Dear brothers and sisters,

Today we celebrate the Eucharist invoking the gift of the Holy Spirit, so that the beginning of the new academic year for the Pontifical Universities may be more than simply a resumption of studies and academic research.  We desire to open our minds and our educational relationships to the creative breath of the Risen one, who bestows peace and unity, so that that each of us may assume our mission and thus respond to the God who calls us, and to humanity that awaits us. Let this new beginning, therefore, be a truly ecclesial moment in which gathering around the Lord’s table nourishes our shared mission.  In this way, no one will teach, study or undertake research solely for themselves, but together with others, for others and, above all, with and for the Lord.  Indeed, as we have heard in the Letter to the Galatians, the mind is fundamental for both faith and mission.

The Apostle Paul, worried by the news he received from the communities in Galatia, wrote a letter inviting the community to reflect. The tone is passionate and intense, but what might appear to be a rebuke is in reality an appeal to reason, memory and critical thinking.  In every age, there is no shortage of false teachers who exploit the religious sentiments of many believers for their own interests, often pushing them to radicalize certain aspects of the teaching they have received at the expense of the whole — the whole, which is Christ and his Gospel.

Dear friends, consider study as a service to faith and truth: for your own good and for the good of so many brothers and sisters for whom the Lord gave his life.  For while the encounter with him indeed brings joy and enthusiasm, it is never a matter of being “bewitched” or “enchanted” (cf. Gal 3:1). Reason, posing questions in light of God’s word and the Church’s Tradition, is an essential part of the journey of faith in following Jesus Christ.  For this very reason, the Church has both the desire and the responsibility to safeguard the integrity of the treasure of Revelation and to develop, within diverse contexts, a prayerful understanding of it, scholarly reflection, cultural mediation and practical application. All of these are expressions of a single love, which today calls you, sustains you, and sets you out on this shared quest. It is a mission. Our vocations may differ, but the mission is one.

We are given a further piece of advice from the words of Saint Paul, for he urges the Galatians to remember where they began. He wrote: “Are you so foolish?  Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?  Did you experience so much for nothing?” (Gal 3:3-4).  Intelligence, therefore, must draw on memory.  The mind must not simply compile data — as an algorithm now does more quickly than we can — but recall lived experiences, which contain depths of meaning that only the human soul can recognize, and connect more deeply with the goodness of these experiences.  Everything that is good begins “with the Spirit” and thus possesses a breath, a dynamism and a sense of communion that, once experienced, are engraved upon the heart.  Routine, ambitions, rivalries and other negative factors can, over time, divert our attention and energy, leaving us exhausted and listless, quarrelsome and sad.  We must therefore return to the heart.  That is where it all began; the beginning to which we can always return. Dearest friends, guard your hearts.  Whether you are students, researchers or teachers, guard your hearts, so that every stage of life and every responsibility may be lived “with the Spirit.”

Dear friends, during your time at university, nurture friendships, which are a precious gift, especially when they are lived out in the shared search for truth in Christ. Remain rooted in the People of God, value its sensus fidei, and be open to its questions. And do not forget the poor, who are sometimes that persistent friend who comes knocking during the night (cf. Lk 11:5–13).  Bring life into your studies and your studies into life, following the logic of the Incarnation, apart from which Revelation falls silent.  Indeed, the further we stray from the complete reality that the Son of God took on and lived with infinite love, the less we will have to say and the fewer opportunities we will have to understand. Sisters and brothers, let us listen to the longing of God, who today comes knocking once more, and let us bring it into scientific research. Let us share what nourishes us. There are many who do not have the same educational opportunities that we have received. Let us open the door; let us not shut ourselves off.

As I indicated in my first Encyclical, we are called today to emulate the attitude of the people of Nehemiah’s time, so as to build the city in which God desires to dwell with all humanity in peace (cf. Encyclical Letter Magnifica Humanitas, 8).  Everyone has a role to play in this undertaking, in which it is important to work together.  For example, those grappling with the fragmentation of knowledge and the impact of new technologies on the human mind realize that “a genuinely healthy attitude is needed, requiring rhythms that incorporate silence, in-depth study, reading and judicious analysis, for without these elements inner freedom may be compromised” (ibid., 146).

The study of theology is no stranger to these challenges. In the construction site of the “City of God,” its research helps to illuminate everyone’s work, serving as a meeting point for diverse fields of knowledge.  In particular, the ecclesial community in Rome, through its vocation to serve the entire Catholic Church, serves as a meeting place, a forum for dialogue and mutual enrichment among diverse sensibilities, cultures, and traditions, within which the Gospel reveals its inexhaustible treasures.

Dear brothers and sisters, may you live your years in Rome to the fullest. Do not let them pass in vain.  It was here that Peter confessed his faith even unto martyrdom. It was here that Paul, the great universal translator of the Christian experience for so many peoples, languages, and cultures, finished his race, having kept the faith (cf. 2 Tim 4:7). Look around you at university: the world is seated in your classrooms. Studying alongside you are people from Africa, Asia, the Americas, Europe and Oceania. Do not limit yourselves to simply sitting next to one another: get to know one another, talk to one another, listen to one another, share your experiences of the Church, pray together, share moments of leisure, and forge friendships that will last a lifetime.

The Lord tells us: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Lk 11:9–10). Encouraged by this promise, let us persevere together in prayer.  Let us entrust the new academic year to the maternal intercession of Our Lady, Seat of Wisdom, and welcome the Holy Spirit, whom our heavenly Father never fails to grant to those who ask with filial trust.