Theme of Pope’s general audience: ‘Christian freedom, universal leaven of liberation’

October 13, 2021

Continuing his Wednesday general audience series on St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, Pope Francis spoke on October 13 about Christian freedom as the “universal leaven of liberation.”

Previous addresses in the series were entitled “Introduction to the Letter to the Galatians“ (June 23), “Paul, the true apostle“ (June 30), “There is just one Gospel“ (August 4), “The Mosaic Law“ (August 11), “The propaedeutic value of the Law“ (August 18), “The dangers of the Law“ (August 25), “Foolish Galatians“ (September 1), “We are Children of God“ (September 8), “Life of Faith“ (September 29), and “Christ Has Set Us Free“ (October 6).

“In our continuing catechesis on Saint Paul’s Letter to the Galatians, we have seen that our new life of freedom in Christ comes as an unmerited gift of God’s grace through baptism, which makes us sharers in the Lord’s saving passion, death and resurrection,” the Pope said, in the words of the official Vatican summary of his remarks. “We have been set free by love, which becomes the new and supreme law of the Christian life.”

The summary continued:

This Gospel message of our liberation is universal, addressed to all men and women, and to every people and culture. Indeed, the Gospel is meant to be “inculturated” in every time and place. The Church’s catholicity, her universality, is not found in uniformity of style or custom, or the imposition of any one cultural model, but in her respect for all that is good and true in each people and culture.

As the Church seeks to inculturate the Gospel in contemporary culture, including today’s rapidly developing technological and media culture, may we respond creatively in proclaiming to all peoples the Good News of the freedom won for us by Christ the universal Saviour.

 

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Further information:

• General Audience, October 13 (Vatican press office)