On Pentecost Sunday I watched the EWTN Mass and then went to my parish for Mass. Both spoke about the Gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Fruits of the Holy Spirit from Galatians as part of their homilies. My concern is they both spoke on the Isaiah gifts of the Spirit. Is this what Pentecost means. Are these the gifts the apostles received to go and make disciples of the whole world? I hardly think so!
The specific gifts they spoke about were wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, fortitude, fear of the Lord, and piety. As Catholics we are told we receive these gifts when we are baptized. We will always have these gifts as they are to strengthen our relationship with our Lord. These can be referred to as the ‘vertical gifts’ as they are directed to God.
We celebrate the Feast of Pentecost as the birthdate of the Church. Yes, this was the day the Apostles began the conversion of the Jewish people and the pagans to a belief in Jesus Christ as the risen savior. Even though the disciples had been with Jesus for three years I don’t think they fully understood what He meant when He told them He would send them the Advocate who would be with them forever and remind them of what He had said. As we recall in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit, in the form of tongues of fire, rested upon each of those in the Upper Room. Their lives were changed forever and with a holy boldness they went out and changed the world.
Neither Isaiah nor Galatians were referenced in the day’s readings, yet both priests chose to speak about them. In the second reading from 1 Corinthians 12 verses 8-11 were conveniently not included in the readings. These verses listed the gifts referred to in verse 2, the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, miracles, discernment, prophecy, tongues, and interpretation of tongues. Are these not the gifts used by the Apostles as they evangelized the known world? My question is, why didn’t the two priests mention these gifts in the homilies?
It is these gifts from Corinthians along with gifts listed in Romans and Ephesians that are meant for the building up of the body of Christ, they can be called the horizontal gifts. The evidence of the Fruits of the Spirit are especially important for those who manifest the New Testament gifts.
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