As we end our exploration of the virtues, we learn about the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These gifts perfect our virtues and increase our ability to respond to God’s guidance and inspiration. The fruits of the Holy Spirit perfect us, are signs of a life lived in the Spirit, and are “the first fruits of eternal glory,” as the Catechism tells us. Our cooperation with the Holy Spirit sustains and perfects our moral life, enabling us to live a more full and joyful life. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1830-1845.
Remember last week I talked to you about the Ascension and how the human nature our good Lord took from the Blessed Mother was assumed into His divine nature. It’s the same nature that He suffered with, healed with, died with, was resurrected with, and took to Heaven. So, if Christ’s human nature is in Heaven, how does He continue to do His work in the world? Fair question. Well, He takes our human natures and uses them. Through the Holy Spirt, He takes all our human natures and forms His new Body which is the Church. With His new Body, He continues to teach, sanctify, heal, and bring His love to the world. His new Body will continue for generations until the end of the world. In the Book of Acts, our Lord says, “Paul, why are you persecuting Me? He didn’t say, “the church” or “a Christian Group.” He said, “Why are you persecuting Me?” He said, “Me” personally because we are a part of His body.
All those who are baptized are baptized in Christ. You are part of His new body extended throughout the Ages. That’s why it’s blasphemy when someone says, “Oh, I am reconciled to God but not His Church” or they say, “I love God but not the Church.” Absolute blasphemy. You love the head but not the body. That makes no sense. You cannot love one without the other. It’s a whole Person . . . a package deal. Christ takes our human natures which are offered by us or by our parents at our Baptism. He assumes our human natures into His new Body to become whatever part of His Body that represents our vocation to bring God’s word to others, to heal, teach, and sanctify. Whatever the vocation, Holy Orders, Religious, married life, or lay life – whatever part of His Body – we are called to build it up.
Christ uses our human nature to reach out and to bring His love to the world . . . to speak the universal language At Pentecost, Peter spoke to the crowd, and everyone heard him in their own language. Everyone hears the language of Christ. Now, I am not gifted in tongues. If you have ever been to the 12:15 Mass, you know that I do not have that gift. I speak Spanish with French accent. French is my second language. Believe it or not, I took Intermediate Conversational French in college, but my aunt who is 95 years old corrects my French. I had to relearn French because my family was French Canadian and did not speak the French you learn in books which is Parisian. While I cannot speak many languages, I know a priest who speaks five of them. We are all called, and we are all able, to speak the most important language – a language nobody hears – and that’s the language of love and of Christ living in the world. Whatever vocation and whatever circumstance in which you find yourself, bring Christ in. Be the Good Samaritan. Everybody sees that love. Everybody can translate that language . . . . the universal language of Christ.
I’ve told you this story before. I don’t have that many years left as a priest, so I’ll share with you the stories I’ve got. One day I was making my rounds in hospice at the VA, and two EMT’s wheeled in a patient. They wanted to know which room the patient was going in. The nurses were busy, so I told them and went down to the room with them. To transfer a patient onto the bed, it really takes three people. One to grab the sheet, another to hold the head, and another to hold the feet. Since there were only two EMT’s, I helped transfer the patient by holding his feet. After we moved him, I went to the sink to wash my hands since I hadn’t used gloves. One of the EMT’s who had been fairly rude to me earlier came over and said, “Thank you, Father.” It was a big change from when they first came in even though I hadn’t done anything special. One time a nurse asked me if I would help clean out a trachea tube which is not a real fun thing to do if you don’t have a strong stomach. Sure. “What did you do after that, Father?” Lunch. Cleaning the trachea tube didn’t bother me, and a man’s got to eat. Anything you do to help someone, those acts of love, will be noticed. They are things we do instinctively and perhaps with no forethought at all. Something as simple as helping somebody with their shopping cart at Walmart by putting the cart back in its proper place so that it doesn’t go careening through the parking lot. People will see those little acts of love. It truly makes a difference because nowadays it’s so unusual. But we are all called to do this as members of Christ’s Body.
We are called to teach, evangelize, and to build up His Body which is His Church. You were given the gift of tongue in Baptism because you were brought into the Body of Christ. The gift of tongue is not a bunch of babbling. Get some medicine, and you’ll be fine. You don’t have to be a linguist . . . you have to be holy. The gift of tongue is the gift of love by which we bring Christ’s love to the world. God can work through even such a sinful creature as I am to bring Christ’s love and goodness to people. You are no different than me – except better looking – God’s grace enables us to speak that one beautiful language of the Holy Spirit which is Christ and love. And when people ask you how you can do that, you can tell them the reason is your Faith. By the way, the reason is a Who and not a what. So do those small acts of love; they always have an effect. You never know.
Father’s Reflections . . .
I learned from a highly placed, confidential source that things are crazy at Walmart. It is Memorial Day weekend, and you can get great deals on all sorts of stuff like cars, mattresses, linens, appliances, and furniture. It makes me so proud that I fought for our country!
How will you apply this message to your life? ___________________________
You can read all of Father Fitzgibbons’ sermons by going to annunciationcatholicalbemarle.com and clicking on “Blog” then “Categories” then “Sermon Notes.” On a cell phone: click on “Blog” then “Menu” and then “Categories.” Sermon Notes are also available on the church Facebook page at ola.catholic.church. Click on “Groups” and then “Sermon Notes.”
It was the light she remembered. Even now, in all this darkness that attends aging, it is the light she remembers. The light. It is without horizons and yet most of the time it seems just beyond the horizon, the invisible presence that though it is inside her, is just beyond the horizon she became when the Holy Spirit overshadowed her. It is her hope, this light, especially in the deepest night. The memory of it now as then, just after the angel’s light, the words like the static of lightning disappearing and light remaining like a gentle rain falling, the room as quiet as before, the silence returning as light.
The closeness of the dark night. The memory of yesterday’s dawn making the dark light, the light dark, all because of that other Light out of the invisible, the place of the angel’s arrival and departure.
Fr. Mike examines how the Holy Spirit recalls the mystery of Christ. We explore how the Holy Spirit both inspires the Word of God and recalls the Word of God. Fr. Mike emphasizes that it is the Holy Spirit that helps us hear and understand God’s Word. It is the Holy Spirit that helps elicit a response of consent and commitment within us. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1099-1103.
Together, with Fr. Mike, we continue our examination of the sacramental economy, specifically the Holy Spirit’s work in the liturgy. Fr. Mike emphasizes that what Jesus makes possible, the Holy Spirit makes actual. We are made to live in the life of the risen Christ and that is what the Spirit brings about in us. Fr. Mike concludes with a reflection on the importance of understanding that the Christian Liturgy springs from and fulfills the Jewish Liturgy. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1091-1098.
Mary would have to remind herself whenever she would remember and start to dwell on Jesus’s suffering, that love redeemed it all, and with the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, she again saw in a flash of light that love was the reason from all eternity. Jesus came to love us and show us the love of the Father and how we are to love the Father. And with that vision, there seemed no past anymore, or even future. Everything was now, everything was new and exciting in the present. And how marvelous to live in that reality that was a preview of what was to come but more importantly, was already here, happening in her. She was living in the kingdom and all that needed to happen was that moment when she entered and saw the kingdom of love that was already there inside and all around her.
— from the book Nourishing Love: A Franciscan Celebration of Mary by Murray Bodo, OFM
She is remembering now what she has stored up in her heart all these years. It began the first time she experienced the Light that is God. It dwelled inside the angel’s words, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). That is what happened in the very moment of the angel’s speaking. And she embraced the light that was the words themselves. She said yes to so beautiful a proposal, its light, its love. And she said simply that she was God’s handmaid. May it be done to her according to God’s word spoken by the angel. And the Light then filled her whole being. And the angel left her alone with the light illumining her womb.
“What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church.” The Catechism uncovers how the Holy Spirit truly builds up the whole Church in the name of Jesus. Fr. Mike dives into the incredibly diverse gifts that the Holy Spirit gives up for the building up of the Kingdom—the charisms. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 797-810.
Jesus Christ established the Church, but the Holy Spirit continually sanctifies the Church with wisdom, guidance, and charismatic gifts. The Church’s mission is to proclaim and establish the beginning of God’s Kingdom on earth, and we participate in this mission through charity, humility, and self-denial. Fr. Mike helps us understand the seemingly paradoxical idea that the Church is visible and spiritual, both human and Divine. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 767-771.
