This morning's General Audience began at 10:15am in Saint Peter's Square, where the Holy Father, Pope Francis met with groups of pilgrims and the faithful who had come from Italy and from every other part of the world.
In his speech, spoken in Italian, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, adding his meditation on the gift of knowledge.
After having summarized the catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father expressed particular greetings to the various linguistic groups who were present. Then he made a special appeal for prayers for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have experienced major flooding, as well as for China and for missionaries.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing.
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
Today, I want to bring into the light another of the Holy Spirit's gifts: the gift of knowledge. When we speak about knowledge, our thoughts are drawn immediately to the human capacity to learn about the reality that surrounds him and the capacity to discover the laws that govern nature and the universe. Knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit though, is not limited to human knowledge: it is a special gift that helps us to grasp, by means of creation, the greatness and the love of God and the depth of his relationship with every creature.
When our eyes are illuminated by the Spirit, they are opened to the contemplation of God, in the beauty of nature and in the greatness of the cosmos, and we are led to discover how everything speaks to us of Him and of his love. All of this awakens a sense of astonishment in us, and a profound sense of gratitude! This is the feeling we experience when we admire a work of art or any marvel that is the result of human ingenuity and creativity: faced with all of this, the Spirit leads us to praise the Lord from the bottom of our hearts and to recognize in all that we have and are, an inestimable gift of God and a sign of his infinite love for us.
The first chapter of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Bible, shows us that God delights in His creation, by repeatedly emphasizing the beauty and goodness of all things. At the end of each day, it is written : God saw that it was good ( 1,12.18.21.25 ) …but if God sees that Creation is something good and beautiful, we too must have this attitude, we must see that Creation is something good and beautiful. The gift of knowledge, of this beauty, we have to thank God for having given us this gift, this beauty! This is the path…and when God finished creating man, He didn’t say that it was good, He said that it is very good! He draws us close to Him. And in God’s eyes we are the greatest, the most beautiful, the best things about Creation…But father the Angels? No the Angels are beneath us! We are more than the Angels! We heard it in the Book of the Psalms! God really loves us! We have to thank him for this!
The gift of knowledge places us in profound harmony with the Creator and allows us to participate in the brightness of His gaze and His judgment. And it is in this perspective that we can grasp in man and woman the summit of Creation, as the fulfillment of a plan of love that is imprinted in each of us and that makes us recognize each other as brothers and sisters.
All of this is a source of serenity and peace and renders the Christian a joyful witness of God, in the wake of Saint Francis of Assisi and many saints who were able to sing and praise His love through the contemplation of Creation.
At the same time, however, the gift of knowledge helps us to avoid falling prey to excessive or incorrect attitudes. The first lies in the risk of considering ourselves masters of Creation. Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is it the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we can care for it and use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.
The second incorrect attitude is the temptation to limit ourselves to creatures, as if they can provide the answer to all our expectations. With the gift of knowledge, the Holy Spirit helps us not to give in to all of this…but I would like to return to the first wrong path… We are custodians of Creation, not masters of Creation. Creation is a gift that the Lord has given us, to us! We are Custodians of Creation. But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us; by destroying Creation we are saying to God: I don’t like it!. This is not good! So what do you like? I like myself! – Here, this is sin! Do you see? Custody of Creation is custody of God’s gift to us and it is also a way of saying thank you to God. I am the master of Creation but to carry it forward I will never destroy your gift. And this should be our attitude towards Creation. Safeguard Creation. Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!
Once I was in the countryside and I heard a saying from a simple person who loved flowers; he nurtured these flowers and he said we must nurture these beautiful things that God has given us. Creation is for us to use well, not to exploit, but to nurture…because do you know father, God always forgives - Yes it is true God always forgives…We men, women, we forgive sometimes – Yes sometimes we forgive, not always …But father Creation never forgives! And if you don’t care for Creation it will never forgive you”.
This should give us pause for thought and we should ask the holy Spirit for the gift of knowledge that Creation is a gift from God, a gift for the best thing He created which is the human person…
At the conclusion of the catechesis, the Holy Father's teaching was also shared (in abbreviated form) with pilgrims and visitors in various languages. The Pope also spoke words of greeting to each linguistic group. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims taking part in today’s Audience, including those from England and Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Canada and the United States. Upon all of you, and upon your families, I invoke the joy and peace of the Risen Lord. God bless you all!
The Holy Father also called for prayers for various peoples who are suffering at this time:
My thoughts go once again to the people of Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia, hard hit by floods, with losses of human life, many displaced persons and extensive damage. Unfortunately, the situation has worsened, therefore I invite you to join me in praying for the victims and for all those who are suffering from this calamity. For the sake of our brothers and sisters, we must demonstrate the solidarity and the concrete support of the international community. Together, let us pray for these suffering people: Hail Mary ...
On May 24, we will commemorate the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with much devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai. I ask all the faithful to pray that, under the protection of Our Lady, Help of Christians, the Catholics in China may continue to believe, to hope and to love, and in every circumstance, to be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among their fellow citizens.
Next Saturday, at Aversa, two Servants of God will be Beatified: Mario Vergana, a priest of the PIME, and Isidoro Ngei Ko Lat, a lay catechist, killed in 1950 in Burma because of the Christian faith. Their heroic fidelity to Christ can be an encouragement and an example to missionaries and especially to catechists in mission lands who are carrying out precious and invaluable apostolic work, for which the entire Church is grateful.
In his speech, spoken in Italian, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, adding his meditation on the gift of knowledge.
After having summarized the catechesis in various languages, the Holy Father expressed particular greetings to the various linguistic groups who were present. Then he made a special appeal for prayers for the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina who have experienced major flooding, as well as for China and for missionaries.
The General Audience concluded with the chanting of the Pater Noster and the imparting of the Apostolic Blessing.
Catechesis of His Holiness, Pope Francis
for the General Audience
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning.
Today, I want to bring into the light another of the Holy Spirit's gifts: the gift of knowledge. When we speak about knowledge, our thoughts are drawn immediately to the human capacity to learn about the reality that surrounds him and the capacity to discover the laws that govern nature and the universe. Knowledge that comes from the Holy Spirit though, is not limited to human knowledge: it is a special gift that helps us to grasp, by means of creation, the greatness and the love of God and the depth of his relationship with every creature.
When our eyes are illuminated by the Spirit, they are opened to the contemplation of God, in the beauty of nature and in the greatness of the cosmos, and we are led to discover how everything speaks to us of Him and of his love. All of this awakens a sense of astonishment in us, and a profound sense of gratitude! This is the feeling we experience when we admire a work of art or any marvel that is the result of human ingenuity and creativity: faced with all of this, the Spirit leads us to praise the Lord from the bottom of our hearts and to recognize in all that we have and are, an inestimable gift of God and a sign of his infinite love for us.
The first chapter of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Bible, shows us that God delights in His creation, by repeatedly emphasizing the beauty and goodness of all things. At the end of each day, it is written : God saw that it was good ( 1,12.18.21.25 ) …but if God sees that Creation is something good and beautiful, we too must have this attitude, we must see that Creation is something good and beautiful. The gift of knowledge, of this beauty, we have to thank God for having given us this gift, this beauty! This is the path…and when God finished creating man, He didn’t say that it was good, He said that it is very good! He draws us close to Him. And in God’s eyes we are the greatest, the most beautiful, the best things about Creation…But father the Angels? No the Angels are beneath us! We are more than the Angels! We heard it in the Book of the Psalms! God really loves us! We have to thank him for this!
The gift of knowledge places us in profound harmony with the Creator and allows us to participate in the brightness of His gaze and His judgment. And it is in this perspective that we can grasp in man and woman the summit of Creation, as the fulfillment of a plan of love that is imprinted in each of us and that makes us recognize each other as brothers and sisters.
All of this is a source of serenity and peace and renders the Christian a joyful witness of God, in the wake of Saint Francis of Assisi and many saints who were able to sing and praise His love through the contemplation of Creation.
At the same time, however, the gift of knowledge helps us to avoid falling prey to excessive or incorrect attitudes. The first lies in the risk of considering ourselves masters of Creation. Creation is not a property, which we can rule over at will; or, even less, is it the property of only a few: Creation is a gift, it is a wonderful gift that God has given us, so that we can care for it and use it for the benefit of all, always with great respect and gratitude.
The second incorrect attitude is the temptation to limit ourselves to creatures, as if they can provide the answer to all our expectations. With the gift of knowledge, the Holy Spirit helps us not to give in to all of this…but I would like to return to the first wrong path… We are custodians of Creation, not masters of Creation. Creation is a gift that the Lord has given us, to us! We are Custodians of Creation. But when we exploit Creation we destroy the sign of God’s love for us; by destroying Creation we are saying to God: I don’t like it!. This is not good! So what do you like? I like myself! – Here, this is sin! Do you see? Custody of Creation is custody of God’s gift to us and it is also a way of saying thank you to God. I am the master of Creation but to carry it forward I will never destroy your gift. And this should be our attitude towards Creation. Safeguard Creation. Because if we destroy Creation, Creation will destroy us! Never forget this!
Once I was in the countryside and I heard a saying from a simple person who loved flowers; he nurtured these flowers and he said we must nurture these beautiful things that God has given us. Creation is for us to use well, not to exploit, but to nurture…because do you know father, God always forgives - Yes it is true God always forgives…We men, women, we forgive sometimes – Yes sometimes we forgive, not always …But father Creation never forgives! And if you don’t care for Creation it will never forgive you”.
This should give us pause for thought and we should ask the holy Spirit for the gift of knowledge that Creation is a gift from God, a gift for the best thing He created which is the human person…
At the conclusion of the catechesis, the Holy Father's teaching was also shared (in abbreviated form) with pilgrims and visitors in various languages. The Pope also spoke words of greeting to each linguistic group. To English-speaking pilgrims, he said:
I greet all the English-speaking pilgrims taking part in today’s Audience, including those from England and Wales, Scotland, Sweden, Norway, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, South Africa, Canada and the United States. Upon all of you, and upon your families, I invoke the joy and peace of the Risen Lord. God bless you all!
The Holy Father also called for prayers for various peoples who are suffering at this time:
My thoughts go once again to the people of Bosnia Herzegovina and Serbia, hard hit by floods, with losses of human life, many displaced persons and extensive damage. Unfortunately, the situation has worsened, therefore I invite you to join me in praying for the victims and for all those who are suffering from this calamity. For the sake of our brothers and sisters, we must demonstrate the solidarity and the concrete support of the international community. Together, let us pray for these suffering people: Hail Mary ...
On May 24, we will commemorate the liturgical memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Help of Christians, venerated with much devotion at the Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai. I ask all the faithful to pray that, under the protection of Our Lady, Help of Christians, the Catholics in China may continue to believe, to hope and to love, and in every circumstance, to be a leaven of harmonious coexistence among their fellow citizens.
Next Saturday, at Aversa, two Servants of God will be Beatified: Mario Vergana, a priest of the PIME, and Isidoro Ngei Ko Lat, a lay catechist, killed in 1950 in Burma because of the Christian faith. Their heroic fidelity to Christ can be an encouragement and an example to missionaries and especially to catechists in mission lands who are carrying out precious and invaluable apostolic work, for which the entire Church is grateful.
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