of Israel: "It was not a messenger nor an angel, but he himself (God) saved them. Because of his love and pity he redeemed them himself, lifting them and carrying them all the days of old. But they rebelled and grieved his holy spirit" (Is. 63:9-10). The prophet contrasts the generosity of the saving love of God for his people with their ingratitude. In his anthropomorphic description, the attribution to God's spirit of the sadness caused by the abandonment of the people conforms to human psychology. But in the language of the prophet one can say that the sin of the people saddens the spirit of God especially because this spirit is holy: the sin offends the divine holiness. The offense is more serious because the holy spirit of God has been not only placed by God within Moses his servant (cf. Is. 63:11), but also given as a guide to his people during their Exodus from Egypt (cf. Is. 63:14) as a sign and a pledge of future salvation: and they rebelled ..." (Is. 63:10).

Paul, also, as an heir of this concept and this vocabulary, will recommend to the Christians of Ephesus: "Do not grieve the holy Spirit of God with which you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30; 1:13-14).

7. The expression "sadden the Holy Spirit" shows well how the people of the Old Testament had passed gradually from a concept of sacral holiness, a rather external one, to the desire for interiorized holiness under the influence of God's Spirit.

The more frequent use of the title "Holy Spirit" is an indication of this evolution. Nonexistent in the most ancient books of the Bible, this title takes over little by little, precisely because it suggested the Spirit's role in sanctifying the faithful. The hymns of Qumran in various sections thank God for the interior purification which he has wrought by means of his holy Spirit (e.g. Hymns from the First Cave of Qumran, 16:12; 17:26).

The intense desire of the faithful was no longer only to be freed from oppressors, as in the time of the Judges, but above all to be able to serve the Lord "in holiness and justice, before him all our days" (Lk. 1:75). For this to happen, the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit was needed.

The Gospel message answers this expectation. It is significant that, in all four Gospels, the word "holy" appears for the first time in relation to the Spirit, both in speaking of the birth of John the Baptist and that of Jesus (Mt. l: l8-20; Lk. 1:15, 35), and in announcing the Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Mk. 1:8; Jn. 1:33). In the account of the Annunciation, the Virgin Mary hears the words of the Angel Gabriel: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you... because he who will be born will be holy and called the Son of God" (Lk.. 1:35). Thus the crucial sanctifying activity of the Holy Spirit, destined to spread among all people, had its beginning.