During his General Audience on 21 March, Pope John Paul continued his catechesis on God's Spirit:

1. An analysis of the references to the Holy Spirit which can be gathered from the various Old Testament books, though they are made in as yet unspecific terms as regards the spirit's divine Person , would not be complete if we did not devote some consideration to a text of Isaiah (Deutero - Isaiah), in which the relationship between the divine spirit and the "servant of Yahweh" is affirmed. In this Servant's figure are summarized various types of activity - prophetic, messianic, sanctifying - which we illustrated in previous catecheses.

The relationship is affirmed in the beginning verse of the first of the four so-called "Songs of the Lord's Servant" which are laden with lyricism and vibrant with prophecy. It says: "Here is my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one with whom I am pleased, upon whom I have putmy spirit(Is. 42:1). From the beginning, therefore, it is stated that the Servant's mission is a work of God's spirit who is placed within him. As with the charismatic leaders of the people in ancient times, the judges (cf. Jgs. 3:10) and as with the first kings, Saul and David (cf. 1 Sam. 9:17; 10:9-10; 16:12-13; Is 11:1-2), the Servant's election is accompanied by an outpouring of the Spirit, in which the relationship can be observed between what is said of the Lord's Servant and what Isaiah had predicted of the "shoot" which was to "sprout from the stump of Jesse", that is from David's family: "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; a spirit of wisdom and understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord" (Is 11:2). In the song cited there is a new element which consists in attributing to the heralded personage the quality of Servant. That does not wipe out the quality of king traditionally attributed to the Messiah, but without doubt it reveals a new direction for messianic hope, which comes to pass under the Spirit's influence.

2. Immediately after having said of the Servant: "Upon him I have put my spirit", God declares: "He shall bring forth justice to the nations" (Is 42:1). It is a text of great importance. Clearly the Servant is introduced as a prophet, elected and predestined by God (cf. v 6, Jer. 1:5), enlivened by his spirit, invested with a mission, which is "to proclaim justice with firmness" (Is 42:3), without losing courage despite opposition (v. 4).

Yet his firmness is not harshness. Rather, under the impulse and guidance of the spirit, the Servant-Prophet will behave with meekness ("Not crying out, not shouting" v. 2) and with merciful indulgence: " A bruised reed he shall not break and a smoldering wick he shall not quench" (v. 3). The prophet Jeremiah had received the mission "to root up and to tear down. To destroy and demolish" (Jer. 1:10). There is nothing similar in the mission of the Lord's Servant, meek and humble of heart.

Joined to his meekness is an attitude of universal openness. The Lord's Servant will announce justice to all nations and will spread his teachings as far as the "islands," that is, to the farthest countries (Is.42: 1,4). In the second song, the Servant speaks to all the peoples saying, "Listen to me, you islands, hear me, distant peoples". (49: 1) God reaffirms the universal dimension of the mission entrusted to him, "It is too little for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel. I will make you a light to the nations that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth" (Is. 49:6). That universality goes well beyond that of the message of the other prophets.

So much more so that in the figure of the Servant there is something transcendent which allows him to be identified with his mission. He comes proclaiming "the covenant for the people" and "light for the nations " in his very person. God says to him: "I, the Lord, have called you for the victory of justice and I have grasped you by the hand; I have formed you and set you as a covenant for the people and a light for the nations" (42:6). No simple prophet would have dared to take on so much.

3. The Servant's figure, sketched in Isaiah's poem, is not only prophetic, but also messianic. If his mission is to "establish justice on the earth" (42:4), it is a task belonging to a king. The prophet announces justice; the king must establish that justice. According to Psalm 71/72, in which Jewish and Christian tradition identify the portrait of the Messianic king predicted by the prophets (cf. Is 9:5; 11:1-5; Zec 9:9f), the essential function of the king, which God is being implored about, is this: "God, with your judgement endow the king and with your justice the king's son; he shall govern your people with justice and your afflicted ones with judgement" (Ps 71/72, 1-2). Again Isaiah, who in his oracle on the Davidic king on whom "the Lord's spirit will be placed" asserts of him: "he will judge the poor with justice and decide aright for the land's afflicted" (Is 11:4).

The Servant on whom "God has placed his spirit", according to the song, has the mission which falls to the messianic king: to free the people. He himself has been established " as a covenant of the people and light of the nations" to open the eyes of the blind, to release prisoners from jail, and from confinement those who dwell in the shadows (cf. Is 42:6-7; 49:8-9; Lk 1:79). This mission which belongs to a prince and king, is carried out, in the Messiah's case, with the Lord's strength, as the Servant proclaims in the second song: "God has been my strength" (49:5) and in the third: "The Lord is my help, therefore I am not disgraced" (50:7). This active strength within the Servant s regal mission is the divine spirit, which Isaiah, in a messianicoracle, puts in close relationship with the "justice" to be rendered to the poor and oppressed: "The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him... he shall judge the poor with justiceand decide aright for the land's afflicted..." (Is 11:2, 3-4).

4. In the first and second Servant songs, God speaks of "salvation" and "justice". In the third and fourth songs, the concept of "salvation" is completed with new dimensions, especially meaningful in view of thefuture passion of Christ (cf. Is 50:4-11; 52:13; 53:12). First of all, we note that the meekness, which characterizes the Servant's mission is manifested along with his docility to God and his patience in the presence of his persecutors, "The Lord God has opened my ear that I may hear; I have not rebelled; I have not turned back; I gave my back to those who beat me" (Is 50:5-6). Though he was harshly treated, he submitted and opened not his mouth, like a lamb led to the slaughter" (Is 53:7). These two texts are enough to enlighten us on the perfect availability for self-sacrifice towards which the divine Spirit led the Servant-Messiah, on the path of meekness (cf. Is 42:2). When John the Baptist pointed Jesus out to the crowd as " the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29), perhaps he was echoing the fourth song of the Servant of Yahweh.

5. But in this song there is much more. The Servant's mission appears here in a new light: "He shall take away the sins of many and winpardon for their offences" (Is 53: 12). The perspective already marked out by Isaiah, "To judge the poor with justice and to decide aright for the land's afflicted" (Is 11:4), is transformed here into a work of "justification" or sanctification by means of sacrifice: "Through his suffering my servant will justify many, and their guilt he shall bear" (Is 53:11). The Servant will be led even to this by the spirit present within him, which, as we have seen, is a spirit of "holiness".

And more: the definitive triumph of the Servant is announced at the beginning of the fourth song: "See, my Servant shall prosper; he shall be raised high and greatly exalted" (Is 52:13), and, at the end: "I will give him his portion among the great...." (Is 53:12). But this triumph, which in the prophecy as in history guarantees the realization of the messianic hope, will take place along a surprising path for those who hope for a triumphant future for the messianic king: the pathway of sorrow and, as we know, the Cross.

6. From the whole of the sixth song we see emerge the figure of the Servant who is "a man of sorrows" (Is 53:3), immersed in a sea of physical and moral suffering, by reason of God's mysterious plan which moves towards the glorification of that very Servant (52:13). The Lord's Servant "has been pierced for our offences, crushed for our sins; upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole; by his stripes we were healed (53:5). This is the way that the chosen one, on whom the Lord's spirit was placed, had been called to walk (42: 1).

We are at the paradox of the cross, which seems to be so in contrast with the expectations of a triumphalistic messianism, and even with the pretensions of a mind receptive to rational proofs. St Paul does not hesitate to call it: "A scandal for the Jews, and for the pagans foolishness." But, since it is the work of God, God's Spirit is needed to understand its value. Thus the Apostle proclaims: "No one knows what pertains to God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the things freely given us by God" (II Cor 2:11-12).