Pope John Paul examines the Spirit’s role in inspiring Scripture and Tradition, thus maintaining apostolic bonds

The Holy Father gave this catechesis during the General Audience on 16 January.

1. In its deepest meaning, the Church's apostolicity pertains to pastors and faithful together, in the truth revealed by Christ through the Apostles and their successors, with an ever more sufficient knowledge of its content and value for life. It is a truth of divine origin concerning mysteries which surpass the abilities of the vision or powers of the human mind, so that only by the power of the Word of God, addressed to mankind through analogy and expressed in human language, can it be understood, preached, believed and faithfully obeyed. An authority of merely human value would not suffice to guarantee the authenticity of the handing on of this truth, nor therefore the deep dimension of the Church's apostolicity. The Second Vatican Council assures us that it is the Holy Spirit who safeguards that authenticity.

2. According to the Constitution Dei Verbum, "by sending the Holy Spirit", Jesus Christ "confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed: that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal" (DV, 4). This passage from the Council's Constitution on Divine Revelation finds its justification in the words Christ addressed to the Apostles in the Upper Room as recorded by John the Evangelist: "I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. When He comes, however, being the Spirit oftruth, He will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on His own, but will speak only what He hears" (Jn 16:12-13). Therefore it will be the Holy Spirit who gives light to the Apostles that they may proclaim "the whole truth" of the Gospel of Christ, "teaching all nations" (cf. Mt 28:19): they and, obviously, their successors in this mission.

3. The Constitution Dei Verbum continues to say that this order (to preach the Gospel) "was faithfully fulfilled by the Apostles who, by their oral preaching, by example, and by ordinances, handed on what they received from the lips of Christ, from living with Him, and from what He did, or what they had learned through the prompting of the Holy Spirit. The commission was fulfilled, too, by those apostlesand apostolic men who under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit committed the message of salvation to writing" (DV, 7). As we can see, the Council text refers to the Holy Spirit's assurance of the truth revealed in its oral transmission (the origin of Tradition) and the written version which came about through inspiration and divine assistance in the books of the New Testament.

4. Again we read that "the Holy Spirit, through whom the living voice of the Gospel resounds in the Church, and through her, in the world, leads unto all truth those who believe and makes the word of Christ dwell abundantly in them (cf. Col 3:16)" (DV, 8). Therefore, "Sacred Scripture is the word of God inasmuch as it is consigned to writing under the inspiration of the divine Spirit. To the successors of the Apostles, sacred Tradition hands on in its full purity God's word, which was entrusted to the Apostles by Christ the Lord and the Holy Spirit. Thus, led by the light of the Spirit of truth, these successors can in their preaching preserve this word of God faithfully, explain it, and make it more widely known" (DV, 9).

Also, "the task of authentically interpreting the word of God... has been entrusted exclusively to the living teaching office of the Church, whose authority is exercised in the name of Jesus Christ. This teaching office... listens devoutly to what has been handed on, guards it scrupulously, and explains it faithfully by divine commission and with the help of the Holy Spirit; it draws from this one deposit of faith everything which it presents for belief as divinely revealed" (DV, 10).

There is, therefore, a close bond between Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Church's Magisterium. Through this intimate connection the Holy Spirit guarantees the handing on of divine Revelation and consequently the Church's identity of faith.

5. Particularly in regard to Sacred Scripture, the Council tells us that "Holy Mother Church, relying on the belief of the Apostles, holds that the books of both the Old and New Testament in their entirety, with all their parts, are sacred and canonical because, having been written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 20:31; II Tim 3:16; II Pt 1:19-21; 3:15-16), they have God as their author and have been handed on as such to the Church herself....Everything asserted by the inspired writers must be held to be asserted by the Holy Spirit" (DV, 11). As a consequence, Sacred Scripture must "be read and interpreted according to the same Spirit by whom it was written" (DV, 12). "In fact, what the Apostles preached in fulfilment of the commission of Christ, afterwards they themselves and apostolic men, under the inspiration of the divine Spirit, handed on to us in writing: the foundation of faith, namely, the fourfold Gospel, according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John" (DV, 18).

"After the ascension of the Lord the Apostles handed on to their hearers what He had said and done. This they did with that clearer understanding which they enjoyed after they had been instructed by the events of Christ's risen life and taught by the light of the spirit of Truth" (DV, 19).

6. This close connection between the Holy Spirit, Revelation and the handing on of the divine truth is at the basis of the Church's apostolic authority and the decisive argument for our faith in the Word which the Church passes on to us. Besides, as the Council also says, the Holy Spirit intervenes in the inner birth of faith in a person. Indeed, "' the obedience of faith' (Rom 16:26; cf. 1:5; II Cor 10:5-6) must be given to God who reveals, an obedience by which people entrust themselves freely to God, offering 'the full submission of intellect and will to God who reveals' and freely assenting to the truth revealed by Him. If this faith is to be shown, the grace of God and the interior help of the Holy Spirit must precede and assist, moving the heart and turning it to God, opening the eyes of the mind and giving 'joy and ease to everyone in assenting to the truth and believing it.' To bring about an ever deeper understanding of Revelation, the same Holy Spirit constantly brings faith to completion by His gifts" (DV, 5).

7. It is a question of the faith of the Church as a whole and of every believer within the Church. It is also a question of the proper "understanding" of divine Revelation which always flows from faith through the power of the Holy Spirit, and of the "development" of the faith through "reflection and study by believers". In fact, in speaking of the "Tradition which comes from the Apostles," the Council says that it "develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit. For there is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed on. This happens through the contemplation and study done by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (like Mary: cf. Lk 2:19, 51) through the intimate understanding of spiritual things they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through episcopal succession the sure gift of truth" (DV, 8). Concerning Sacred Scripture it adds that, "inspired by God and committed once and for all to writing, they impart the word of God Himself without change, and make the voice of the Holy Spirit resound in the words of the Prophets and Apostles" (DV, 21). Therefore "the Bride of the Incarnate Word and the Pupil of the Holy Spirit, the Church is concerned to move ahead daily towards a deeper understanding of the Sacred Scriptures" (DV, 23).

8. The Church, therefore, "has always venerated the Scriptures", and she receives nourishment from them as from the "bread of life" and "has always regarded the Scriptures together with sacred Tradition as the supreme rule of faith" (DV, 21). And since, "as the centuries succeed one another, the Church constantly moves forward towards the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfilment in her" (DV, 8), the Church's entire life is animated by the Spirit by which she invokes Christ's glorious coming. As we read in the Book of Revelation: "The Spirit and the Bride say: 'Come!"' (Rev. 22:17). In the order of this fullness of truth, the Holy Spirit leads and guarantees the handing on ofRevelation, preparing the Church, and each and every one of us in the Church, for the Lord's final coming.