GENERAL AUDIENCE: GLORY OF THE TRINITY IN THE RESURRECTION

VATICAN CITY, MAY 10, 2000 (VIS) - In today's general audience, held in St. Peter's Square in the presence of 45,000 pilgrims, John Paul II spoke on "the glory of the Trinity in the resurrection."

Quoting the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Pope recalled that "the Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition." The Trinity, present in the Paschal mystery, "expands over the fifty days following Easter."

"Unlike apocryphal writings," he continued, "the canonical Gospels do not present the event of the resurrection in itself, but the new and different presence of the Risen Christ among His disciples."

Mary Magdalene, affirmed the Holy Father, did not recognize Christ after He had risen, and she needed "a path of knowledge different from that of reason and the senses. The path of faith." In Galilee, the Risen Christ "conferred on the Church the mandate of announcing the Gospel, baptizing and teaching according to His commandments." The Holy Trinity is present in the baptismal formula: "baptize (all nations) in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." Jesus' appearance in the Upper Room anticipated the Pentecost, when He said to his disciples "receive the Holy Spirit."

The Holy Father indicated that "the trinitarian nature of Easter is complemented by the trinitarian aspect of the profession of faith." St. Paul recalls that "no-one can say 'Jesus is Lord' except by the Holy Spirit and, whoever says this, says it 'to the glory of God the Father'."

Among his greetings, John Paul II welcomed a group of Russian Orthodox pilgrims to whom he said "I thank you for your visit and I willingly invoke copious blessings from heaven on you and your loved ones."

He thanked another group of Orthodox faithful from Bulgaria for their presence and added: "I hope this pilgrimage to the tombs of Sts. Peter, Paul and the Roman martyrs may stimulate you to an ever more generous commitment to evangelical witness in your own country."

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