Sermon about the Gifts of the Holy Ghost

Introduction

We are celebrating today the Feast of Pentecost, the greatest feast of the Year with Easter. Pentecost is also the anniversary of the foundation of the Catholic Church.

I will speak today about the Gifts of the Holy Ghost: what they are and how we need them.

1.      What are the Gifts of the Holy Ghost

We know about the existence of the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost from Revelation, especially from the Prophet Isaias when he said: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of Counsel, and of Fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness … the spirit of fear of the Lord” (Is 11;2).

We use the name “Gifts” for these seven things which have been enumerated, to indicate that they are infused in us by God freely, without any merit of ours; but actually the prophet Isaias does not say “gift”, he says “spirit”. And the word “Spirit” has the meaning of “breath or wind”. So, it is as if Isaias had said: “the breath/wind of wisdom, the breath/wind of understanding, and so on…”: imagine a wind blowing on you with strength, pushing you into a certain direction. The blowing “wind” refers to the action of the Holy Ghost, who on Pentecost Day, manifested Himself as “a violent wind blowing” in the house where the Apostles were gathered together. And the capacities or dispositions which we have in our soul to be moved like that directly by the Holy Ghost is what we call the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost.

Probably you remember that, when you were preparing for your Confirmation, you were told that the Gifts of the Holy Ghost are like the sails of a sailing ship. This comparison is quite good and meaningful: the sails of the ship are on the mast and stay there all the time; by themselves they don’t make the ship move at all. Their role is to catch the blowing wind so that the ship can move under its pressure. So it is with the Gifts of the Holy Ghost: they are supernatural and permanent dispositions set up in our soul so that we can be moved directly by the Holy Ghost, by His inspirations which are like a wind blowing upon us, and this at any time. As the wind blowing even strongly on the ship cannot push it unless this latter has sails, so the Holy Ghost cannot move us unless we have the capacity to perceive His action and to be moved by it. Again, this capacity, it is the Gifts.

2.      Distinction between the virtues and the Gifts

We must not mix up virtues and gifts: they are not the same. What is the difference? To answer this question, first we must consider that we human beings move ourselves either under the impulse of our reason or under the direct impulse of God Himself our Creator.

We move ourselves under the impulse of our reason when we reason about something and after reasoning we come to a conclusion and a decision and we move to an action: for example, I consider purchasing a car, I consider the need I have of it, how much I can afford, which car to choose, and so on… and finally I move: I take my money out of my wallet and give it to the seller. What will help me to make a good decision? It is the virtue of prudence. The virtues are good habits perfecting our reason. Another example: the virtue of patience which is the good habit of moderating our passions of anger and sadness, helps our reason to make proper decisions when facing adversities, without being blinded by anger or depressed by sadness.

We move ourselves under the direct impulse of God when He Himself, as our Creator with full power over our human nature, without diminishing in any way our human liberty, moves us strongly to a certain action with strength, quickness and a certain easiness. The Gifts are in us the capacity to be moved like that by God.

3.      Necessity of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost

But question: do we really need the Gifts of the Holy Ghost? Are not the virtues enough to enable us to go to Heaven? No, they are not enough. Do we really need sometimes to be moved by God directly? Yes, we need it. Sometimes the good things which we have to do are so exceptionally difficult, or we must do them so exceptionally well that our poor human reason, even perfected by the virtues, our will power even strengthened by ordinary grace, cannot move us to do it. Take an example: three days ago we commemorated the martyrdom of St Conon and his 12 years old son, at Konya in Turkey, at the time of the Emperor Aurelian. They suffered until death with great firmness from being basted with oil upon a grating over live coals, then from stretching upon the rack and fire, and at length from having their hands pounded with a wooden mallet. To escape these sufferings, they only needed to pretend not to believe in Christ. Do you think that you can bear such sufferings without failing until death, just by the strength of your will power even helped by the ordinary grace of God? When you are only 12 years old? No, we need something more powerful, we need to be moved, to be pushed by an special inspiration of God, by the spirit of Fortitude. And to be moved by the spirit of Fortitude, we need inside us the Gift of Fortitude. Through the 7 gifts, the Holy Ghost perfects us and allows us to go much further in holiness, to gain much more merits, to be faithful to God in all the circumstances of our life, to correspond perfectly to His Will without failing.

So, we need the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost in order to go to Heaven. These Gifts are given us for the first time at our Baptism, together with Sanctifying Grace. But they are given us as a seed, they are not developed. If we take again the comparison with the sails of a sailing ship, at the time of our Baptism, the Gifts are like folded sails, not very helpful to catch the wind and to make the ship move under its impulse. It is by the Sacrament of Confirmation that the 7 Gifts get their full deployment in our soul and allow us to be moved directly by the Holy Ghost. That is why, if the Sacrament of Confirmation is not absolutely necessary to go to Heaven, it is really foolishness to neglect it: without the full deployment of the Gifts in our soul, it is really difficult to make our way to our eternal Heaven.

4.      The 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost in the Blessed Virgin Mary

Now, since today is also the feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary, let us consider quickly the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost in our Heavenly Mother. Because She had sanctifying grace at a degree surpassing all others, the Gifts were in Her more perfectly developed than for anybody else and the Holy Ghost could move Her with the greatest facility to the highest perfection in all her actions.

Through the Gift of Understanding, the Holy Ghost made the Blessed Virgin penetrate deeply into the understanding of the Mysteries of Faith like the Virginal Conception of Jesus, the Incarnation. This action of the Holy Ghost in Mary is revealed to us in the Gospel by these words of St Luke describing the Blessed Virgin after the visit of the shepherds at Christmas: “But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart” (Lc 2; 19).

Through the Gift of Wisdom, the Holy Ghost made Our Lady consider the Divine and human realities in the light of God, from God’s point of view, and to appreciate them and to love them as God does. This action of the Holy Ghost in the Blessed Virgin is visible in her Magnificat, that canticle in which She glorifies God who chooses what is humble and low to realise great things.

Through the Gift of Knowledge, the Holy Ghost made Our Blessed Mother value the creatures according to their usefulness to lead us or not to the eternal life. She could see clearly and deeply the vanity of the goods and pleasures of this world. And that is why She lived in poverty during her whole life, being the wife of the carpenter of Nazareth, without ever complaining, although She was the most dignified person in the whole universe.

Through the Gift of Counsel, the Holy Ghost made the Blessed Virgin see and follow exactly God’s will, even when it sounded impossible. We have an example of this in the conversation She had with the Archangel Gabriel on Annunciation Day: “Behold you shall conceive in thy womb and shall bring forth a son… - How shall this be done because I know not man? – The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee.” (Lc 1;35). And immediately Our Lady understood God’s will and complied with it.

Through the Gift of Piety, the Holy Ghost made Our Lady love and respect so much God that She could never refuse Him anything. We see that gift in action when the Blessed Virgin said: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to thy word”. (Lc 1;38).

Through the Gift of Fortitude, the Holy Ghost strengthened Our Mother to enable her to bear all the terrible sufferings of the Passion, without fear, without fainting, but with calm, meekness, firmness until the end. We see this Gift in action when it is said of Mary in the Gospel that She was standing at the foot of the Cross. (Jn 19;25) All the fortitude of Our Lady is in that word “standing”.

Through the Gift of Fear of the Lord, the Holy Ghost made the Blessed Virgin fear so much to offend God that never she committed any venial sin nor ever any imperfection. And we see for example in the Gospel that Gift in action, when Mary decided to comply with to the law of purification after Jesus’ birth, in order not to look as breaking God’s commandment.

Conclusion

All of us baptized and confirmed people, we have in our soul the 7 Gifts of the Holy Ghost, these dispositions to be moved directly by God to do something. And to remember this reality must be for us a consolation, an encouragement, a cause of confidence for the future. By the means of these Gifts, God can make us go through any difficult situation, He can lead us to the highest holiness, with promptitude and strength. But remember that to perceive and receive this action of the Holy Ghost, we need to keep ourselves in state of grace first of all and to live generously our Catholic daily life, day after day, following the example of Our Lord Jesus and of the Blessed Virgin Mary.