2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - Different kinds of spiritual gifts

 Having completed the sacred seasons of Advent and Christmas, we’ve entered, once again the liturgical season known as Ordinary Time. During ordinary time we focus, not so much on the extraordinary events in the life of Jesus—his birth, his passion and death and resurrection, like we do at Christmas and Easter, but on the ordinary life of the Church, our everyday life as followers of Christ.

What should ordinary life as a Christian look like?  Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary in today’s Gospel gives us a very important first principal: “Do whatever he tells you.”  There’s the ordinary task of the Christian, there’s a summary of the work of the Church: “Do whatever he tells you.” Obey Christ.  Fulfill the mission he’s given.  Do his work.  Follow his will.  And when we do that, Jesus is able to transform ordinary water into extraordinary wine—he is able to transform the ordinary works and words of our life, into the rich, extraordinary works of God.  

The trouble is, of course, that we all too often obey our selfish impulses, our fears and anxieties, our preconceived notions about how the world should work, our prejudices, we listen to all of these voices, instead of the one voice that should matter, and so the ordinary water of our lives remains just water, the ordinary remains ordinary; the gifts go unused, the talents buried, the light hidden. 

“Doing whatever he tells you” means putting the gifts God has given us into practice. And in our second reading, St. Paul enumerates a number of those gifts which make our ordinary Christian life quite extraordinary.

“To each individual, the manifestation of the Spirit is given to some benefit.”  God gives every baptized member of the Church special gifts for the renewal and building up of the Church.  These gifts are not just for the Corinthians 2000 years ago, they are gifts not just for the clergy, not just for people involved in formal missionary activity in foreign lands, they are not just rare graces you might receive at charismatic prayer meetings.  But to you and me and every baptized member of the Church, God has given gifts that his Holy Spirit might be manifested NOW, in this neighborhood, in this parish, in our families, that souls might be brought more deeply into His divine life and the life of the Church.  

Saint Paul enumerates these gifts: wisdom, knowledge, faith, gifts of healing, mighty deeds, prophecy, discernment of spirits, varieties of tongues, interpretation of tongues: all meant for building-up the Church..  

Let’s look at some of these. First, Paul listed Wisdom. Saint Thomas Aquinas called wisdom, “the view from the hilltop”.  The wise person sees life from the high vantage point—that is, he puts in life in order in light of eternity. Wisdom means putting your life in order, getting your priorities straight. And all Christians are meant to do that. Wise Christians looks to the scriptures, looks to the saints, looks to our Church teachings to guide their lives, not the fleeting, fickle, foolish impulses of our emotions or sentiments or the foolish opinions and values and errors of the age. The Church needs wise Christians who are prudent, practical, rational, and judicious, who act as a guiding light for our culture.

Second, Paul lists the gift of “knowledge”.  The Catholic faith has produced the greatest and most knowledgeable thinkers of all time: Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Dante, John Henry Newman, not to mention great scientists like Louis Pasteur, Alexander Fleming inventor of Penicillin, Galileo, Copernicus, Marie Curie, Catholics invented Universities.  It was a Roman Catholic priest, George Lamaitre who first proposed the Big Bang Theory! These men and women remind us that our knowledge is meant to be at the service of the Church and the human race. 

Are you knowledgeable in science, math, history, philosophy, theology, sports?  Your knowledge has been given to you as a gift, not simply to make a lot of money or to show off—no to lord it over others, but to be put in the service of God. I met a gentleman the other day, with a background in mechanical engineering and pipe fitting.  He is now helping poor Hispanic communities bring their buildings up to code. How can you use your knowledge to help others—to build up the Church?

The next spiritual gift Paul mentions is “faith”. Now all of us here have faith, more or less. Paul here is speaking of faith that is contagious. Have you met someone with really contagious faith? You talk with them and they draw you deeper into the life of the Church, they speak about prayer and you want to go home and pray, they speak about their guardian angel, and you think, yeah, I need to become better friends with my guardian angel, or they speak about confession, and you think, yeah, I haven’t been to confession in a while. 

There are non-believers languishing outside of the Church because of our failure to exercise the gift of faith—to allow our faith to be contagious. Is your faith contagious? If not, why not?

Paul mentions next, “gifts of healing”.  All of the baptized are empowered to pray for healing.  Every Sunday we always have a petition for the sick and the suffering, and each of us instinctively turns to God when we are sick or have a sick family member.  I think there are a lot of people in the Church who have been given the gift of psychological healing: people who almost naturally bring calm and peace, who can sooth inner turmoil, who can calm troubled psyches and souls.  

The gift of healing particularly can become unlocked when we ourselves have received healing.  Those who have overcome an addiction often finds that they can help others still struggling.  If you have been healed, likely the Lord is calling you to help someone who needs healing, someone who is grieving, or suffering from an emotional trauma, or just needs someone to talk to.

Finally, the gift of discernment is very important.  You might not have the gift of healing, wisdom or knowledge, but discernment is meant to help others discover their gifts.  To discern the work of the Spirit in others is no small thing.  God uses those with the gift of discernment to help others identify their gifts. You detect someone who is suffering emotional turmoil and you lead them to the one with the gift of healing.  You detect someone who is doubting the faith, and you bring them to the one with the gift of faith or knowledge.  You detect a family situation that requires outside help, perhaps a troubled marriage, and you get that troubled marriage the help it needs.  You detect that a particular young person is being called to religious life or to the priesthood, or that a fellow parishioner should consider joining the choir or becoming a lector or Eucharistic minister or deacon or catechist, you help point them in the right direction, and that is invaluable.  The person with discernment helps me to see something about myself that I cannot see.

At the beginning of this new year, far better than a new year resolution to eat fewer potato chips or something, is to consider how God is calling you to develop and share your gifts this year, for the building up of the Church, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.