The action of the Holy Spirit is concomitant with the denial of “the flesh with its passions and appetites”. The Pope warned against bureaucracy in ministering the one sacrament.
Newsroom (27/10/2021 17:30, Gaudium Press) Today at the General Audience, Pope Francis addressed several topics, continuing his meditations on St Paul’s letter to the Galatians. On what the fruits of the Holy Spirit are, he explained:
“[…] the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance. Against such there is no law. For those who are Christ Jesus’ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” says the Apostle in his epistle (Gal 5:22-24).
“What happens when we encounter Jesus Crucified in prayer?” It happens, Pope Francis replied, “what happened under the cross,” namely that “Jesus gives up the Spirit,” that is, “he gives his own life.” “And the Spirit, which flows from Jesus’ Passover, is the principle of spiritual life,” the Pontiff said.
Whoever distances himself from Christ, and therefore from the Holy Spirit, begins to perform the “works of the flesh, which refer to the selfish use of sexuality, to magical practices that are idolatrous and that damage interpersonal relationships, such as discord, jealousy, wrath, strife, divisions, dissensions, envy.”
Beware of bureaucracy in ministering a sacrament
“All this is the fruit – so to speak – of the flesh, of a behaviour that is only ‘human’, ‘unhealthily human’. A human being has his values, but that is unhealthily human. The fruit of the Spirit, on the other hand, is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, temperance,” Pope Francis said.
The Pope proposed, as a meditation, to take the Pauline list of the fruits of the Spirit to compare it with one’s own life.
“How often we ourselves, priests or bishops, do so much bureaucracy to give a sacrament, to welcome people, that people say, ‘No, I don’t like that,’ and leave. Often they don’t see in us the power of the Spirit who regenerates, who makes us new,” the Pope observed.
In conclusion, Francis said that “we have the great responsibility of announcing Christ crucified and risen, animated by the breath of the Spirit of love. For only this love has the power to attract and change the heart of man”.
With Vatican News.