Pope Benedict XVI Blog

Papal Preacher: Holy Spirit Empowers Us to Love

3/24/2009
Zenit News Agency (http://www.zenit.org/)

This love is the love with which God loves us and by which, at the same time, we are made capable of loving him and our neighbor.


What is meant by the fact that the Holy Spirit descends on the Church on the very day when Israel commemorated the gift of the law and the covenant?

VATICAN CITY (Zenit) - The Holy Spirit is the new law, working through charity in our hearts to enable us to be faithful to our love for God, says the preacher of the Pontifical Household.

Capuchin Father Raniero Cantalamessa said this Friday in his second Lenten sermon for 2009, given to the Curia at the Vatican. The theme of the sermon was " The Law of the Spirit That Gives Life: The Holy Spirit, the New Law of Christians."

Pentecost, he pointed out, was not a new feast for the Jews, who celebrated the gift of the law on Mount Sinai and the covenant, but Jesus came to enrich the day with a new meaning.

The preacher asked, "What is meant by the fact that the Holy Spirit descends on the Church on the very day when Israel commemorated the gift of the law and the covenant?"

He answered that the Spirit descends on the apostles on the day of Pentecost "to point out that he is the new law, the spiritual law that seals the new and eternal covenant and that consecrates the royal and priestly people that are the Church."

Thus, he noted, the "law of the Spirit" is "the law that he inscribes in hearts on Pentecost."
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For the full text of his sermon, see yesterday's post: "Father Cantalamessa's 2nd Lenten Sermon."

posted by Dr. Denice Hanley, DPM, M.Div. @ 11:20 AM