At the General Audience 14 March, Pope John Paul continued his catechesis on the Holy Spirit:

1. The experience of the Old Testament prophets accents especially the link between the word and the spirit. The prophet speaks in the name of God and through the Spirit. The Scriptures itself is a word which comes from the Spirit, the recording of the Spirit lasting through the ages. It is holy (Sacred) because of the Spirit who through the spoken and written word, brings about its effectiveness.

Even in some who are not prophets, the intervention of the spirit prompts the word. Thus in the first Book of Chronicles, which recounts the joining up with David of the "brave ones " who acknowledged his royalty, it says that "the spirit enveloped Amassi, leader of the Thirty (brave ones) " and made him say these words to David: "We are yours... Peace, peace to you, and peace to him who helps you; your God it is who helps you ". And "David received them and placed them among the leaders of his troops" (1 Chr. 12:19). Even more dramatic is another example, told in the Second Book of Chronicles and which will be recalled by Jesus (cf. Mt. 23:35; Lk.. 11:51). This takes place at a time when temple worship was declining and Israel was yielding to the temptation to idolatry. When the prophets who were sent to the Israelites by God so that they might return to him were left unheeded, "Then the Spirit of God possessed Zechariah, son of Jehoida the priest. He took his stand above the people and said to them: 'God says, "Why are you transgressing the Lord's commands, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have abandoned the Lord, he has abandoned you."' But they conspired against him, and at the king's order they stoned him to death in the court of the Lord's temple" (II Chr. 24:20-21).

These are meaningful examples of the connection between spirit and word, present in the mind and the vocabulary of Israel.

2. Another similar link is the one between spirit and wisdom. It is seen in the Book of Daniel, on the lips of King Nabuchadnezzar who, in recounting his dream and Daniel's explanation of it, recognizes the prophet as "a man in whom is the spirit of the holy God" (Dan. 4:5; cf. 4:6, 15; 5:11, 14), that is, divine inspiration, which the Pharaoh in his day also recognized in Joseph through the wisdom of his counsel (cf. Gn. 41:38-39). In pagan vocabulary the King of Babylon speaks repeatedly of "the spirit of the holy gods", while at the end of his account he will speak of "the King of heaven" (Dan. 4:34), in the singular. In any case, he recognizes that a divine spirit is manifest in Daniel, as King Belshazzar will also acknowledge: "I have heard that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, that you possess brilliant knowledge and extraordinary wisdom" (Dn. 5:14). And the author of the book stresses that "Daniel outshone all his supervisors and satraps, because an exceptional spiritwas in him, and the king thought of giving him authority over the entire kingdom" (Dn. 6:3).

As you can see, the "extraordinary wisdom"and the " exceptional spirit" are attributed rightly to Daniel, bearing witness to the link between these qualities in Judaism of the Second Century B.C. when the Book was written to sustain the faith and hope of the Jews persecuted by Antiochus Epiphanes.

3. In the Book of Wisdom, a text edited almost at the threshold of the New Testament—that is, according to certain modern authors, in the second half of the First Century B.C. and in Hellenistic circles—the link between wisdom and the spirit is so stressed that the two are almost identical. From the beginning we find there that "wisdom is a kindly spirit" (Wis. 1:6). It is manifested and communicated by the strength of a basic love for humanity. But this kindly spirit is not blind nor does it tolerate evil in people, even hidden evil. "Wisdom does not enter into a soul that plots evil, nor does she dwell in a body under debt of sin. For the Holy Spirit of discipline flees deceit and withdraws from senseless counsels: ...she acquits not the blasphemer of his guilty lips, because God is the witness of his innermost self and the sure observer of his heart and the listener to his tongue" (Wis. 1:4, 6).

The spirit of the Lord, therefore, is a Holy Spirit, who wants to communicate his holiness and carry out an educational function: "The Holy Spirit who teaches" (Wis. 1:5). The spirit opposes injustice. That is not a limit upon the spirit's love, but rather a demand of that love. In the fight against evil, the spirit opposes all iniquity, but without allowing himself ever to be tricked, because nothing escapes the spirit, " not even words spoken in secret " (Wis. 1:1 1). The spirit, in fact, "fills the world", is omnipresent. 'And, all-embracing, the spirit knows what man says " (Wis. 1: 7). The effect of his omnipresence is knowledge of all things, even secret ones.

Being a "kindly spirit," the spirit does not intend only to watch over people, but to fill them with his voice and his holiness. " God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being..." (Wis. 1:13-14). The affirmation of this positive quality of creation, in which is reflected the biblical concept of God as "he who is" and as creator of the whole universe (cf. Gn. 1:1 ff.), gives a religious basis to the philosophical concept and to the ethics of relations with things; above all it launches a discussion of the final goal of the human being, which no philosophy would have been able to put forth without the aid of divine revelation. St Paul will then say later that, if death has been introduced through man's sin, Christ came as the new Adam to redeem mankind from sin and free humanity from death (cf. Rm. 5:12-21). The Apostle will add that Christ brought a new life in the Holy Spirit (cf. Rm. 8:1 ff.), giving the name and, even more, revealing the mission of the divine Person sheathed in mystery in the pages of the Book of Wisdom.

4. King Solomon, who is presented as the author of this Book by a literary contrivance, says at a certain moment to his colleagues: "listen, oh kings..." (Wis. 6:1), inviting them to receive the wisdom, which is the secret and norm for royalty, and explaining " what wisdom is..." (Wis. 6:22). He praises wisdom, with a long list of the divine spirit's traits, which he attributes to wisdom, almost personifying it; "In her is a spirit, intelligent, holy, unique, manifold.... (Wis. 7:22-23). There are a full 21 descriptive attributes (3 times 7), consisting of words taken in part from Greek philosophy and in part from the Bible. Here are the most important ones:

The spirit is "intelligent", that is, not a blind impulse, but a force led by the awareness of truth; it is a "holy" spirit; because it wants not only to enlighten people, but to make them holy; it is "unique and manifold", thus able to penetrate into everything; it is "subtle", and pervades all spirits: its activity is thus essentially interior, as is the spirit's presence; the spirit is "omnipotent and all-seeing", but does not constitute a tyrannical or destructive power, because the spirit is "kind and a friend to mankind", desires their good and tends to " make friends for God ". Love supports and directs the exercise of the spirit's power.

Wisdom, therefore, has the qualities of and carries out the roles traditionally attributed to the divine spirit: "spirit of wisdom and intelligence... etc." (Is. 11:2 f.), because wisdom is identified with the spirit in the mysterious depths of the divine reality.

5. Among the functions of the Spirit-Wisdom there is that of making known the divine will: "Who ever knew your will, except you had given Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?" (Wis. 9:17). The human person, unaided, is not able to know God's will: "What man knows God's counsel?" (Wis. 9:13). By means of his Holy Spirit, God makes known his own will, his plan for human life, much more deeply and surely than with a mere promulgation of a law in formula of human language. Acting from within by the gift of the Holy Spirit, God permits "the paths of those on earth to be made straight; and men learned what was your pleasure, and were saved by wisdom" (Wis. 9:18). At this point the author describes in 10 chapters the work of the Spirit-Wisdom in history, from Adam to Moses, to the covenant with Israel, to the liberation, through the continuing care given God's people. And he concludes: "In all ways, O Lord, you have magnified and glorified your people; unfailing, you stood by them in every time and circumstance...." (Wis. 19:22).

6. In this historical-wisdom literature remembrance, a passage emerges where the author recalls, in speaking to the Lord, his omnipresent spirit which loves and protects human life. That goes also for the enemies of God's people and, generally, for the godless, for sinners. In them, too, there is a divine spirit of love and life: "You spare all things because they are yours, O Lord, lover of souls, for your imperishable spirit is in all things" (Wis. 11:26; 12:1).

"You spare...". Israel's enemies could have been punished in a way much more terrible than did happen. They could have been " winnowed out by your mighty spirit, but you have disposed all things by measure, number and weight" (Wis. 11:20). The Book of Wisdom praises God s "moderation" and offers this reason for it: God's spirit does not act only as a strong wind, able to destroy the guilty, but as a spirit of wisdom which desires life and thereby shows its love. "But you have mercy on all, because you can do all things; and you overlook people's sins that they may repent. For you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made; for what you hated, you would not have fashioned. And how could a thing remain, unless you willed it; or be preserved had it not been called forth by you?" (Wis. 11:23-25).

7. We are at the summit of religious philosophy, not only of Israel, but of all ancient peoples. Here the biblical tradition, already expressed in Genesis, answers the great questions, unresolved by even Hellenistic culture. Here God's mercy unites with the truth of his creation of all things: the universality of creation carries with it the universality of mercy. And all under the power of the eternal love with which God loves all his creatures: love in which we now recognize the person of the Holy Spirit.

The Book of Wisdom already lets us perceive this Spirit-Love which, like Wisdom, takes on the qualities of a person, with the following characteristics: spirit which knows all and makes known to people the divine plans; spirit which cannot accept evil; spirit which, through the mediation of wisdom, wants to lead all to salvation; spirit of love which desires life; spirit which fills the universe with its beneficial presence.