Today we celebrate Pentecost.  We celebrate the Descent of the Holy Spirit.  We celebrate the birth of the church, the moment in which she began the mission of evangelizing in earnest. The Holy Spirit, on Pentecost, came down from heaven, sent by the Father in fulfillment of the promise of the Son. The Holy Spirit filled the disciples, and gave them the power, the strength, the courage, to speak of God, to speak the truth that was His son, Jesús Christ, our Lord and Savior.  They spoke of how he died, how he rose from the grave, how he ascended into heaven and how he was seated at the right hand of the Father. The Holy Spirit filled the disciples with the need to spread the message of Christ’s redemption.

Of the trinity, the Holy Spirit is the most mysterious.  Throughout the Old Testament, God spoke to His people, we saw His presence if not His person.  He spoke to Adam and Eve.  He spoke to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses. We see him in the burning bush, in the pillar of fire, the pillar of cloud. In the New Testament, Jesús, the son, the second person of the Holy Trinity, is present in body, blood, soul, and divinity, and he speaks to many also, as evidenced in the Gospels. With the Holy Spirit, though, we never hear the third person of the trinity speak.  We hear him speaking through the prophets.  We know, we recognize, the Holy Spirit by his movements, by the way he reveals God’s word to us, by the way in which we are able to accept that revelation. Paul reminds us in the second reading today that it is only through the Holy Spirit, that it is only with the Holy Spirit, that we can truly say and truly believe that Jesús is Lord.

Mysterious as the Holy Spirit is, we see His presence in the church.  We see the Holy Spirit present in sacred scripture, for it was He that inspired the authors to pen them. We see the Holy Spirit in the lives of the saints, for it was through Him that they were strengthened to live a life of holiness and to continue the work of salvation, many times to the point of selflessly offering their lives. We see the Holy Spirit in the charisms of the church, in all the ministries in the church, ministries dedicated to service and to charity. Though the Holy Spirit be not seen nor heard like the Father or the Son, we see Him present in those in whom he dwells. We see the strength he gives them.  We see the vision he instills within them. We see  the desire to serve God and neighbor burn brightly within them.  We can see, if we look, the workings of the holy spirit all around us.

In today’s Gospel, the passage begins with the disciples locked away from the jews, hiding in fear for their very lives. When Christ appears to them, the first thing he says is to be at peace. He then breathes upon them, sets the Holy Spirit upon them, as though to calm them. The Holy Spirit, when allowed to work through us, when His gifts are allowed to work within us, affects change within us, within us and within the way we live our lives. It affects us and the way in which we relate with one another. 

Through the Holy Spirit, we are all blessed with spiritual gifts that enable us to serve one another and to build up the body of Christ. These gifts are wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the Lord. Each gift is vital in the growth of the Church.

Wisdom is the first and greatest gift of the Holy spirit. With wisdom, we can better understand our faith.  It allows us to value that which we believe in our faith. Wisdom gives us the ability to judge and direct our lives according to divine truth.

Understanding is different from wisdom.  Whereas wisdom creates in us a desire to contemplate God, understanding allows us to see God in the world around us.  It allows us to recognize our own relationship with God.

Counsel allows us to be directed by God in matters which are necessary for our salvation. It allows us to judge what is right and what is true in our faith, and it allows us to stand up for those truths and to do what is right.

The next gift of the holy spirit is fortitude.  It is the strength to support our actions which counsel has led us to.  It can be called courage but it is so much more than that. Fortitude gives us the confidence to overcome fear and to remain firm in our faith during times of trial and during confrontations with evil. Fortitude is what allows martyrs to suffer death instead of renouncing their faith. 

Knowledge allows us to see God’s purpose for our lives and it permits us to live our lives according to that purpose. Knowledge allows us to distinguish between the good that God wants of us and the evil that the world tempts us to. Knowledge helps us to remain on that path towards holiness.

Piety is the reverence which we give to God.  It is our willingness to worship him and to serve him, not out of duty or obligation, but out of our love for him. True piety does not demand that we worship and serve God.  True piety, true reverence, creates in us a desire to do what is pleasing to God.

The final gift of the holy spirit is the fear of the lord. This gift gives us the desire to not offend God.  But with this gift also comes the certainty, the hope, that God will give us the graces which are necessary not to offend him.

The Holy Spirit will continue to remain the most mysterious person of the trinity. But regardless, He is always at work in us, he is always there, helping us, guiding us, molding us. The gifts of the holy spirit help us as we try to perfect ourselves. They help us to participate in the life of God. We may not fully understand these gifts, but they truly deserve our attention. These gifts are needed to help build, to help establish, the Kingdom of God. They are needed in our spiritual battles.  They are our defense in the battle against evil. An awareness of these gifts, an understanding of them and how they can help us, will allow us to be like those disciples in today’s readings.  We will be fearless.  We will be strengthened.  We will be determined.  We will be men and women with a mission.  We will be just what we were baptized for.

We will be the soldiers of Christ, throwing away the works of darkness and putting on the armor of light, taking up these spiritual weapons given by the Holy Spirit, ready for the spiritual warfare of our day to day lives.

Breathe in us, O Holy Spirit, that our thoughts may all be holy. Act in us, O Holy Spirit, that our work, too, may be holy. Draw our hearts, O Holy Spirit, that we love but what is holy. Strengthen us, O Holy Spirit, to defend all that is holy. Guard us, then, O Holy Spirit, that we always may be holy. 

Amen.