Pentecost 2025 - 7 Gifts of the Spirit

 Last week, on the feast of the Ascension, in our scripture readings, we heard Jesus instructing his disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit, the promise of the Father. Well, the waiting is over, we celebrate now the promise fulfilled: the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Church 50 days after the Lord’s resurrection 

The Holy Spirit, as we proclaim in our creed each week, is the Lord, the giver of life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit souls are brought to new life in the Sacrament of baptism; they are strengthened in confirmation, healed in the sacraments of reconciliation and anointing of the sick, nourished in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, and empowered with special graces for unique vocations in the sacraments of marriage and Holy Orders.

The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life, helps us to truly live by bestowing upon us special gifts, you may have memorized the list of them as you prepared for your Confirmation. The seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. The Catechism says, these gifts belong in their fullness to Jesus Christ. Meaning if you wanted to see what wisdom looks like, sounds like, and acts like, look at Jesus. If you want to know the highest form of counsel, piety, and fear of the Lord, look to Jesus. 

So let’s consider each of the gifts. How was Jesus’ life filled with wisdom? Well, what is wisdom? Wisdom seeks what is of the highest importance. To be wise is to recognize that our highest priority in this life  isn’t career or wealth, pleasure or power, but getting our souls to heaven and becoming the person God made us to be: saints.

Jesus taught us not only to be wise, teaching us to “seek first the kingdom of God”,  but his wisdom was evident. He embraced the greatest suffering imaginable the weight of our sins as he hung upon the Cross, in order to achieve the highest good, our salvation. We are fully alive when we, wisely, we embrace the cross with Christ in order to obtain our highest good.

The second gift is understanding. The gift of Understanding enables us to penetrate the mysteries of God and see the deeper meaning of God’s plan. Jesus’ understanding is manifest in his ministry. He explains the deeper meaning of the Scriptures, helping others understand God’s plan of salvation. 

With Understanding comes patience and gratitude. Think of how understanding has changed your experience of Mass. As a young person you may have been restless and impatient for mass to be over, but recognizing what is really going on here, understanding that the Eucharist is truly Jesus Christ, that changes things. That understanding enables us to more fully engage in the Mass and appreciate the great gift Jesus has left us, and to encourage others to join us here.

The third gift of the Spirit is Counsel . Counsel means knowing and choosing what is right in difficult situations. Jesus always chooses the Father’s will, even when he was tempted. In the desert, He rebuffs Satan’s temptations with clarity. We are fully alive when we follow not the counsel of the world or the devil, but the counsel of God. 

Like all the gifts, counsel is for ourselves, but also for others. For example, a friend confides in you that they are considering making a terrible decision, like abortion. The Gift of Counsel enables you to speak with compassion, truth, and hope—encouraging them to choose life and offering concrete support.

The fourth gift is fortitude. Fortitude is the courage and strength to  do good and endure difficulty for the sake of what is right. Jesus endured opposition, rejection, betrayal, scourging, and crucifixion without faltering in His mission. He exhibited courage in confronting hypocrisy and injustice, even when it meant risking His life. In His Passion, He reveals fortitude in its purest form—persevering in love to the end.

Fortitude enables us to work for justice despite opposition, to witness to the faith in the face of mockery or persecution, or to persevere doing what is right despite hardship—like taking care of an elderly parent despite their complaints. To be fully alive is to be full of Courage and Strength for doing what is right when it is hard.

The fifth gift of the Holy Spirit is knowledge – Knowing the things of God and how to remain in right relationship to God. Jesus helps people to know the presence of God in their midst. 

This gift helps us to know what is good or bad for our soul and to discern God’s will. Think of a young person discerning that her social media habits are fueling vanity and envy. So, she chooses to limit her use to protect her spiritual health. Or any of us for that matter, when facing temptation, calling to mind the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Church. We are fully alive when we have that ability to rightly discern between good and evil.

The sixth gift is piety--filial reverence and trust in God as a loving Father. Jesus refers to God as Abba, Father, and teaches His disciples to do the same. Jesus is faithful in prayer, obedient to the Father’s will, and models loving trust even amid suffering. His entire life is an offering of reverent love for the Father. We exercise piety when we cultivate heartful devotion for God and the things of God.

For example, a family gathering together once a week to pray the Rosary, not out of obligation but from a desire to honor and love God together. Or coming to church on Saturday to spend time in adoration, simply to spend time in the presence of the Lord manifests piety. We are fully alive when we desire God and what to live lives pleasing to God.

And lastly, fear of the Lord—we are fully alive when we allow the Spirit to teach us to hate sin and to become humble in God’s presence. Jesus, taught us to hate sin, to seek conversion and drive out corruption from our lives. In the Temple, He drives out the money changers, zealous for the holiness of God’s Temple. 

The Holy Spirit helps us to hate gossip and lying, not simply because they are socially rude, but because they offend God. He teaches us to guard ourselves from perverted images on the internet, lest you fall into sin, manifests fear of the Lord. This gift makes us fully alive by hating what is evil, rightly protecting ourselves from what corrupts us and others.

Dear ones, the Holy Spirit was not poured out on the Church merely so we could decorate our altars with red once a year. The Holy Spirit was poured out so that we might become fully alive—with the very life of Christ.

As I quoted last week, St. Irenaeus wrote, "The glory of God is man fully alive." But not just biologically alive. Not just scrolling and surviving and chasing the next comfort or pleasure. Fully alive means burning with the fire of the Spirit—filled with wisdom, courage, purity, purpose, and joy. Fully alive means no longer being ruled by fear, sin, or confusion, but walking in step with the Spirit, living in truth and love.

It should be a common occurrence for us to ask the Holy Spirit: Which gift do I need to grow in most? What part of me is still half-asleep, half-committed, half-alive? And then pray: Come, Holy Spirit. Awaken me. Fill me. Make me fully alive in Christ— for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

33rd Sunday in OT 2020 - The gift of holy fear

 For the past few weeks, I’ve been conducting RCIA classes for adults who are seeking full initiation into the Catholic Church. The last two years we didn’t have anyone in RCIA, here at St. Ignatius, which was quite concerning, but this year we’re happy to have three adults preparing for the Sacraments. The first two months of RCIA consist of covering the basics, the elements of the Creed: what it means that Catholics believe in God, that God is the Creator of all things visible and invisible, and that Jesus Christ is True God and True Man, and we begin to look at the parts of the Bible.  On Monday, this week,  we will begin our discussion of the Holy Spirit, and we’ll talk a bit about the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: wisdom, understanding, knowledge, counsel, fortitude, piety, and fear of the Lord.

Like the talents in the Gospel, these gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to each of us, to be utilized in the master’s service. We are to use the gift of wisdom to order our life according to the priorities of God. We are to use the gift of understanding to clearly explain our faith to others—to help them grow in faith. The gift of piety helps us to be mindful of God throughout our day and to set good Christian example for others.   

Our psalm today speaks about that last spiritual gift—last, but not least, and maybe even the most important gift: the fear of the Lord. “Blessed are those who fear the Lord.” Our first reading, too, speaks of the fear of the Lord. Proverbs says, “the woman who fears the Lord is to be praised”.  

I say fear of the lord may be the most important of the gifts of the Spirit, because it seems to be a prerequisite for the other six. Elsewhere in the book of Proverbs, we find the well-known verse that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom”. 

What do we mean by fear of the Lord? Fear of the Lord, of course, is completely different from the fear of spiders or fear of suffering. Fear can be good and fear can be bad, it can be healthy and it can be unhealthy. For example, Founding Father and third President, Thomas Jefferson, said "When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When governments fear the people, there is liberty.”  

There is a type of fear which is inconsistent with the Christian life. Over and over Jesus says, “do not be afraid”. “Don’t be afraid, to leave behind your old life” he says to peter, james, and john, “for you will be become fishers of men.” “Don’t be afraid” he says If you suffer for righteousness sake, or If they bring you before rulers and kings because of me…don’t be afraid, I am with you, don’t be afraid, for the holy spirit will give you what you are to say”. “Have no fear of those who kill the body…BUT…have fear of those who can destroy the soul and body in hell” In that last one, the Lord speaks of the type of fear that is good and holy. Just like when you are carrying something precious like a crystal vase, or a delicate baby, you should be afraid, to drop them. So, too with our souls. We should be afraid to expose our souls to evil through sin. So we need to care for our soul  to protect it from sin, lest it be destroyed in hell forever. 

The biblical Greek word for fear of the Lord is theosebeia. When that word, theosebeia, is used in scripture , it typically means having a special reverence for God, a consciousness that the eye of God is watching us always, and that there are consequences in our relationship with God if we violate his commands and fail to repent.  

Hence the woman in the book of proverbs: she is to be praised for her fear of the Lord, because she seeks to live rightly in the sight of God. She seeks to bring good to her husband and to her family. She reaches out her hands in generosity to the poor; she seeks to live obediently to the commands of God. She is a model for all of us for living out the gift of holy fear. For, the fear of the Lord is a spiritual gift not just given to a select few of us, but to each of us at baptism. It’s like a seed, that if watered and nurtured through prayer and right conduct, it blossoms. It will also fail to blossom if you neglect it. 

Each of the Saints, in their own way, display this spiritual gift. You can see it in the great care they take to avoid sin which is displeasing to God. St. Francis of Assisi writes “Where there is the fear of the Lord to guard the house the enemy cannot find a way to enter.” In other words, fear of the Lord motivates us to guard our soul against sin. To take special effort to avoid…gossip, if that’s a habitual sin for us. Or To take special effort to avoid impurity, or impatience, or immoderate intoxication.  

Healthy fear of the Lord motivates us to not only avoid sin, but also to seek God’s mercy when we do sin. It motivates us to go to Confession if we commit mortal sin, lest we appear before the judgment seat of God with unrepented mortal sin.

Again, there is healthy fear and there is unhealthy fear. In Scripture, one of the first instances of unhealthy fear is right after original sin in the garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, having sinfully eaten from the forbidden tree, run and try to hide from God. Their unhealthy fear is kind of silly, if you think about it. Trying to hide from the omniscient God…they knew they were guilty, but their unhealthy fear caused them to have this distorted image of God as some sort of cruel tyrant. The wicked useless servant in the Gospel too, was filled with unhealthy fear, we are told, unhealthy fear of his master which caused him to bury his talent. 

With Adam and Eve, their unhealthy fear then led them to lie to God, as if he couldn’t see through it. Instead of coming clean with the loving God who made them, they start blaming each other for their sin. 

If there is a sin that you are ashamed of that you have not brought to the sacrament of confession, please, stop running away from God. He loves you and he is ready to forgive you. But he will also respect your decision to run away from him forever if you fail to repent. 

Again, holy fear of the Lord is a spiritual gift, like the talents in the Gospel, given to us to be cultivated, grown, multiplied, and utilized in service of the master. And we cultivate the gift of holy fear by praying repeatedly and continuously throughout the day, remembering that we live in the sight of God and are beholden to his commands. 

The lazy wicked servant shows that he values the talent given to him so little, that he does nothing with it, and is consequently cast into the outer darkness. 

But when we do use this talent wisely, our lives become wisely and rightly ordered. We begin to understand the ways of God, and grow in knowledge of the things of God. We become sources of good counsel for troubled souls, and sources of strength and courage for weak souls. We grow in piety, becoming examples of holiness for others, instruments the Lord uses to draw searching souls to himself.  Having used the gift of holy fear in the Lord’s service, may we come to hear those beautiful words at the end of life, “well done, my good and faithful servant”, for the glory of God and salvation of souls. 

2nd Sunday of Advent 2019 - The Spiritual gifts of the Messiah

700 or so years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah the prophet taught the people of God to look forward to the coming of the Messiah. Last week on the 1st Sunday of Advent, Isaiah spoke about how the Messiah would usher in a new eternal age of peace.  “They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; one nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again.” Peace, security for your families, these are some of our deepest longings.
Our lives are filled with so much chaos; history is filled with so much violence and bloodshed. One has to constantly be looking over one shoulder, sizing-up our neighbor, asking “is he friend or foe?” Well, Isaiah says that the Messiah will put an end to this cycle of strife.

This week, on the Second Sunday of Advent, Isaiah continues to tell us a bit about the mission of the Messiah, what he will do: he will strike the ruthless with a rod and bring about justice. And the peace that he spoke about last week, will even extend to nature: the wolf will be the guest of the lamb, babies shall play in cobra’s dens.

But, Isaiah doesn’t just speak of what the Messiah will DO, but who he IS, how we will identify him.  “The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD, and his delight shall be the fear of the LORD.”

733 or so years after Isaiah, Jesus of Nazareth stood in his childhood synagogue, and applied that line of Scripture to himself. He said, “the spirit of the Lord is upon me.” Jesus identified himself as the Messiah, the savior, the Christ.

And You might remember how that went. His own townsfolks drove him to the town’s edge to throw him over a cliff. They wanted nothing to do with him. We know people who do the same, don’t we? Catholics who have some familiarity with Jesus, but who, now, for whatever reason, want nothing to do with him. Or, folks outside the Church, who think they know him, but erect barriers so they never really meet the real Jesus. And each of us in a sense, are often hesitant to really allow Him to get too close. He might change us and make demands of us. God forbid! But we are invited, during Advent especially, to get to know Him, and to allow him to bring about the transformation that God wants for us.

When John the Baptist preached “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That word John used in the Greek New Testament for repent, as we know, is “metanoia”—metanoia means change your heart, change your mind, change your attitudes. Well, the Hebrew word he probably used was “Teshuva” which means turn and answer, turn toward God and respond to Him.  And that’s really the Advent invitation, isn’t it? To turn to Jesus and respond to Him by changing our hearts and priorities and attitudes to be like His.

So, let us turn and look at the Messiah, particularly those characteristics described by the prophet Isaiah in today's passage, that we might be like Him.

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, counsel and strength, knowledge and fear of the Lord.

How was Jesus’ life filled with wisdom? Well, what is wisdom? Saint Thomas Aquinas called wisdom “the view from the hilltop”.  The wise person sees from the high vantage point, and puts his life in order according to the big picture. His priorities are in order. To be wise is to recognize that our highest priority in this life, certainly, isn’t career or wealth, pleasure or power, but getting our souls to heaven.

Jesus, the Messiah, certainly teaches wisdom in his preaching and by his life. “Seek first the kingdom of God” he says, and he shows us the priority of saving our souls by dying for them on the cross. He died, not that we might be rich and famous in this life, but for our salvation.

Secondly, Isaiah tells us that the Messiah has the gift of knowledge and understanding. Over and over in the Gospels we see Jesus explaining the scriptures, explaining the meaning of scriptures to people. Even as a young boy of twelve he was found teaching in the Jerusalem temple. St. Luke tells us that his audience marveled at his understanding.

Advent is certainly an invitation to grow in knowledge and understanding. How? We should be reading the scriptures daily. We should be studying our faith, our catechism, seeking knowledge of WHAT the Church teaches and understanding of WHY she teaches it. St. Anselm explained, “Fides quarens intellectum” – Faith seeks understanding. It is the nature of faith to seek to understand the faith.

We have a parishioner who nearly every time I see her, she asks a question about the faith. I love that, it shows a healthy faith.

Thirdly, Isaiah says the Messiah will have the gift of counsel and strength. Counsel is the ability to judge actions as good or evil, and strength is the ability, obviously, to carry them out.  In a teaching on the Gifts of the Spirit, Pope Francis said that “Counsel enables us to apply the gifts of knowledge and understanding in the actual circumstances that confront us in our daily life.”

Not only did Jesus talk the talk, he walked the walk. The gift of counsel was evident in His life. He was able to judge the best way to act in any given situation and had the might, the power, the fortitude to go through with it. And he bestows those gifts upon us.

We grow in counsel by studying the moral teachings of Jesus, examining our consciences regularly in light of those moral teachings, and confessing our failures to live up to them.

Sometimes we know what we should do, but fail to muster the fortitude, the inner strength. So we must have recourse to prayer, praying “Lord help me do what is right.” If you are facing a particularly difficult challenge, go to daily mass, receive the Eucharist daily for the moral strength to do what is right.

Lastly, the Messiah will have the fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is a good and holy thing. Pope Francis said, “The gift of fear fills us with awe and reverence for God. It makes us dread the thought of displeasing God because of our love for Him. A right-ordered and healthy fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.” Fear of the Lord enables us “to avoid sin and attachment to created things out of reverence and love of God.”

Pope Francis teaches, “Fear of the Lord does not mean being afraid of God: we know well that God is Father, that he loves us and wants our salvation, and he always forgives, always; thus, there is no reason to be scared of him! Fear of the Lord, instead, is the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom we are reminded of how small we are before God and of his love and that our good lies in humble, respectful and trusting self-abandonment into his hands. This is fear of the Lord: abandonment in the goodness of our Father who loves us so much.” And doesn’t Jesus, Messiah teaches us just that, Father, into your hands I abandon my Spirit.

This Advent, metanoia te, teshuvah, turn toward the Lord, learn from him, allow the spiritual gifts that filled his life to fill yours, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

Homily: Monday - 7th Week in OT 2017 - Fear of the Lord

One of the most repeated and emphasized statements in the Bible is: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

Deuteronomy tells us “fear of the Lord is good always and good for our survival.”

Psalm 112 says “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in His commands”
Proverbs says “Fear of the Lord prolongs life” and that the “reward for humility and fear of the Lord are riches, honor and life”

The book of Sirach (from which we'll be reading until the beginning of Lent) repeats over and over the importance of holy fear, “Fear of the Lord is glory and splendor, gladness and a festive crown. Fear of the Lord warms the heart, giving gladness and joy and length of days."

Here at St. Clare, the first seven stained glass windows on the west side of the church depict the seven gifts of the spirit. Fear of the Lord is depicted as the eye of God watching over the world. What is fear of the Lord? It is the constant consciousness that the eye of God is watching us always. “l'occhio di Dio che sempre ti vede” as Padre Pio said. The eye of God that follows you always.

Coming from the eye of God in our stained glass window are lightning bolts of divine judgment, symbolizing God’s judgment. Christians are to live mindfully that the eye of God watches us always and that we will have to face judgment for our choices in life.

Speaking on this most important gift of the Spirit, Pope Francis said “The gift of fear fills us with awe and reverence for God. It makes us dread the thought of displeasing God because of our love for Him. A right-ordered and healthy fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

Why is the fear of the Lord the beginning of Wisdom? Because if we are to live a rightly ordered life, we must first be conscious that our actions, decisions, and attitudes must be rightly directed to God, and that we will be held accountable for those actions. Without fear of the Lord we cannot remain on the right path of wisdom, we cannot even find it.

The Spiritual masters give us three practices for increasing our fear of the Lord. First, meditating frequently on God’s infinite grandeur and sovereignty. On a beautiful day like today, we do well to behold the beauty and splendor of God’s creation, and being amazed at God’s handiwork.
Secondly we are encouraged to make a frequent examination of our lives in light of the truth of the Gospel. Frequent confession of sin helps us to remain accountable and mindful of our impending judgment.

And lastly, to spend time in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament; spending time face to face with Jesus in the Eucharist, prepares us to meet the Lord face to face at the end of our earthly life.
By the great gift of fear, we seek to live lives pleasing to the Lord, seeking never to offend our gracious God, to become worthy of eternal life with Him for the glory of God and salvation of souls.

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We pray that the gift of Holy Fear may deepen in the souls of our Church leaders and in the hearts of all Christians.

That our government leaders, and particularly our president, on this president’s day, may be filled with holy fear in seeking to guide our nation according to the commands of God.

For all those who have fallen away from the Church, who have fallen into mortal sin, for their return to the sacraments.

That through the gifts of the Holy Spirit we may respond to the Spirit’s promptings in caring for those most in need.

For the sick…
For the souls in purgatory…