During a Mass celebrated on Tuesday at Casa Santa Marta, Pope Francis emphasized that what makes a Christian a Christian is the Spirit of Christ, not academic degrees.
“You can have five degrees in theology, but not have the Spirit of God!” the Pope said. “Maybe you’ll be a great theologian, but you are not a Christian because you do not have the Spirit of God! That which gives authority, that which gives identity is the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”
Christian identity comes from being moved by the Holy Spirit, like Jesus, whose “authority” came from this special anointing. This is why people were so astonished by His teaching, the Pope said. Jesus was “not a common preacher” but spoke from an authority that derived from a “special anointing of the Holy Spirit. It was a style that scandalized many in His time.
“The authority of Jesus – and the authority of the Christian – comes from this ability to understand the things of the Spirit, to speak the language of the Spirit. It is from this anointing of the Holy Spirit. Often, so often, we find among our faithful, simple old women who perhaps didn’t even finish elementary school, but who can speak to us of things better than any theologian, because they have the Spirit of Christ.”
We must all ask ourselves what is the source of our identity as Christians?
“Paul puts it very well today when he says: ‘And we speak about them not with words taught by human wisdom’. Paul’s preaching is not the result of a course at the Lateran, or the Gregorian [Pontifical Universities – ed]… No, no, no! Not human wisdom, no! But taught by the Spirit,” the Pope said. “Paul preached with the anointing of the Spirit, expressing spiritual things of the Spirit in spiritual terms. Man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God by his own strength: Man alone cannot understand this!”
For some, “these things of the Spirit are foolishness, they are not able to understand them,” he said. The man moved by the Spirit, however, “judges everything: He is free and cannot be judged by anyone”.
He concluded by encouraging all to pray for this anointing. “We all need to ask for this. Lord grant us Christian identity, which You had. Grant us Your Spirit. Grant us Your way of thinking, feeling, speaking: May the Lord grant us the anointing of the Holy Spirit.”
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