Pope at Audience: Holy Spirit transforms chaos into cosmos

By Christopher Wells

Pope Francis launched a new catechetical cycle on Wednesday, beginning a series of teachings on “The Spirit and the Bride: The Holy Spirit guides the people of God towards Jesus our hope.”

“We will make this journey,” he said at the General Audience, “through the three great stages of salvation history: the Old Testament, the New Testament, and the time of the Church, always keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus our hope.”

The Spirit of God hovering over the waters

Beginning from the very first verses of the Bible, the Pope reflected on “the Spirit hovering over the waters,” transforming primordial chaos into “something beautiful and ordered,” the “cosmos.”

Later books of the Bible proclaim even more clearly the creative work of the Holy Spirit, especially in the New Testament, which shows the “intervention of the Holy Spirit in the new creation.”

Alienation from God

However, the Pope said, the relationship between the Spirit and creation has suffered due to the “sin and corruption of humanity that has dragged it into its alienation from God.”

“This remains as true today” as it was when Saint Paul first described it in his letters.

The solution to this alienation, Pope Francis said, can be found in Saint Francis of Assisi, who shows us “the way of contemplation and praise.” “Our vocation in the world,” the Pope said, citing St Paul, “is to be ‘praise of His glory’… putting the joy of contemplating ahead of the joy of possessing.”

‘I will put My Spirit within you’

Pope Francis emphasized that the Spirit Who “transformed chaos into cosmos is at work to bring about this transformation in every person.”

He emphasized that the external chaos we see in the world, whether social or political, can only be healed if we begin to heal the internal chaos within our hearts.

“May this reflection,” the Pope concluded, “arouse in us the desire to experience the Creator Spirit.”