PRE-PRAYERING
The Jewish people prepared to celebrate the Feast of Weeks, or (fifty
days) by waiting for the seeds to grow into eatable food. They had
been planted at the time of Passover which was a remembering of how
God had brought them out of Egypt and planted
them
in the new and promised soil of Israel. They prepared by waiting,
watching, and hoping for nourishing rain. They would gather at the
time of harvesting the first cutting and celebrate their faith in
the abundant and accompanying God.
We prepare to celebrate the abundant blessings of the “Wind”
of God by being honest about how we have been growing, because of
the constancy of that Spirit. We can be quite occupied by how we
need to grow, advance, virtue-up in our lives. There are good crops
growing in our lives and our relationship with God, because of the
goodness of God which we can easily negate. God gives in the increase
and we are God’s farm-field. It is good to be honest about
the growth we are.
REFLECTION
In our First Reading and in the Gospel we hear some heavy breathing.
The “breath” that brought about creation in the Book
of Genesis, is spreading out once more and bringing about a new
creation, a new revelation. Devout Jews are gathered for the second
of their three major feasts. The first being Passover and the third,
the feast of Booths which is a thanksgiving celebration for the
abundant wheat and grape crops. People from all differing languages
are gathered and they hear members of the Way or of His followers,
begin speaking as “in-spired”. It is a second Genesis
in which a second creation is to come forth. The Apostles experience
the Spirit of God and they will be urged to speak in every land
and every language to bring about the completion of the original
“Let there be light”, and “Let there be life.”
Pentecost is a festival of the first fruits and in our faith tradition
the first fruits were these early believers. They were encouraged
to live it out, speak it out, bring it about and the “it”
was the creative Word of Christ.
Jesus enters the locked-up spirits of the frightened disciples
and they experience some in-spiring words themselves. Regret is
replaced with renewal of the relationship which Jesus initiated
individually several years before. Now there is something new about
the relationship. Instead of “Come and see”, or “Come
follow me”, there is a sending and a going-out party. Jesus
breathes the Spirit into their vacancies and invites their insides
to go outside and create the new incarnation of Jesus.
Saint Thomas Aquinas came up with the Seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
I feel inspired to comment on these gifts which we are to have received
with the sacrament of Confirmation. I do not intend to improve on
the Angelic Doctor, as Thomas is called. I would like to more clearly
understand these gifts I received way back at old Blessed Sacrament
church.
WISDOM:
I was given a colorful blanket by a Jesuit from India who
told me it was a symbol worn by particular wise men in a remote
area of his country. I feel warmer when I surround myself with it,
but not wiser. Wisdom is not a gift to be worn, but a sense that
everything is a gift. It becomes a growing sense of what things
are and what they are not. Wisdom is a way of holding things in
tension. We might want something to be more than it is and it would
be so good if it only could be, but we allow it to be just what
it is, with God’s fingerprints on everything.
UNDERSTANDING:
This gift follows upon the first. The English word “substance”
literally means “to stand under”. To understand means
that the Holy Spirit is enlightening our minds about the consequences
of our use of all the other gifts God has given us. Abuse, means
to take away the proper use from what stands under its appearance.
Misuse is “my-use” with no respect for God’s design
for the goodness of the object. The proper use of something is a
great praise of the Creator, but we need this gift of Understanding
to see better.
KNOWLEDGE:
This is the Gift which assists us to know who we are and
what we are to do. It is practical, that is it moves us to a gratitude
for action. It is more than “self-knowledge”; more a
grace that assists us in the awareness of our being in Christ and
in our incarnating Him, or bringing Him into more visibility. It
is the Gift which helps us know who we are in God’s eye.
COUNSEL:
This is the final Gift assisting the intellect or our ability
to ponder and decide. It strengthens the mind to be able to look
fearlessly at all sides, all the darker areas, all the unfreedoms
and self-centeredness in our human struggle for truth. It assists
us to be honest and aware of the various gravitational pulls of
our whimpering flesh, prejudices, selfish inclinations and fears.
This is the gift we are not so sure we really want, because we love
our ways, our patterns of self-indulgence.
FORTITUDE:
The last three Gifts are about doing the truth. There’s
many a slip between the cup and the lip. This gift moves us to a
steady hand as well as a desire to keep on keeping on when we do
slip and spill. While its root meaning is “strong” it
is more about resolve, perseverance, and patience with our not being
strong in our living the other Gifts. This Gift is the encouragement
the parent gives to the child beginning to walk, “Come on,
get up, woopsy, and try again!”
PIETY:
This Gift encourages a loyalty or fidelity to God and the
relationship which God initiates and sustains. This Gift encourages
us to prayerfully listen and reverently live what we hear. There
are so many voices trying to convince us about our identity. Piety
results from hearing who God says we are and living accordingly.
FEAR of the LORD:
It would be a funny gift from God that would render us scared and
frightened of the giver. This Gift of the Spirit is similar to how
we might walk through a store whose shelves are filled with crystal
and delicate china dishes. Respect for the beauty, yet fragility
would move us, not to fear the owner, but a love for the creator
of these artworks. This Gift works against recklessness and disrespect
for the Giver and Creator of all. If we have a view of the beauty
and goodness of creation, and stand respectfully in front of them,
then we stand in a similar fashion before the Creator of all this
delicate art-work around and within us.
“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit,
and they spoke of the great things God had done, alleluia.”
Acts 2, 4