FROM THE SERVANT GENERAL
THE NEW EVANGELIZATION
(Part 255)
SPIRITUAL GIFTS
Pentecost Sunday
May 23, 2021
Today’s readings:
1 Corinthians 12:3-7,12-13
Our Church has been losing her missionary consciousness. Evangelization is now considered as many things except making converts. Many Catholics have no idea about the commission to proclaim the gospel. The result? We are losing Catholics by the day.
The New Evangelization is a call to get back to basics. Evangelization is 2,000 years old but is to be done in a more creative way today. But the basics do not change. The message is the same. The need for proclamation is the same. The empowerment by the Holy Spirit is the same. And the tools needed remain the same.
Crucial to evangelization are spiritual gifts. They are what are needed by the Christian community to do an effective work. Today, on this great feast of Pentecost, our reading from First Corinthians skips the listing of spiritual gifts (1 Cor 12:8-11). So Catholics who do not know these spiritual gifts continue to be deprived of knowledge of these gifts. Thus those who might think of doing the work of evangelization are deprived of the tools needed.
Why is this the case? I think it is precisely because many in the Church, including pastors and hierarchs, have lost touch with how evangelization is to be done. It is supposed to be done in the power of the Holy Spirit, and spiritual gifts are part and parcel of such empowerment. But today there are those who no longer recognize this. They may believe such gifts are no longer operative today. They may look on these gifts as inconvenient truths that they cannot explain, if people were to ask why such gifts are no longer exercised in the Church. After all, when was the last time people in the Church prophesied or spoke in tongues?
Why are these gifts actually even more important today?
- Expression of wisdom and knowledge. Today many including pastors lack the wisdom that is of God. Many have become modernist and have twisted the scriptures. Many look to the city of man rather than the city of God.
- Faith. This is supernatural faith, which many have lost.
- Healing and mighty deeds.
- Prophecy. Oh, where are the prophets so very much needed today? Especially in the face of false teachers and false prophets. Where are those who boldly speak out against the rot in our Church?
- Discernment of spirits. Many today no longer know what is right and wrong. In fact, what is good has become bad and what is bad has become good.
- Tongues and interpretation of tongues. Today many would be most uncomfortable about tongues, but tongues was a common occurrence in the early Church. It was a manifestation of the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Since Jesus has sent his disciples as the Father had sent him, he gives them his Spirit to be able to do the work. “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.” (v.7). But if lay Catholics today are not taught about these spiritual gifts, how are they to know? If they do not know, how can they make use of them? And if they do not make use of them, how can the work of evangelization proceed in the power of the Spirit? And if the work of evangelization does not proceed, then many more Catholics will be lost. As is happening now.