Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost are the three great Christian Holy Days. They celebrate the Birth of Christ, His Resurrection, and the arrival of the Advocate He promised to us, The Holy Spirit.
We celebrate Christmas with presents, and Easter with eggs and new clothes for the warm season. Pentecost is a quiet, unpublicized event. I know of no one who’s ever received a Pentecost Card. There are no Pentecost Carols sung by carolers. No special Pentecost dinners are planned. Family reunions aren’t centered around it. Most people who aren’t, or were not at one time, active church-goers even think about it.
But, Pentecost Sunday is just a few days away. Fifty days after the Resurrection, we celebrate the arrival of The Holy Spirit. As more frequent readers know, some Catholic Fundamentalists think of The Holy Spirit as The Holy Wireless Connector.
We feel that Pentecost Sunday commemorates the connection of believers with the God Who lovingly wrote each of our individual programs and downloaded them into being. The Holy Spirit keeps us close to Him, as long as we want to be. We should be grateful that He lives within us, that He helps us, guides us, and has given us The Gifts of the Holy Spirit.
It’s easy to find them on the internet:
Wisdom – desire for the things of God, and to direct our whole life and all our actions to His honor and glory.
Understanding – enable us to know more clearly the mysteries of faith.
Counsel – warn us of the deceits of the devil, and of the dangers to salvation. (This is like Discernment, in yesterday’s column.)
Fortitude – strengthen us to do the will of God in all things.
Knowledge – enable us to discover the will of God in all things.
Piety – love God as a Father, and obey Him because we love Him.
Fear of the Lord – have a dread of sin and fear of offending God.
So, while we do not give gifts on Pentecost Sunday, it is fitting that we remember the gifts we have been given, courtesy of The Holy Spirit Who joins us with The Father and The Son and with each other.
