At the Mass at Casa Santa Marta, Holy Father Pope Francis said that in the heart of each person “the spirit of the world” and the “Spirit of God” confront one another every day. The Pontiff was reflecting on the first reading, in which “the Apostle Paul teaches the Corinthians the way to think like Christ” – a path that is characterized by abandonment to the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit, in fact, that leads us to “know Jesus,” to share His “sentiments,” to understand His heart.
As reported by Vatican news, Holy Father Pope Francis remarked that “A person’s heart is like a battlefield where two different spirits confront one another: one, the Spirit of God, leads us to good works, to charity, to fraternity; the other, that of the world, pushes us towards vanity, pride, sufficiency, gossiping. Man left to his own strength does not understand the things of the Spirit.” Further, His Holiness added, “There are two spirits, two ways of thinking, of feeling, of acting: that which leads me to the Spirit of God, and that which leads me to the spirit of the world. And this happens in our life: We all have these two ‘spirits,’ we might say. The Spirit of God, which leads us to good works, to charity, to fraternity, to adore God, to know Jesus, to do many good works of charity, to pray: this one. And [there is] the other spirit, of the world, which leads us to vanity, pride, sufficiency, gossip – a completely different path. Our heart, a saint once said, is like a battlefield, a field of war where these two spirits struggle.”
The Pontiff concluded his remarks by exhorting that “Every night a Christian should think over the events of the past day, to determine whether vanity and pride prevailed, or whether he or she has succeeded in imitating the Son of God.
