The Gospel account we just heard is thought to be the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, the first miracle of His mission.
Pope Benedict XVI said, “Christ's entire mission is summed up in this: to baptize us in the Holy Spirit, to free us from the slavery of death and "to open heaven to us."”
I talked about this last weekend, baptizing in the Holy Spirit, and I talked about the Spiritual Gifts that the Spirit brings during this baptism, and here this weekend we have a reading talking about these specific gifts of the Spirit.
Let’s listen to that again: “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit.
To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom;
to another, the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit;
to another, faith by the same Spirit;
to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit;
to another, mighty deeds;
to another, prophecy;
to another, discernment of spirits;
to another, varieties of tongues;
to another, interpretation of tongues.
But one and the same Spirit produces all of these,
distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.”
The Holy Spirit is still today giving these gifts to people for our benefit, the primary benefit being that we know of His love for us, that we know of His presence in our lives, and the abundance of life He wants to give us.
I believe that is why Jesus starts with this miracle, an abundance of joy-giving wine. Can you imagine 120 gallons of the best wine you’ve ever had just showing up? If that’s not a sign of God’s love, I'm not sure what is.
Actually, it’s funny, I was looking at this list of gifts, going through them each going yeah, I’ve seen that, I’ve seen that, I’ve seen that, but I got to “Mighty Deeds” and I was like not very sure if I had seen that - but turning water into wine has to be an example of that, and I think I’ll start praying for that gift as well. I mean talk about a cool party trick!
Are we convinced? Are we convicted that God loves us?
This is the most important thing, the first thing in knowing that we are baptized in the Holy Spirit like I said last week, but the most important thing for us to know in our lives of faith, and sometimes we receive these gifts to help us know that, or sometimes we receive the fruits of these gifts, such as we get healed physically, and that’s to help us know that God loves us, to convince us of His love.
Sometimes we think we are not worthy of this love from God. But we have to remember, God loves us just the way we are, He created us after all. This was even what our first reading said, “For the LORD delights in you… As a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you.”
Our builder, our creator, He loves us. This is similar to how parents love their children, they had a hand in creating the kids right, and they have that same type of unconditional love that God has for us.
Really, our families are meant to be a school of love for us in a similar sort of way, our parents created us, and then they love us unconditionally, where we know we can just BE loved by them.
But often we get that mixed up, as we grow up we start to think that we are only loved if we do our chores, or if we perform well in sports or music. We think we are loved because of our talents, or because we can do certain things for people.
This type of love is conditional: I love you if… I love you because… this is the love of the world, how the world loves poorly, but this should not be the way we are loved in our families, and this definitely is not the way God loves us. Doing something or being worthy is not a prerequisite, our Builder God loves us as His little children, and there isn’t anything we can do to make Him love us more or less.
He knows our sinfulness, He knows our brokenness and our wounds, but He still loves us so much that He died on the cross for us, despite everything, because He wanted to “to free us from the slavery of death and "to open heaven to us."” He loves us as His children. Period. No conditions, no I love you if, I love you because, it’s I love you, period.
Are we convinced? Are we convicted that God loves us?
Because when we are truly convicted, it is then that we, as disciples, can join in the mission of Jesus.
At this conference I was at after Christmas, Fr. Mike Schmitz gave a keynote address, and he said, “When we live as disciples on mission, there are times when we will fail… this is why being on mission can’t be the core or center of our lives, the core has to be our identity as sons and daughters of God.”
It’s like, I’m a priest, but when I inevitably fail in my mission, I don’t call myself a failure, I call myself a beloved son of God. That allows me to move forward, my identity as a beloved son of God takes precedence over what I do as a priest. Your identity as a beloved child of God takes precedence over what you do too.
Hopefully you can see why this is the most important thing. Fr. Mike Schmitz went on to say, “We have different gifts and we can be grateful for other people’s gifts when we know that He (God) is our dad.” Otherwise, you know there is a tendency for us to be jealous. We really are like children like that, jealous of the gifts that the other kids have, but we really need to turn it into gratitude. Gratitude for our gifts, gratitude for other people’s gifts, it’s all part of God’s bigger plan.
We heard in today’s reading, “To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit
is given for some benefit… But one and the same Spirit produces all of these,
distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.” So we have to be thankful for what we have, but we keep asking for more, to help us know of God’s love and to help us on our mission. It's okay to ask as long as it isn’t out of a spirit of jealousy, like I said last week, ask, ask, ask!
Fr. Mike Schmitz concluded his keynote with a statement and a question, so I am going to conclude that way as well, quoting him, he said, “God is bringing about a new Pentecost, but first we must recognize we are His children. Does God have our permission to conquer our heart with His love?”
(9:30) Good morning everyone. I’d just like to give a special welcome to all visitors and guests of those being confirmed today, thanks for being here to support your loved ones.
We give thanks and all glory to God because we have three people being confirmed.
They’ve already been baptized, they’ve already been adopted by God, after considerable time and preparation they are simply coming into full communion with the Church by professing their faith, receiving the Holy Spirit in confirmation and then receiving the Eucharist for the first time.
In the RCIA book it said I could choose new readings if I wanted to, but actually these were really good readings for a confirmation, for a little Pentecost, for a Baptism in the Holy Spirit.