POPE FRANCIS

MORNING MEDITATION IN THE CHAPEL OF THE
DOMUS SANCTAE MARTHAE

The spirit of the world leads to corruption

Tuesday, 7 January 2020

[Multimedia]

Christian life is to remain in God following the Holy Spirit, not the spirit of the world, which leads to corruption, and does not distinguish good from evil. Pope Francis told the faithful during his homily at Santa Marta on Tuesday, 7 January.

Commenting on a passage from the First Letter of Saint John the Apostle in which the evangelist takes Jesus’ advice to “Remain in God”, the Pope said that one can “be in the most sinful cities, in the most atheistic societies, but if one’s heart remains in God”, this man and this woman bring salvation.

Many Christians today identify the Holy Spirit only with a dove and do not know that it is the Holy Spirit who “makes you remain in the Lord, is the guarantee, he is the strength to remain in the Lord”.

The spirit of the world, Pope Francis said, is contrary to the Holy Spirit; it not only leads to corruption but also to an inability to distinguish between good and evil. The spirit of the world is forgetting that sin itself “does not turn you away from God if you realize it and ask forgiveness, but the spirit of the world makes you forget what sin is”.

Indeed, for many Christians their hearts are like a road, “and they do not know who comes and goes”, this is because “they do not know how to examine what happens inside”.

In order to avoid falling into the spirit of the world and to discern it from the Holy Spirit, Pope Francis suggested that we ask ourselves a few times a day — every day — what has happened in my heart? Where the particular feelings and thought are coming from: “From the spirit of the world or the Spirit of God”. And “will this make me good or will it throw me down the road of worldliness that is unconsciousness?”.

At the end Pope Francis said to ask for “the grace to remain in the Lord” and that we pray that our heart may “not be a road”, but rather the meeting point between us and God.