Among the many stories we read about the risen Jesus in the gospels, one of the most tender is shared in the gospel of St. John. The disciples had already seen the risen Lord but this wonderful experience didn’t seem to change their lives very much. In fact, one day after Easter, Peter simply told the other disciples, “I am going fishing.” And they said, “We also will come with you.” After all, most of them were fishermen. They weren’t walking around Galilee or Judea with Jesus any longer, so they went back to their old way of life. After a night when they caught nothing, Jesus appeared to them on the shore, helped them make a big catch of fish and eventually fed them breakfast.
But also during these Easter days we’ve heard many stories from the Acts of the Apostles about the courageous proclamations and witness of many of the disciples. They were out in public telling people about this Jesus who had been crucified but rose from the dead. They were severely questioned by the authorities and sometimes put in jail, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Their fishing expedition had changed. They were fishing for people, proclaiming the good news to them and calling them to conversion. The church’s essential mission of evangelization had begun.
What happened? Why the difference in those post-Resurrection disciples who one day were fishing and on another were courageously teaching as Jesus taught, sacrificing even their lives for the sake of the kingdom? What happened? Pentecost happened. The Holy Spirit came to these friends of Jesus and with his seven-fold gift he changed their lives. They were no longer timid and fearful. They were outspoken, brave and committed. The Holy Spirit had clearly set their hearts on fire and the blaze was extinguished only with the sacrifice of their lives.
As we celebrate Pentecost 2008, we ask that same Spirit to make us courageous and faithful, dedicated to the church’s evangelizing mission in our own day. Bishop Steiner and I are traveling around the archdiocese celebrating the sacrament of Confirmation with our young people, asking the Holy Spirit to set them on fire so that they too might be transformed from casual Christians to zealous disciples in mission. How does the Holy Spirit effect this change in our lives? He does this by the conferral of certain spiritual gifts, true signs of the Holy Spirit living among us. They are also expressions of the great dynamism which moves us to an even closer relationship with that same Spirit.
The long-standing teachings of the church talk about seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Their origins can be traced to the Messianic text taken from the Book of Isaiah Chapter 11, verses 1 and 2. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. They belong in their fullness to Christ, Son of David. They complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them. They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations.” These gifts are given to us so that we will be more effective in our call to be “witnesses” to our faith and to defend it with word and deed. In the early church the Holy Spirit was the one to whom people turned to assist the martyrs who would give testimony to their faith and their love for Christ when facing the executioner.
Nowadays we sometimes use alternate names for the traditional seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Their understanding was best described by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica. During these Pentecost days, we might very well want to pray over these gifts so that we might better understand how the Holy Spirit tries to prod us and guide us in our lives as disciples and witnesses for Jesus.
Wisdom is a gift that helps us discern the will of God in our lives. Sometimes we aren’t really sure what it is that God is asking of us. The Holy Spirit, through prayer, and sometimes through the guidance of others, shows us the way.
Understanding is a gift which aids us when we want to make good decisions or choices. We know how much misunderstanding leads people to make bad decisions.
Counsel is also described as the gift of right judgment. This gift of the Spirit assists our practical reason whereby we come to apprehend what is true and respond prudently. It will often slow us down so that we can think something through before we decide to act. Without counsel we are often impetuous and consequently all-too-often wrong in our actions.
Fortitude is also called courage. Trying to do the right thing when others are doing what’s wrong certainly requires an inner-strength. When that strength comes from the Holy Spirit, as in this gift, we are most likely to do what’s right, even though it’s hard, and to avoid evil, even though it’s very attractive.
The gift of knowledge relates to God and His plan in our lives. It leads us to wisdom and understanding. Like all knowledge, it takes time to sink in, but it is a grace of the Spirit and consequently what we come to know is a result more of God’s activity than of our own.
Piety isn’t a word we use so often these days and so many prefer referring to this gift as reverence. Reverence defines our demeanor before God, the way we worship and respond to God’s direction.
Fear of the Lord, the seventh gift of the Holy Spirit, is nowadays more often described as wonder and awe. St. Thomas Aquinas talked about this gift as a kind of “filial fear,” the way a child is afraid of offending a beloved parent rather than the way a prisoner is afraid of punishment.
All these gifts are supernatural. Hopefully they help us esteem spiritual values much more than material ones and make us more open and docile when it comes to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.
The gifts of the Spirit are similar to virtues but the difference is significant. Virtues are acquired largely through our own initiatives whereas gifts are provided by the movement of the Holy Spirit. Virtues have been described like the oars of a boat, gifts like the sails. There definitely are times when the Catholic Church needs to take out her oars, but the forward motion of our Catholic community is much more akin to that of a sailboat than of a rowboat. Once again this Pentecost we pray, “Come, Holy Spirit, come with your seven-fold gift!”
