Listen

May 17, 2008

Saturday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. James 3:5-6

Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; then from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. Mark 9:7-9

Piety

God, help us to listen to you as carefully and as closely as you listen to us. Make us like your sheep that recognize the voice of the shepherd. Help us to hold our tongue so that we might not lash our in judgment but rather hold back until we have a comforting word to say. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051708.shtml

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

This is a quote from the Greek philosopher Epictetus which is historically dated in the same general time period as the Letter of James in the New Testament. When we pair the message in James today with the Gospel reading in Mark, the line above presents a nice summary.

James explains that the use and abuse of the important role of teaching in the church) are related to the good and bad use of the tongue, the instrument through which teaching was chiefly conveyed. This admonition also echoes the writings of Ben Sirach in the Hebrew Bible.

Winnow not in every wind, and start not off in every direction. Be consistent in your thoughts; steadfast be your words. Be swift to hear, but slow to answer. If you have the knowledge, answer your neighbor; if not, put your hand over your mouth. Honor and dishonor through talking! A man's tongue can be his downfall. Be not called a detractor; use not your tongue for calumny; For shame has been created for the thief, and the reproach of his neighbor for the double-tongued. Say nothing harmful, small or great; be not a foe instead of a friend; A bad name and disgrace will you acquire: "That for the evil man with double tongue!" Sirach 5:11 – 6:1

As you hedge round your vineyard with thorns, set barred doors over your mouth; As you seal up your silver and gold, so balance and weigh your words. Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to your foe waiting in ambush. Sirach 28:24-26

After the awesome experience of the Transfiguration, Jesus knows that the natural instinct would be for his companions to come down off the mountain and tell their friends what happened. The message from God sets this up. God tells us to listen to Jesus. He wants us to follow the words and the way that His son shows us. “Listen to him.”

And what is the first thing recorded that Jesus says after the mystery of the transfiguration? “He charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead.” He told them not to speak about it.

Action

By one estimate I read this week, the due to the rising energy and production costs, the price of feeding a family of four increased $53 per week. Please consider giving $53 to your favorite non-profit organization that is working to alleviate hunger. If you don’t have a favorite program, then consider So Others Might Eat (www.some.org).

Faith Without Works is Dead

May 16, 2008

Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Do you want proof, you ignoramus, that faith without works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by the works. James 2:20-22

"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it. Mark 8:34-35

Piety

Secularism

An Easy Essay by Peter Maurin

When religion has nothing to do with education, education is only information, plenty of facts and no understanding.
When religion has nothing to do with politics, politics is only factionalism—“Let’s turn the rascals out so our good friends can get in.”
When religion has nothing to do with business, business is only commercialism.
And when religion has nothing to do with either education, politics or business,
you have the religion of business taking the place of the business of religion.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051608.shtml

Are you ready for some football?

Are you ready to rummm-ble??

Are you ready for Full Contact, Ultimate, Love-Your-Enemy Uncaged Christianity?

If Jesus has an advertising agency or a public relations staff in the 21^st century, that is what he could very well be asking us today.

If you are ready to answer, “Yes,” then the other part of his message for us today may serve like the Surgeon General’s Warning on the box of cigarettes or what we might call the Savior’s Warning. “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it.”

If you try Christianity and continue on the path to authentic discipleship and total commitment, you will meet up with radical self-renunciation and acceptance of the cross of untold suffering, even to the point of death itself. Jesus is making an all-out declaration of the ambivalence of life in our world and in our self-indulgent, get-ahead-quick, stay ahead of the Jones’ popular culture. He contrasts that with what some might see as a bleak picture. Life seen as mere self-centered earthly existence and lived in denial of Christ ends in destruction, but when lived in loyalty to Christ, and in service to our neighbors, despite earthly death, it arrives at fullness of life. As Frank McCleskey would remind us, “He never promised that it would be easy. He only promised that it would be worth it.”

Jesus and James underscore that authentic discipleship involves not only a faith commitment, but also an action component. The passage from James formed the foundation of my Cursillo table back on the 104^th Men’s Cursillo at Missionhurst. We dubbed our group reunion table “Faith and Action” or, in a nod to Cursillo’s Spanish roots, “Fe en la acción.”

Action

Pull out your Cursillo notebook today and review whatever you jotted down during the piety, study and action talks. Contact your table mates this weekend. Maybe you can plan a table reunion at the Lay Director Investiture Mass & Reception on May 24.

Carlos? Jerry? Can you be there?

Who Do You Say That I Am?

May 15, 2008

Thursday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Did not God choose those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom that he promised to those who love him? But you dishonored the poor person. Are not the rich oppressing you? And do they themselves not haul you off to court? (James 2:5-6a)

And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter said to him in reply, “You are the Messiah.” Mark 8:29

Piety

Pentecost Prayer by Rev. John Dear, S.J. (From National Catholic Reporter Café)

“Come, Holy Spirit, send your driving wind upon us and blow away the cobwebs in our hearts and minds and give us the fresh air of the breath of Jesus.

“Come, Holy Spirit, send your blazing fire upon us so that we may burn with love and compassion for each other and love every human being everywhere.

“Come, Holy Spirit, give us new tongues to speak the good news of peace, justice and nonviolence to a world of war, injustice and violence.

“Come, Holy Spirit, send us into the streets, into the world, to share the love of God with one another, to talk about the nonviolent Jesus, to denounce the evil spirits of violence, greed, war, injustice, greed, empire and death. And then to proclaim Jesus' reign of love, mercy, disarmament, justice, nonviolence and reconciliation.

“Come, Holy Spirit, fill us with the joy of Christ, so that no matter what we're going through, no matter our problems, we may always live in you.

“Come, Holy Spirit, make us instruments of your peace. Help us to carry on the Acts of the Apostles. Make us heralds of a new world without war, poverty, nuclear weapons or global warming, a new world of love, nonviolence, justice and peace.”

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051508.shtml

Peter steps out in front of Jesus and faces the questions we all must face in faith, hope and love. Who do you say I am?

Who: Christ wants to know if we see him as a person? He sees us as a gift from God. How do we see Him?

Do: There is implied action connected to the question. Jesus is not asking the more simple construction of this question “Who am I?” Christ wants to know what Peter or I will do based upon the answer to the question. It is a personal question about our relationship to Jesus and what that means.

You: Jesus addresses us personally. Christ does not want some textbook catechism answer. Instead, he wants to know how we relate to Him as an individual and as our Savior.

Say: Christ is not looking for some wallflower lurking around in the shadows, dodging public testimony. Rather he is looking for someone who will stand up in front of the world and say something about Jesus to the world. He does not want someone to deny him in His hour of need. However, even if we do, he knows we, like Peter, can change.

I am: Here the question is imbedded with a hint of the answer. In the Hebrew Bible, when the name of God could not be spoken, we hear the words, “I am.” Moses first encountered this “I am” identification of God when he encountered the burning bush.

“But,” said Moses to God, “when I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' if they ask me, 'What is his name?' what am I to tell them?” God replied, “I am who am.” Then he added, “This is what you shall tell the Israelites: I AM sent me to you.” Exodus 3:13-14

The notes in the New American Bible explain “…Apparently this utterance is the source of the word Yahweh, the proper personal name of the God of Israel. It is commonly explained in reference to God as the absolute and necessary Being. It may be understood of God as the Source of all created beings. Out of reverence for this name, the term Adonai, “my Lord,” was later used as a substitute.

Today’s scripture readings pair our witness of faith in God to the other half of the divine/royal commandments that comes to us from Jesus. We also must probe what we will do in the world, especially how our faith related to serving the poor, the stranger and our neighbor. …However, if you fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. James 2:8

As we read in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus based his entire public ministry on serving the poor. Now he wants to know how we respond and act in the face of the “Nazareth manifesto.”

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19

We have read and studied how “the poor in Luke's gospel are associated with the downtrodden, the oppressed and afflicted, the forgotten and the neglected, and it is they who accept Jesus' message of salvation.”[1] James picks up this mantle and the challenge to us in our Cursillo action.

Action

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has been working on various aspects of the 2007 Farm bill for the last two years. USCCB, and its partner organizations (National Catholic Rural Life, Catholic Relief Services, and Catholic Charities USA) have worked jointly to shape a Farm Bill policy that 1) reforms our current, broken agriculture policies to create a truly equitable system that meets the needs of domestic small and moderate-size family farm and ranch operations and rural communities, 2) fights hunger here and abroad, and 3) supports farmers and their families in developing countries.

The House and Senate are expected to vote, as early as tomorrow, on the conference report on the Farm bill, “Food Conservation and Energy Act of 2008” (H.R. 2419). USCCB and its partners NCRLC and CRS sent another letter to Congress on the areas they support and the areas where Congress failed to offer much-needed improvements.

The President has threatened to veto the legislation. Conference report language was released on Tuesday. Our advocacy on the various priorities of the Catholic community in the Farm bill has made a difference. Please read previous letters and alerts to Congress about the Farm bill on the web: http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/agric.shtml and contact your members of Congress to support these priorities of our Church.

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[1] http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/luke/luke4.htm#foot9

It Was Not You Who Chose Me, but I Who Chose You

May 14, 2008

Feast of Saint Matthias, Apostle

By Melanie Rigney

Then they gave lots to them, and the lot fell upon Matthias, and he was counted with the Eleven Apostles. (Acts 1:26)

He raises up the lowly from the dust; from the dunghill he lifts up the poor to seat them with princes, with the princes of his own people. (Psalms 113: 7-8)

“It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit that will remain…” (John 15:16)

Piety

Lord, remind me that there is room for all at Your banquet, newcomer and old-timer alike, and that is not for me to judge whom nor how many You invite. Thank You for choosing me.

Study

Today's Readings

Catholiconline.org: Saint Matthias

Consider the situation of Saint Matthias, whose feast day we celebrate today.

Peter tells a gathering of about 120 of the faithful that it’s time to select someone to join the Eleven as a witness to Jesus’s resurrection. Matthias and Joseph called Barsabbas are proposed, lots are drawn, and Matthias is selected.

This is the first and the last time we hear of Matthias in the New Testament. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, “All further information concerning the life and death of Matthias is vague and contradictory.”

Still, put yourself in his shoes. Was he excited about making the big time, being “allotted a share in this ministry,” as Peter put it? Hard to imagine he wasn’t. Was he a little overwhelmed about joining the likes of Peter, John, and the others? Probably. Was there just a little resentment about not having been allotted a share in the first place? Possibly. After all, he’d been there at the beginning when Jesus was baptized, just like the Eleven and Judas. He might have felt a little like the first runner-up in a beauty pageant in which the winner relinquishes the title: grateful, but…

In Saint Matthias’s biography at Catholiconline.org, it’s reported that Clement of Alexandria said Matthias like the other apostles was chosen for what he would become; “not because he was worthy but because he would become worthy.” A similar sentiment is expressed in today’s Gospel, in which Christ reminds us that he, not we, do the choosing, and in the day’s Psalm, in which we are told the Lord “raises up the lowly from the dust.”

The Catholiconline.org article reminds us to remember a time when we felt like latecomers, or to welcome those in our community who might be in that situation. Let us remember there is plenty of room at the Lord’s Table for those who believe. Let us not concern ourselves about whether we are more or less deserving of a place of honor than our brothers and sisters who fill a more or less prominent place in community here on earth.

Action

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Arlington

In today’s Gospel, Jesus commands us to love one another. Sometimes, it can be easier to love, sympathize with, and pray for the faceless throngs suffering far away in Myanmar or Darfur. While they need our love, sympathy, prayers, and support, so do folks right here in the Diocese of Arlington. This week, visit the Catholic Charities Web site and offer donations of food, clothing, time, or money to Christ House.

Firstfruits

May 13, 2008

Tuesday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

Blessed is the man who perseveres in temptation, for when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life that he promised to those who love him. No one experiencing temptation should say, "I am being tempted by God"; for God is not subject to temptation to evil, and he himself tempts no one. Rather, each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. James 1:12-14

He enjoined them, "Watch out, guard against the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod." Mark 8:15

Piety

Let us pray: Lord, help us to remember to be thankful for all the gifts that you shower upon us so that we may always be responsive to the needs of those around us in this global village. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051308.shtml

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers: all good giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no alteration or shadow caused by change. He willed to give us birth by the word of truth that we may be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:16-18

Firstfruits. The concept was discussed recently in my group reunion after the readings from Pope Benedict’s homily made these references at the Washington mass. The concept caused several of us who are not Biblical scholars to scamper to the reference books and the Internet to chase down its meaning so as NOT to confuse this with the “fruits of the Holy Spirit.”

What does it say?

The notes to the New American Bible teach us that “Acceptance of the gospel message (“the word of truth”) constitutes new birth (“born of water and Spirit” as Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3:5-6). Christ’s resurrection by necessity makes ours possible and his redemption for our sins makes us the firstfruits (i.e., the offering of the earliest grains, symbolizing the beginning of an abundant harvest) of a new creation.

The ceremony designating the first portion of the harvest to God is set forth in the Hebrew Bible Book of Deuteronomy.

He brought us out of Egypt with his strong hand and outstretched arm, with terrifying power, with signs and wonders; and bringing us into this country, he gave us this land flowing with milk and honey. Therefore, I have now brought you the first fruits of the products of the soil which you, O LORD, have given me.' And having set them before the LORD, your God, you shall bow down in his presence. Then you and your family, together with the Levite and the aliens who live among you, shall make merry over all these good things which the LORD, your God, has given you. Deuteronomy 26:8-11

What does it mean?

As God has showered us with gifts in life and then made us as gifts to Jesus, we in turn are asked to give back to God the sweetest and first portion of our labors. By giving God the firstfruits, Israel acknowledged that all good things come from God and that everything belongs to God. Giving the firstfruits was also a way of expressing trust in God's provision; just as He provided the firstfruits, so He would provide the rest of the crops that were needed.[1]

Although we are not required by New Testament “law” to give our firstfruits to God, we are still asked to support the church, its missions, and the work of those helping people who have genuine needs in today’s society.

What does it matter?

In addition to the fact that God has promised that we, too, will be raised from the dead, in Romans 8:23 Paul says that as redeemed people we possess the "firstfruits of the Spirit." Paul is saying here either that the measure of the Holy Spirit that we now have is but a foretaste of the greater measure there will be in the age to come, or that the gift of the Spirit now is a foretaste of the many other blessings we will have in due course.[2]

Jesus also calls on us to differentiate between the gifts we get from God and the temptations we face from the world. He warns us today not to confuse the two. Only God can provide the true bread of life.

Action

Paul so poetically describes creation groaning in hope and anticipation of the Kingdom.

I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us. For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Romans 8:18-23

We can hear the earth groaning this week. The groaning of the present time is reverberating with the deadly cyclone that killed 100,000 people and the subsequent humanitarian crisis in Burma. Add to that the food shortages around the world; a serious earthquake and aftershocks in China killed another 10,000; volcanic eruptions in Chile; heightened levels of violence in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well fighting on the streets of Lebanon; and tornadoes in the southern and Midwestern United States.

These and more are calling us to support the Church organizations and the dozens of international and national humanitarian organizations providing immediate and long-term assistance to those affected by these natural and man-made situations.

Please help by offering direct support to groups working in affected areas and spread the word to your friends and colleagues. For a summary of what some groups are doing in Burma alone, see this article (Aid Groups Raise Money in Anticipation of Major Relief Efforts for Cyclone Victims) posted on May 8 in the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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[1] http://www.delusionresistance.org/christian/firstfruits.html

[2] Ibid.

God Gives Generously and Ungrudgingly

May 12, 2008

Monday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time

By Beth DeCristofaro

Consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials. … But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. (1 James 1:2, 5)

(Jesus) sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, “Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.” (Mark 8: 12)

Piety

Gracious God, I thank you for your generous presence in my life. Brother Jesus, grow my heart so that I can see your miracles in the small, the insignificant, the powerless. Fill me with trust. Take away my doubt so that within the trials certain to come my way, I may see the miracle of your sacrifice and resurrection given for me. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051208.shtml

The Pharisees just can’t quite get Jesus. They bait him with the request for miracles, even while witnessing miracles. They question and accuse, all the while hoping he can’t answer so they can continue to persecute him. At the same time he confounds them Jesus knows their hearts much like God knows the hearts of those who doubt. Jesus refuses to debate or prove himself to the Pharisees yet he is sad about their disbelief. He, like God who gives generously and ungrudgingly, does not deny them gifts. Rather it is the closed hearts of the Pharisees and the doubting hearts James identifies which cannot accept the gifts offered.

Like James, many of the writers of the early church speak about the purification and spiritual maturity achieved through suffering. Yet this does not mean that God, generous and ungrudging, wishes us to suffer. In the footnote, the NAB explains, “Wisdom: a gift that God readily grants to all who ask in faith and that sustains the Christian in times of trial. It is a kind of knowledge or understanding not accessible to the unbeliever or those who doubt, which gives the recipient an understanding of the real importance of events. In this way a Christian can deal with adversity with great calm and hope” (Footnote of the NAB, http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/james/james1.htm#v1)

Our very human hearts continue to look for miracles. Jesus is our miracle. It is in giving ourselves without doubt to the work of God where we find miracles. And God upholds all who believe in God’s power and sustenance, and this is miraculous. Jesus sighs, sad that there is a human tendency to request signs: promotions, status, or expensive cars as some preachers promise their listeners. The signs of Jesus are around us and for our taking if we should just give over doubt, give over baiting him, give over looking for miracles that have human definitions.

Action

The Retreat for Seriously Ill is a miracle of love and human touch. There is a team in formation for the May 23-25 Retreat. Please keep them in your prayers. From the Cursillo website: “Please grace us with your sacrifice and written letters of love and support, addressed to Sister or Brothers in Christ; with your donated food items and drinks, your presence at our serenade on Sunday, May 25, at 8:25 AM at the Dominican Retreat and with your prayers. Your written letters may be delivered to the Dominican Retreat on Friday, May 25, or mailed c/o Retreat for the Seriously Ill, Dominican Retreat, 7103 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, VA 22101.”

If you know of someone who would benefit from a retreat with other people who are seriously ill, contact the Dominican Retreat at 703-356-4243 for information.

Pentecost: The Christ Heart Today

May 11, 2008

Pentecost Sunday Mass During the Day

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim. Acts 2:1-4

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit; there are different forms of service but the same Lord; there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone. To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7

(Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit.” John 20:21-22

Piety

Let us pray: We claim you, Spirit, as the truth of our hearts. Come, fill our hearts and make us faithful. Your gifts are the heartbeats of Eternal Life in us. Give us open hearts to love even as Christ did. Move us and mold us as lovers of life and all that is holy. Make us noble in the way we reach out to the hurting and the little ones of life.

Teach us what we need to know that we might always possess the truth of Christ in who we are. Let us be totally receiving and totally giving so the life of the Trinity might have a counterpart in us in the Mystery of Indwelling. Make us a giving people so poverty might be driven away forever. Deafen us with the cry of “Abba” from our hearts so we may only hear the word of our hearts calling to our Father in heaven. Speak for us so we might be heard by the Father in the truth of our Christ life within. May each of your gifts be strong in us and may the fruits of your life within us be seen by all. Enkindle in us the fire of divine love and never let it go out. Recreate us anew in Love. Let the Sacred Heart be our heart. Amen.

Study

http://www.usccb.org/nab/readings/051108.shtml

Temples of the spirit

Love announces the presence of the Spirit in our hearts. Our recognition of the presence of God in our lives is the work of the Spirit. The day we begin praying to the Spirit for the grace to be willing to be who Christ would have been if he were lucky enough to be one of us marks the beginning of a deeper love relationship with the Lord. From that moment on, the spirit of the Father’s love for the Son and the Son’s love for the Father is ours. Caught in the deepest of all meanings of love, the still point of being in love, the lived experience of prayer brings to life the Spirit at work in our hearts. The Spirit speaks for us in the cry of “Abba.” to the Father. The Third Person of the Trinity voices our needs from our hearts in the intense emptiness of a dark night. Our prayer cries out for belonging to God. In the lived moment of the wordlessness of our hearts we encounter the Spirit pleading for us to the Creator. Our souls have become Temples of the Spirit.

Dawning of love

Love in our Spiritual lives gives us a growing vision of God. Our personal Pentecost is the dawning of love in our hearts. Christ indicated the importance of Pentecost at the Last Supper when he said, “The Advocate, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything.” (John 14:26) The apostles, though they had known Christ personally, did not recognize him immediately in his Resurrection appearances. The Christ of the resurrection was a stranger to the two disciples traveling to Emmaus until they recognized him in the breaking of the bread. Although the Apostles met Christ a number of times after he rose from the dead, the coming of the Spirit would sharpen their awareness of Christ’s presence through the gifts of the Spirit. The “everything” the Spirit would teach would include wisdom, knowledge, counsel, and understanding of Christ in his humanity.

The putting on the mind of Christ would complete the Apostles’ training. Molded by piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord, the disciples would have hearts alive to Christ who would claim their hearts. These same gifts of the Spirit resurface our hearts as the Christ Hearts of today. Thus, we proclaim the Sacred Heart and enshrine it in our heart.

Love for others

Seven gifts - Wisdom, Knowledge, Counsel, Understanding, Fortitude, Piety and Fear of the Lord - in which we are always growing, are ours by virtue of our membership in the family of God. The presence of the Spirit in our lives is most pronounced in the love we have for others.

Christ made it clear at the Last Supper just how far reaching our love ought to be: “...no greater love than to lay down one’s life for a friend”(John 15:13). “What I command you is to love one another”(John 15:17). “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15).

Love of God and love of our neighbor are Christ’s commandments to us. The Spirit surrounds our love and is our love for one another.

Put on Christ

The gifts of the Holy Spirit make it possible to put on the mind and the heart of Christ. The mind of Christ can be missing in anyone. If our own adherence to Christ is to make any sense at all, we have to put on the mind and the heart of Christ. Prayer makes the mind and heart of Christ a living memory in us. We come to know Christ through the Scriptures. Listening to our hearts brings us closer to the Christ who touched our hearts in baptism. Christ reaches out to our world by using our gifts for spreading his kingdom. If we are going to own the mind and the heart of Christ, our gifts have to fuse with our energies of life as we reach out to the needs of our world.

Becoming complete

The gifts of the mind are complemented by the gifts that touch the heart. Wisdom, knowledge, understanding and counsel are the mind gifts that need the heart-felt gifts of piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord.

Together they are the quality of a Christ life. Piety, fortitude and fear of the Lord are other gifts of the Spirit which come together to stretch our hearts. Both sets of gifts are the Spirit at work to help us put on the mind and the heart of Christ. The Spirit works to capture all of our being for Christ. The distinction of the intellect and the will often de-personalizes these gifts so that we lose touch with the Holy Spirit. One becomes a complete person in Christ by the working of the Holy Spirit in us.

No greater love

Love is the beginning of wisdom. We cannot love others if we do not love ourselves. But we can only love ourselves if we have been loved.

Human love begins with a parent’s love. A mother’s love is incomprehensible, yet it teaches us, at an early age, the meaning of love. Divine love is best understood in God’s love for us as expressed in the humanness of Christ who died on the cross for us. Wisdom is found in Christ’s “no greater love.” Wisdom is the Word made flesh and the fleshed out forgiveness of the cross.

Born in our time

Knowledge of Christ is all the information we possess of the events in the life of Christ. The knowledge produces meaning in us as we grow in our journey of faith to become other Christs. We read the Scriptures and come to an awareness of who this man Christ is. He lives with the Church as his Mystical Body. In what we know about the Church we come to recognize Christ in all he does in the lives of our brothers and our sisters. Reading the lives of great saints helps increase our knowledge of Christ. We imagine what Christ would have been like had he been born in their age and time. The ‘saints’ of our own families and friends help us to understand the Christ of the Scriptures by the way they have incorporated Christ into their own lives. The gift of knowledge dawning in our minds brings the light of Christ. Light is shed on who we can be in Christ.

Our destiny

The Apostles who accompanied Christ during his Public Life, and the understanding the Spirit gave them, sustained the early Church. Our understanding of friends and ourselves will continue through life until the day we see Christ face to face. Then eye will see and ear will hear what has not yet been seen or said in the history of the world. At last we will understand, in the fullness of the Christ of Heaven, what life in the Spirit invites us to have as our destiny.

Test of authority

The translation of Christ into our 20th century is the work of the Holy Spirit. Our belonging to the Church is the movement of the Holy Spirit in us. Paul could have heard of Christ many times in his life and never understood what Christ was about. As he subjected his understanding of Christ to the Spirit, through the Apostles he came to know in a deeper way what he understood in his prayer and the time spent in darkness.

Understanding puts the process of learning to the test of authority. It allows us to realize the truth of our thoughts.

Hard love

Wisdom, knowledge and understanding are the natural outcrop of the Spirit’s grace within us. The divine indwelling reaches a tangible expression in the beauty of our love reaching out to another’s need. Rid of selfishness our hearts have a greater capacity for loving. Our world does not understand hard love measured by Christ’s giving from the cross. Hard love is measured by how we give rather than receive. Our wisdom, knowledge and understanding are tempered by our love of the cross of Christ. “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them.” (John 15:13)

Counsel

Counsel is the coming together of wisdom, knowledge and understanding in the practical advice given or received. Counsel points out what is missing in our Christ relationship. We have counsel for others in our understanding of what is missing in their Christ relationship. We need spiritual direction and discernment on the spiritual journey. Counsel must be prudent so advice will not be beyond our strength for living a good life.

Piety

Often enough, in our lives, there is a note of scorn in our voices when we call someone pious. Yet piety is the strength of personal love for Christ. We are called to lose ourselves in Christ so we can say with Paul: “...I live now not with my own life, but with the life of Christ, who lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) The Spirit so strengthens our love of God in Christ we can have no other movement in our hearts stronger than the relationship of Christ to his Father. Christ’s love touches the foundation of our being, giving us his relationship to the Father.

Fortitude

Fortitude is a sorely needed gift of the Spirit in our world and in our Church. It makes perseverance and sticking to a difficult task possible.

Fortitude energizes us to live up to what we believe. Fortitude is essential to religious life. The intensity of a life following Christ all the way to the Cross relies on fortitude. Marriages can flounder in its absence. Every form of community will fall by the wayside without it. The intensity of our love is a measure of fortitude. To another, we can offer a love as intense as Christ’s love, in season and out of season, when it is acceptable and even when it is not acceptable.

Fortitude strengthens us in the way we share our love. The sinner who keeps on trying against all obstacles, and one day reaches the pinnacle of holiness, gets there by fortitude. The attraction of a pleasure locking us into selfishness is counterbalanced by the call of grace, which gradually allows us to build up the habit of saying “yes” to our Lord. Fortitude is the love of a heart capable of outlasting temptation.

Fortitude forges a will of iron, which enables us to do what the Lord is asking.

Fear of the Lord

Our journey of love calls us to choose our beloved over everyone and everything else in life. Each time we fail we have a new movement of the Spirit flowing from a fear of the Lord. There are times when we do not want to live with our Lord, but we need him, whether we know it or not.

Every time we pick something other than our Master, and make it, even for a moment, the meaning of life, we feel the grumbling of our hearts, calling, calling, calling us back to this God, whose absence we fear more than the awesome experience of his living within us. Fear of losing the Lord can be one of the freeing experiences of life. We will do the impossible to keep him.

Other Christs

We dare to be other Christs. Fear, which keeps us from doing something, is what most people mean by the fear of the Lord. Yet it is more than just that fear of being punished. Our hearts quake before the awesomeness of God’s presence in Jesus Christ. We have the gift of the fear of the Lord when we look deep within. In the Mystery of Indwelling we realize in whose presence we are. This fear does not bring paralysis; rather it brings a moment of adoration in the unveiling of God’s presence in us.

Action

God’s way

The Spirit is sent to empower us on our own missions in life. We have to surrender our way of doing things in favor of God’s way. We have to realize that God is in our lives. There are no accidents in the plan of God. He has chosen us. He has chosen to be in our lives. The coming of the Spirit deepens the surrender of our lives to God’s action in us. The surrender to this call allows God to work through us, because grace builds on nature. This enables us to see how much more can be done than we could ever have dreamt of doing alone.

Contemplatives in action

We have to make the transition from simply being preserved in life to being active participants with the Lord working through us. The ideal is to let the Lord work one hundred percent while we do nothing. All blocks to the-Lord-taking-care-of-everything need to be removed with today’s Pentecost.

The Work of the Spirit

Each of the Gifts of the Spirit makes it possible for us to be present to the needs of another. The gifts show themselves through the fruits of the Spirit. These fruits distinguish our relationship to Christ. When grace builds on nature, the fruit of the Spirit focuses nature by shining forth with gracefulness, and exposing the uniqueness of each of us.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon us

A genuine Christian by being true to oneself offers the fruits of the Spirit. The life of the Spirit in anyone is reveals itself by the way one’s gifts nourish another. The fruits of the Spirit are much more obvious in others than in oneself. Love is the working of the spirit attracting our hearts by the gift of another. Love is anything done for another and a deed of love finds expression as a fruit of the spirit.

Each act of love plants in our hearts a fruit of the Spirit. In the Gospel of Luke we encounter Christ reading from the prophet Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has chosen me to bring good news to the poor...”(Luke 4:18). His comment on the scripture was; “This passage of Scripture has come true today as you heard it being read.”(Luke 4:21) The presence of the Spirit within us has an outgoing manifestation discoverable in the fruit of the spirit. The force of the spirit within flows to the exterior of our lives, and his fruit show his presence within.

Fruits of the Spirit

The genuine living of our Christ-life should have many outward signs. A list could include more than the charity, peace, joy, patience, benignity, chastity, constancy, longsuffering, goodness, mildness, faith and modesty that make up the traditional listing of the fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit reveal our Christianity. We shall know they are Christians by their love. Our love for one another needs the uniqueness that flows out of the mixture of the gifts of the Spirit.

The recognition of the uniqueness of a friend elaborates the meaning of a fruit of the Spirit. Love for another flows from the appreciation of the uniqueness of one or more of the fruits of the Spirit in another.

Love

A great heart is recognized by its generosity, in its giving of self in love. The only thing we can change in a relationship is the amount of love we give, and the way we give it to one another. At the other extreme from generosity is selfishness, which manipulates the gift of another for personal gain. Love attempts to give the better gift, recognizable as the fruit of charity.

Joy

Joy flows from a genuine heart. Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God in any life. Joy goes deeper than a silly smile. The happiness of being a child of God is part of joy. The closeness of belonging is part of joy. The living of our truth brings joy. Desire to be true to our word is written on our heart and is the source of joy.

The sad-faced Christian contradicts the Good News of the gospel. We like ourselves when we are living up to the dictates of our hearts. Holiness brings sane living, and the wholeness of sanctity brings a joy strong enough to survive even the trials of Job. Joy is one of the best signs of the closeness of God to us. The divine indwelling surfaces joy again and again, showing the truth of our heart’s closeness to God. It is the gift belonging to the Resurrection.

Peace

Peace is the sign of a soul that has it all together. It is tranquility of a heart secure in its relationship to the Father. Love calls us to togetherness with the beloved. Poverty, short life and dishonor that mark the life of Christ are difficult to want until love for Christ and the Father strengthens us. Once our peace is strongly established in our relationship to Christ, our unruffled spirits flow from our freedom to give of ourselves rather than our concern with what we are receiving.

Christ chose poverty, and his spirit within us chooses his poverty. The disgrace of the cross bringing the glory of Christ makes possible the great peace accompanying Christ’s cross in the saints. It allows us to know in the midst of our crosses that we are close to Christ. The human Christ who lived two thousand years ago is out of our reach, but his choices of life are possible to us. Christ can be touched and held in no better way, with the exception of Eucharist, than by the way we live out his choices of life. Our awareness of trying to choose as Christ chose brings peace.

Peace is possible amid fears. The Apostles of the upper room were filled with fear when Christ brought them his peace. Once we make the choices of Christ our own, nothing can separate us from the peace Christ brings. The world no longer can force us away from Christ because honor and power lose their attraction; they are not his choices. He chose poverty, short life and the dishonor of the cross.

Only the choice of something other than Christ endangers peace. Sin is the distance that exists between who I am and who I should be in following Christ. Sin is never “we,” it is always “I.” Our peace is in what we do for Christ as the other. Our peace is in our being with Christ by our togetherness with others. Peace births the leaders our world needs.

Patience

Patience is seen in the acceptance of our own and others’ growth. It is easier to see growth in others than in self. Growth requires pruning to remove the dead wood. Such pruning is the work of the Father. It makes room for the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The pruning away of faults opens us to growth. Pruning and growth are not always easy. They often occur in periods of great stress, where we are not aware of what is happening. The piercing of the heart of Jesus on the cross ranks as one of the sharpest cuts of all time. Our own cuts do not always draw the best from us. Our wanting to be close to Christ calms the troubled waters of our lives. Closeness to Christ allows the fruits of the Spirit to flow out of our hearts in the patience we have with each other.

Kindness

Christ becomes part of the excitement of our life in the experience of the coming forth of the Spirit in our salvation history story. When the Spirit comes to us, we are enabled to live up to Christ in us. Our Christ gifts are always renewed for what is needed as our hearts are claimed to meet the challenge of what is to be done in our world today.

A gentle heart is one that belongs to Christ. Violence is foreign to a soul caught up in the wonder of Christ having died for us. The willingness to be a non-violent person flows out of the oneness one has with the Christ of the Cross.

Gentleness

We joyfully recognize the presence of the Spirit as the bursting-out expression of the pleasure of giving. Not only does God love a cheerful giver. We all do, even loving ourselves when we give cheerfully. The fun of giving opens the eyes of our soul in an ever-widening circle of love until one day we can be more concerned about the world in which we live than about ourselves. Gentleness comes from respect for life and all life stands for. The life of Christ, knowable from the scriptures, becomes real to us in the way Christ dealt with the woman taken in adultery. Gentleness is how the good Shepherd comes alive in our dealings with one another. A placid spirit and a kind heart find expression in gentleness of spirit.

Goodness

Each of the fruits of the Spirit is a living out of a gift of the Spirit in a practical way, thus making it a pleasure to be with another.

The fruits of the spirit make us lovable. Once we are willing to say that we need another, we know, in the recognition of the gift they possess, the working of the Spirit in our relationship. It goes both ways. Others can discover in us what we discover in them. A living people-list of the twelve fruits is its own reward. Much more rewarding is the discovery of what attracts our hearts to holy people. Goodness is a label we put on holiness.

Christ’s holiness

All of the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit have to do with love.

Perfect love generates new love. The fruits of the Spirit are found in Christ and the imitation of Christ produces fruits of the Spirit. The fruits of the Spirit reveal the uniqueness of Christ’s holiness in each of us. We are called by the gentleness of Christ. He does not call us by force. The “come follow me” touches our hearts as an invitation. The desire to follow is born of the truth of the attraction of holiness.

Christ calls us to find ourselves in him.

The beauty of Christ’s love is that it has anticipated us. Before we have been born, Christ has loved us and we are called to find in him the deepest meaning of our creation. All the other religions are touched by the Spirit of God, and in the very touch tell us something about holiness. Christianity not only tells us something about holiness, but also in telling us about Christ gives us the example of the perfect holiness of life. Christ tells us something about what it means to be ourselves and the richness of the Spirit in each of us is founded on the relationship to Christ’s gifts of the Spirit.

The birth of the Church

As the blood and water issued forth from the pierced heart of Christ, the Church was conceived. Pentecost marks the birth of the Church and claims Christ’s spirit as its ongoing life that will be fulfilled in the final resurrection. Love carries us toward fusion with the beloved. The tension of love is found in the need of independence and autonomy.

Growing up in this love carries us into the Mystical Body of Christ in the interdependence of our lives together where our gifts are needed and expressed as the life of the Church. The source of this love is the Holy Spirit. The locus of this love is the Sacred Heart of Jesus. And the possibility of this love is the exchange of hearts with Christ.

Personal Pentecost

We live in an age of the Spirit. But we often pay only lip service to the Holy Spirit in the Gloria, the Creed and the sign of the Cross. How often do we adore the Holy Spirit in the depths of our hearts? Our missing challenge to holiness could be the ignorance of the coming of the Spirit in our own lives. The gifts of the Spirit can make us aware of the coming of the Spirit to us. We have all heard of ‘the Coming of the Holy Spirit’ upon the Apostles at Pentecost. Yet our unawareness of his coming to us from without makes us incomplete in our own relationship to the Spirit. Most of us claim the Spirit at Baptism, but need encouragement to frequently tap the Spirit. Few realize that for every new need of the community, there is the possibility of a new coming. Christians will never get beyond the need of new comings because the problems of the growing pains will be with us until the end.

A new coming

We think of someone missing when we hear of the Holy Spirit, and yet the Spirit moves us when we adore the Lord our God. People whom we respect as spiritual are filled with the Spirit. Yet many of them do not realize that for every need of the people of God, there is the possibility of a new coming just for the asking. The very need of the people of God brought the new coming we call the Second Vatican Council.

What the Church can do as the macrocosm of the people of God, we can do in community as a microcosm of the people of God. Each new need of the people of God can invite us to go beyond the way we see ourselves. Our need is the basis for a new coming if we will but call out from the depths of our being with the cry that the Spirit makes possible. We need the combination of wisdom, knowledge, counsel and understanding that brings the integration of the mind of Christ into our way of thinking, and the piety, fortitude, and the fear of the Lord that claims for our living the very heart of Christ as our own. The mind and the heart of Christ give rise to all the fruits of the Spirit.

Love to be shared

We are looking for the Spirit of the Father. Looking at Christ discovers the Father. Christ was such a good teacher of the Father that he could claim at the Last Supper that all the Father had given him he had passed on to his disciples. He told his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, I have loved you.” And he wanted his disciples to live on in that love. The disciples could well have come to the upper room of Pentecost out of fear and out of the memory of what they had shared in Christ. The promise of Christ to send the Spirit and not the qualifications of the Apostles made Pentecost possible. Peter, forgiven by Christ for having denied him, would be the spokesperson of Pentecost.

Peter had a need of sharing this Christ who had died for him. What happened in that upper room was not just the rush of the fire of divine love that reached their hearts, but the need of that love to be shared.

Excitement of love

The Pentecost experience is filled with an energy that cannot be restrained. The Spirit of the living God within us breaks free in the sharing of our love. At Pentecost, the Resurrection becomes the dawning awareness of Christ bigger than hearts and the encounter with Christ needs to be shouted out to our world with all the excitement of love. We capture in Christ’s humanness all the mercy and love of God. Pentecost makes it possible for a dearly departed friend to live on in our lives in the love of our hearts reminding us of our friend.

Wings to words

At Pentecost all the memories of Jesus came together with such a rush, it was like a loud wind gathering in one place. The Apostles could not be quiet. The urgency of their hearts to speak of their Christ gave wings to words that reached the hearts of the many listeners of that day. The tongues of fire set them free. The gathering of the day and the memories shared caught up and freed their spirits to proclaim to any and all the good news of Christ’s Resurrection. The Apostles needed Pentecost to become free. What we would say because of our new Pentecost speaks the louder to hearts seeking to be free. The truth reaching the heart reflects the working of the Spirit. Each of the gifts we possess, given for the needs of the world, relates whom we are to the world groaning to know the salvation of Jesus Christ. Christ is revealed in us even as we reach out to the needs of the world under the inspiration of the Spirit. The victory of Christ lives in each of us through our goodness. Christ had to go. As long as he was on the scene, the apostles would always want to be around Christ and would be following his lead.

They were not about to initiate anything that would risk their lives or spread the news that God was in the land. They needed something that would galvanize them into action after Christ had left them in the Ascension; they had to be taken from being bystanders and watchers to heartfelt livers of the Kingdom of God. Christ told the Apostles that he had to go in order that the Spirit might come. He was telling them that there was something missing between what he stood for and their living the fullness of whom he, Christ, was. When someone finally leaves us, all we shared becomes a living memory in us. We know the need of honoring the memory with action.

The awakening

Pentecost brings the awakening of all the Apostles in the excitement of the day we read about in the second chapter of the Acts. Their membership in the human race showed through their fear. We can imagine the doors locked. They could not bring themselves to leave. Confusion reigned. Would Jesus come soon? How will we recognize him this time?

What could be done in the meanwhile? Were they all talking at once? Was it Mary who first understood? Did she wait for the others to understand?

So many questions then and today capture our hearts before we are ready for the work of Jesus. The Apostles were beset with confusion and doubt.

They were held together by expectation and love of Jesus. The “Come, Lord Jesus” prayer of the early community was perhaps first uttered from the hearts of these men at this time.

Tongues of fire

When the Apostles were together, they possessed the presence of Christ missed so desperately when they were alone. This group of ordinary people would be made extraordinary by tongues of fire. The ground swell of fear is swallowed by a heaven swell of love. The doors of their hearts are swung open and the doors of the room hold them no longer.

They burst forth from the room charged by the movement of the spirit, charged with spreading the good news. His excitement in sending the Spirit has to be measured by our joys in sharing the good news. There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same spirit. What the apostles received, we receive. New times and new needs call forth the gifts that are so different, but the same in the Spirit, the giver of the Gifts.

New coming

Chapter four of Acts tells us about Peter and John praying: “... to speak. Your, message with all boldness... grant that wonders and miracles may be performed... “(Acts 4:29,30) The building shook and the sound of the rushing winds made them aware of a new coming of the Spirit. The Pentecost we celebrate as the beginning of the Church was the first of many great needs that would be met by sending the Spirit.

Ongoing life

The Holy Spirit comes to the great needs of the Church, inspiring men and women of every age to use their gifts for the Church. The great civilizations which have come and gone so quickly in the history of the world suggests something special keeps the Church going amidst all the weaknesses and sinfulness of its members. The presence of the Spirit in the Church, constantly renewing us, explains the ongoing life of the Church. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit brings the truth the Church shares with its people. The father of lies will not prevail over the Church. The Spirit’s presence nourishes and insures the growth of the Church. The Spirit is the love present in the Church in its relationship to the Father and the Son. Limiting the operations of the Spirit to the day of Pentecost would make the Spirit an isolated part of Church history. In truth, the Spirit is the life-giver of every day. The Spirit is in the ‘‘now-ness’’ of the mystery of love as the breath and life of the Church.

I am

If we could hear the Holy Spirit speaking to us we might hear:

“I am the love of the Father, and the Son for each other. I would be your love of God even as I am God’s love for you. I am the meeting of love and the reaching beyond the boundaries of life to the meeting of the divine and the human. I am the moment of time that is eternal because it only takes a moment to love forever. I am your deepest wish and the wellspring of all knowledge. I am the truth of who you are, and of whom you will become in the fullness of all love that Christ makes yours in my coming.

Forget yourself and all the desires you have of this world and allow me to do the talking for you. Open your heart to the sound of my voice and I will speak for you to the world crying out for the human to make sense. I am the moment before common sense, even as I am the divine logic of all love. Open yourself to hear the truth of the heart you can be in God’s love as you accept the truth of yourself.”