Wisdom

          This past Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, the day we celebrate when the Holy Spirit came to the twelve Apostles of Christ while they hid in an upper room in Jerusalem. They were afraid of what the Jewish people would do to them if they came out of hiding, so they gathered and hid in a room, not knowing where to go from there or what to do. The Holy Spirit came upon them with a loud rush of wind and tongues of flame hovering over each of their heads. Once the Spirit was with them, they received the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. With those seven gifts, the twelve Apostles went out into the streets and began to proclaim the Word of Jesus Christ to all present. Those present were of different nationalities and languages, yet each of them understood what was being said to them as the Apostles spoke.

         We were in Omaha on Sunday, and attended Mass in one of the suburbs of that area. The priest had a great sermon, which got me thinking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  He asked us about how much time we had spent planning for the Memorial Day Weekend. He talked about how people planned picnics, trips, and memorials for our fallen veterans. He spoke of this planning and said that was good, but then he also asked how many of us had planned for Pentecost Sunday in a similar way. Memorial Day is a special day and should be celebrated, but how many of us neglect the holidays of our church and think mainly of the secular world and its holidays?

         Anyway, I digress. Those seven gifts of the Holy Spirit are 1) Wisdom 2) Understanding 3) Counsel 4) Fortitude 5) Knowledge 6) Piety and 7) Fear of the Lord. I thought I would share some thoughts and ideas on one of these seven gifts in each of my next seven Blogs.

1)   Wisdom: Wisdom is the first and highest gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the perfection of Faith. With Wisdom, we begin to properly value those things which we believe through our Faith. These truths of Christian belief are far more important than the things of this world. Wisdom allows us to put the things of this world in their proper place and lets us better understand our relationship with creation and with God. The beautiful things of this world are good in that they are a gift to all of us from God. They did not happen randomly or by themselves, they are all a part of God’s plan and God’s gift of creation to each of us. It is part of God’s plan for each of us that we grow each day in our knowledge of God while we are here on this earth.

Make it a great day and get out there and use that gift of Wisdom!