Gifts of the Holy Spirit
by Sr. Kieran Sawyer, S.S.N.D.
An important moment in the Confirmation ceremony is the prayer for the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Just before the anointing with chrism, the bishop and all of the assembled priests stand facing the candidates; they extend their hands over them while the bishop prays the solemn prayer for the gifts.
Let's do some thinking now about those special gifts.
- Three of the gifts—wisdom, understanding, and knowledge-%mdash;are different ways of helping us to know.
- Two of the gifts—right judgment and courage—help us to do what is good and right.
- And the last two—the gift of reverence and the gift of wonder and awe in God's presence—help us to relate properly to God and to all of God's creation.
Knowledge
Knowledge is a gift we seldom attribute to the Spirit. But the ability to think and to know is, after all, one of God's greatest gifts to his human creatures. It is the gift we need to make sense out of this complicated world. As human beings, we have vast abilities to know and to understand the endless complexities of our universe. The ability to know is a gift from God; the development of the gift is our own responsibility. Developing the gift of knowledge is what education is all about.
It's important to remember, also, that human knowledge can be used for bad ends as well as good ones. It takes a lot of knowledge to plan a successful robbery or murder, to break into a complex computer system, to design destructive weapons. That same mental power could be used to find a way to feed a hungry family or to negotiate a lasting peace. We need the Holy Spirit's gift of knowledge to help us to use well our personal and collective stores of human knowledge.
Understanding
You can think of understanding as the kind of knowing we do with our hearts. All of us know some people who are very understanding, and other people who seem not to be understanding at all. A person who is understanding accepts others just as they are and cares for the people no one else notices. We turn to the understanding person when our hearts are heavy, knowing that he or she will listen if we want to talk, or let us be silent if we don't know what to say. Those who understand us know our faults and imperfections as well as our strengths and good qualities. Such people are always ready to encourage us and challenge us, always ready to forgive us and give us a second chance.
It's probably safe to say that all of us want to be more understanding than we are. Most of us have to admit that we need a big increase in this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit.
Wisdom
Wisdom is like a special pair of glasses; it's the gift we need to see reality properly. Wisdom is the opposite of narrow-mindedness. Without wisdom we tend to see only from our own perspective, from our own point of view. Wisdom gives us the distance we need to see situations and problems as they really are, to see how things look from God's point of view.
Wisdom helps us to straighten out our priorities, to put first things first, to know what is important and what is not. Wisdom helps us not to get upset over little problems, not to put too much stock in passing events. We need the gift of wisdom to remember that people are more important than things or issues or ideologies and that God's love is more important than everything else. We usually associate the gift of wisdom with old people because living a long life tends to give a person a broad perspective. But young people too can be wise. When young persons have wisdom, people say they are "wise beyond their years."
Courage (Fortitude)
Courage is the gift the Spirit gives to help us follow through on our good decisions once we have made them. Courage is the strength to do the right thing in spite of the obstacles and difficulties in our way. In today's world we need a great deal of spiritual courage if we are to stand up for our moral values and convictions. This is true for everyone, but it seems to be especially true for teenagers.
Discouragement is one of the biggest obstacles to moral and spiritual growth. We all tend to get discouraged, especially when it comes to changing our own bad habits. We've tried to study harder, tried to stop drinking, tried to be kind to the picked-on freshmen, but those things are hard and we've failed often. It's easy to lose heart, to get discouraged and give up. The gift of courage gives us the strength and stamina we need to keep on trying, day after day, to be the kind of Christian people we want to be.
Right Judgment (Counsel)
Our greatest gift as human beings is the gift of freedom, the gift to decide for ourselves what we will make of our lives. It was a great risk for God to create us as free beings because we can use our freedom either to build up life or to destroy it. The Spirit's gift of right judgment helps us to use our freedom wisely.
We need the gift of right judgment when we are faced with everyday choices as well as with important life-decisions. This gift helps us to see a situation clearly, to look at all the options open to us, to analyze the possible ramifications of each option, and then to make a clear and decisive choice. The Spirit often works through others in giving us this gift, so an important part of right judgment is seeking advice from people who have more expertise or experience than we do. Right judgment also helps us learn from our mistakes and correct the problems caused by our bad decisions.
Reverence (Piety)
Reverence is respect with a capital R. The Holy Spirit's gift of reverence helps us to see the true value of every person and of all created things. Reverence shows itself in gentleness, tenderness, protectiveness, and concern. This gift is badly needed in our materialistic, throw-away society. We need reverence for life, reverence for nature, reverence for the unborn and the elderly, reverence for truth, reverence for God.
A person without reverence smashes through the world, thoughtlessly stepping on flowers and people. A person gifted with reverence holds the world with loving hands, like a father or mother cradling a newborn child.
Wonder and Awe in God's Presence (Fear of the Lord)
Wonder and awe in God's presence is the gift by which we are given a sense of who God really is, and who we are as creatures of God. This gift helps us to realize how far above us God is, great and powerful and awesome, and yet how near God is to us, gentle and loving and tender and forgiving.
This gift of wonder and awe helps to remind us that God designs majestic mountains, commands an army of angels, holds the pounding oceans in cupped hands. It also tells us that the same God lives in our hearts, listens to our daily prayers, cares about our tiny worries, and loves us all our specialness and all our weakness.
We need the help of the Holy Spirit to get to know this wonderful and awesome God. We need a daily increase of the gift of wonder and awe in God's presence.
Copyright © Sr. Kieran Sawyer, S.S.N.D.