SHARING THE GIFTS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
Our meditation today has the theme: Sharing the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. There is a group of the Catholic youth who entered the church to do a prayer service. They were seven, four girls and three boys. They were all amazed by the decoration beside the altar displaying the seven images of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Each chose one gift of the Spirit which mostly relates to one's personal character and circumstances, namely the gift of wisdom, understanding, advice, knowledge, piety, fortitude (strength), and fear of God. After praying for some moments, they returned home with joy.
There was a good and noble intention from them as a group of the Catholic youth and as individual Christians as well. They want to give testimony to other Catholic youths, so that they can bring all young people around them to a good Christian fellowship in the Church. They also want to become apostles of Christ who are willing to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit with their other friends in their neighborhood. They think that they will become useful Christians if they share the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Why do we need to share the gifts of the Holy Spirit? There are several important reasons. The first reason is because God himself had shared Himself His divinity with humans through the Son of God who became a man in Jesus Christ, then Jesus Himself sent His Spirit to us. God always shares Himself through His everlasting love, and so we must also able to share that love. The main purpose of this sharing is to create unity. This is the core of Jesus' prayer which today's Gospel reading proclaims. A sharing of the gifts of the Spirit aims for unity and not for disunity.
The second is because the Holy Spirit moves and makes things work. He moved every person in the Early Church and then initiated their activities so that they did not remain silent or hid themselves from public. Saint Paul was sent by the risen Jesus and he was instructed to move from one place to another, because he must extend the presence of the Church in all corners of the earth. We are also filled and moved by the Holy Spirit so that we can share the Good News to others.
And the third reason is because the one Church that we have is an inclusive Church. Jesus Christ had entrusted the great mission to the Church which is to make disciples all people and nations. So there is no other way to fulfill this except that every member of the Church has to move out from his or her place and share the gifts of the Holy Spirit to other people. The world might have a lot of things for making people's life nice and enjoyable, but it must be lacking in the love and mercy of the Lord which comes from the work of the Holy Spirit. It is trully a blessing for our world today if the sharing of the gifts of the Holy Spirit really happens in our midst as a manifestation of the apostolic character of our Holy Church.
Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... O Jesus Christ, in the moment of waiting the coming of the Holy Spirit, we put our faith in You as our true teacher and Lord. Strengthen us with Your blessing and love so that in this moment of preparation we will always focus with devotion and prayer. Glory to the Father... In the name of the Father ...
