The Holy Spirit is one who came with many gifts on Pentecost.

Homily for Pentecost Sunday--John 20:19-23

Today we celebrate the birth of the Church. It is the day when the Holy Spirit came upon the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Apostles in the upper room. But not before they had spent the previous nine days in deep prayer with the Blessed Virgin Mary, she who is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost is a day of momentous change- the frightened apostles locked in the upper room, from this point on, become bold witnesses to the salvation found only through Jesus Christ. It was the power of the Divine Person of the Holy Spirit who made this remarkable change happen in the lives of ordinary men like you and me.

The Holy Spirit is one who came with many gifts on Pentecost. The Holy Spirit gave the apostles seven-fold gifts of grace. These were supernatural gifts-gifts that enabled them to live for God alone and to stand up for His truth and do great deeds in witness to Him. When the power of the Holy Spirit came upon they became great witness throughout the world.

On the day of Pentecost the twelve boldly proclaim the good news of Jesus- that he died and rose again to save us from our sins; that although He ascended into heaven, He at the same time still remained on earth in the Holy Eucharist to save those who believe, adore, hope and love Him there. Let us look closer at these supernatural gifts that the Holy Spirit gave to them and will also give to us, if we but ask in heartfelt prayer. These supernatural gifts are: WISDOM, KNOWLEDGE, UNDERSTANDING, FORTITUDE, COUNSEL, PIETY, AND FEAR OF THE LORD.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are added to our human efforts also known as our human virtues. It is the Holy Spirit who helps us in our human attempts at being good, at living a virtuous life, a life of holiness and faithfulness to God. Like the apostles, we all lack virtues, we are all weak to some degree or another; we are all too worldly. However, God in His infinite generosity desires to give us the Divine help. This help we need from on High is the Holy Spirit that we receive, through the sacraments of the Church, especially the Holy Eucharist and through prayer.

The gift of wisdom gives us a spiritual awareness of the love of God and allows us to order and judge the things of this world from this perspective-we don’t put the things of this world before the Creator of things. The gift of wisdom helps us not only to know the things of God, but to experience them in our lives-to taste them so to speak through faith. Like St. Francis, through the beautiful things of creation, we experience the Creator. We know through the gift of wisdom that we live for God alone, and this deepens our adoration of Him.
In the gift of understanding, or also called the gift of intelligence, we are given the understanding of divine things, especially when we read the Holy Scriptures. With this gift, the Holy Spirit gives us the desire to know and understand better the truths of our Catholic faith and how they affect our relationship with Christ. We understand better God’s saving plan for our lives, it becomes relevant in our daily lives—We begin to see more clearly how to live our Catholic faith.

The gift of fortitude gives us strength. This strength is not just for doing extraordinary things; like martyrdom, but this gift also helps us in the ordinary struggles we have in life, especially our daily struggle against sin. With this gift the Christian does not compromise in fulfilling his duty even in the face of insults and unjust attacks. With this gift we become courageous and persevere on the path of truth and uprightness, in spite of a lack of understanding and hostility coming from others.

Another gift of the Holy Spirit that can help us in important decisions in our lives- what would be the best thing to do? This help comes from the gift of COUNSEL. The Gift of Counsel directs us in our everyday life. It helps us, to prudently choose the right thing to do in a given circumstance. The Gift of Counsel enlightens our conscience in the moral choices which daily life presents--we become moral persons. No matter how intricate and difficult the situation is, aided by this great Gift, we are better able to see what to do in a given situation.

The Gift of PIETY helps us to live out the commandment to love God and love our neighbor. True Piety is knowledge that God is love, that he loves us, and loves each person infinitely. Our response should be to love God more and to love those whom he loves. With this gift, the Holy Spirit heals our hearts of every form of hardness, and opens them to tenderness towards God and our brothers and sisters. With this gift, we feel urged to treat all people with great kindness and friendliness. We all need this gift, just think about how often each day we are called to love people who are hard to love.

Lastly, the Gift of the FEAR OF THE LORD is a special gift, which helps us to dread and avoid sin. The gift of fear is not like the fear we experience in a horror film or the fear of being hit by a lightening bolt from heaven. It is not a fear in which we are afraid of God. It is our sin, which causes us to fear God in this wrong way. The gift of fear from the Holy Spirit is a holy fear, a fear of not hurting someone who loves you. When we love someone, we want to avoid offending or hurting him. This is the type of fear we should have with our Lord This fear is like the fear of our child who loves his daddy so much that he fears doing anything that would offend Him. This gift of fear can help us to avoid sin, doing that what is offensive and displeasing to God and harmful to others and ourselves.

Today, let us ask the Holy Spirit to help us with all of his gifts. We need these gifts so very much. He is an all knowing Expert who will guide us in our decisions and difficulties if we ask Him; He will help us to make the right choices in our lives, to choose this action or that; He will help us in our relationships, to get along better with those we love; He will help us in the times we have no idea what to do, situations that seem hopeless or impossible such as the death of a loved one, loss of a job, failure in finding employment. And when we feel lost, if we cry out to the Holy Spirit, He will show us the way.

And most of all, The Holy Spirit will be a dearest friend by enlightening us to those things that keep us from a closer relationship to Him and the Father and the Son. He will, as a true friend, show us our sins so that we can be healed of them in the Sacrament of Confession. He will then make us pure of heart so that we can, through faith, see the face of God in the Holy Eucharist , adoring Him and receiving Him with great love. So that the Holy Spirit with the cooperation of the Virgin Mary and our worthy reception of the Holy Eucharist can rebirth Jesus anew in us so that we can be His witnesses throughout all the earth bring souls to Jesus in the Holy Eucharist and through Him to the joys of heaven.

Veni Creator Spiritus! Come Holy Spirit, come by means of the powerful intercession of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed the Virgin Mary, your well beloved spouse. Amen.