EVANGELII GAUDIUM - page 94

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showing her new aspects of revelation and giv-
ing her a new face. Through inculturation, the
Church “introduces peoples, together with their
cultures, into her own community”,90 for “every
culture offers positive values and forms which
can enrich the way the Gospel is preached, un-
derstood and lived”.91 In this way, the Church
takes up the values of different cultures and be-
comes sponsa ornata monilibus suis, “the bride be-
decked with her jewels” (cf. Is 61:10)”.92
117. When properly understood, cultural di-
versity is not a threat to Church unity. The Holy
Spirit, sent by the Father and the Son, transforms
our hearts and enables us to enter into the per-
fect communion of the blessed Trinity, where all
things find their unity. He builds up the com-
munion and harmony of the people of God. The
same Spirit is that harmony, just as he is the bond
of love between the Father and the Son.93 It is
he who brings forth a rich variety of gifts, while
at the same time creating a unity which is never
90 J ohn P aul II, Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio
(7 December 1990), 52: AAS 83 (1991), 300; cf. Apostolic
Exhortation Catechesi Tradendae (16 October 1979) 53: AAS 71
(1979), 1321.
91 J ohn Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in Oceania (22 November 2001), 16: AAS 94 (2002), 383.
92 J ohn Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation
Ecclesia in Africa (14 September 1995), 61: AAS 88 (1996), 39.
93 Saint Thomas Aquinas, S. Th. I, q. 39, a. 8 cons. 2:
“Without the Holy Spirit who is the bond of both, one cannot
understand the connecting unity between the Father and the
Son”; cf. I, q. 37, a. 1, ad 3.