Based on the Word of God proclaimed here today we can reflect on the Eucharist in a couple of very important ways.  On the one hand we can reflect on our own participation in the Mass and our reception of the Eucharist in communion. We can also reflect on the Eucharist. In the Catechism, paragraph 1334, it says that the mode of Christ's presence under the Eucharistic species is unique. It raises the Eucharist above all the sacraments as "the perfection of the spiritual life and the end to which all the sacraments tend." In the most blessed sacrament of the Eucharist "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and, therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really, and substantially contained." "This presence is called 'real' - by which is not intended to exclude the other types of presence as if they could not be 'real' too, but because it is presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."
 
As we heard in the Gospel reading, Jesus took the loaves and fishes that were brought to him and multiplied them. The little that the people had become an abundant source of nourishment and joy. The Eucharist is the pattern of this process. In paragraph 1335 of the Catechism we read that the miracles of the multiplication of the loaves, when the Lord says the blessing, breaks and distributes the loaves through his disciples to feed the multitude, prefigure the superabundance of this unique bread of his Eucharist. The sign of water turned into wine at Cana already announces the Hour of Jesus' glorification. It makes manifest the fulfillment of the wedding feast in the Father's kingdom, where the faithful will drink the new wine that has become the Blood of Christ.
 
It is no accident that we as Christians make our offerings to God while the bread and wine are presented to the priest during the Mass. Our offerings represent our lives and work.  Our offerings are both the fruits of our labor, and the means by which we stay alive, just like the bread and wine. We give to God simple bread and wine. Then, through the ministry of the priest, Jesus takes these gifts, blesses them, and transforms them into his very self, his real presence, body, blood, soul, and divinity.
 
At the moment in the Mass when we give these offerings to God, we should be aware of this. We should never live it as an empty ritual or dry obligation. It is part of the liturgy, part of our sacred prayer. By that gesture we give our lives to Christ anew, just as we did at our baptism and confirmation.  We ought to consciously renew this gift of ourselves, holding nothing back. Christ will multiply and transform every offering we make to him, and often he will give us even more in return. 
 
Although many Christian denominations commemorate the Lord’s Supper in some way, and focus their attention on the first reflection, they don’t go so far as to say that this truly is the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. However, even though the Church has strenuously taught this truth since the beginning, people struggle to understand and therefore to believe this truth. Sadly, Priests sometimes struggle to understand and believe as well. 
 
In 1263 A.D. there was a priest, Father Peter of Prague. On a pilgrimage to Rome from his home, stopped along the way in a little Italian town called Bolsena. He had been struggling in the teaching about the Eucharist, finding it hard to believe that the bread and the wine actually changed into the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Still, the priest was faithful to his duties, and went to the chapel to celebrate Mass. While he was celebrating Mass, as he elevated the host, the host began to bleed. The blood dripped from the host onto the corporal, the square white cloth that lays on the altar. Father Peter stopped the Mass and asked to be taken to see the Pope, who happened to be staying a couple of miles away in Orvieto. The Pope, Urban IV, sent his delegates to investigate this extraordinary occurrence. The miracle was quickly confirmed, and the host and corporal were brought to the Pope in Orvieto, where he enshrined the stained corporal in the cathedral for all to look upon and believe. That corporal is still hanging above the altar in the Orvieto cathedral to this day. It was Pope Urban who declared this universal Feast of Corpus Christi, the first time that any pope had instituted a feast to be celebrated by the entire Church.
 
Originally called Corpus Christi [the Body of Christ], the solemnity had its origins in thirteenth-century France. St. Juliana (1192 – _1258) was the abbess at the Augustinian Sisters at Mont Carvillon near Liege in Belgium. After a vision, she persuaded Bishop Robert de Thorte of Liege to institute a feast to the Blessed Sacrament; he established it in 1246.
 
Since Vatican II, the feast has been called “The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ.” The name change is significant. The emphasis is no longer on the Blessed Sacrament reserved in the tabernacle and presented for adoration by the faithful. The emphasis is on the celebration of the Eucharist. Indeed, the preface from Holy Thursday is used. In the Collect (Opening Prayer), we acknowledge that we “revere the sacred mysteries” of the Body and Blood of Christ, and that through this sacrament, we experience redemption. 
 
Saint Cyril of Alexandria - “The Priest cries aloud, Lift up your hearts. For truly ought we in that most awful hour to have our heart on high with God, and not below, thinking of earth and earthly things. In effect therefore the Priest bids all in that hour to dismiss all cares of this life, or household anxieties, and to have their heart in heaven with the merciful God. Then you answer, We lift them up unto the Lord: assenting to it, by your avowal. But let no one come here, who could say with his mouth, We lift up our hearts unto the Lord, but in his thoughts have his mind concerned with the cares of this life. At all times, rather, God should be in our memory but if this is impossible by reason of human infirmity, in that hour above all this should be our earnest endeavor.”
 
1333 At the heart of the Eucharistic celebration are the bread and wine that, by the words of Christ and the invocation of the Holy Spirit, become Christ's Body and Blood. Faithful to the Lord's command the Church continues to do, in his memory and until his glorious return, what he did on the eve of his Passion: "He took bread. . . ." "He took the cup filled with wine. . . ." The signs of bread and wine become, in a way surpassing understanding, the Body and Blood of Christ; they continue also to signify the goodness of creation. Thus in the Offertory we give thanks to the Creator for bread and wine,154 fruit of the "work of human hands," but above all as "fruit of the earth" and "of the vine" - gifts of the Creator.
 
Sixteen hundred years ago a Bishop of Jerusalem addressed some converts regarding the Holy Communion that they were to receive for the first time. He said, “When you come up to receive, make your left hand a throne for the right. For it is about to receive a King. Cup your palm and so receive the Body of Christ, then answer ‘amen.’ Take care not to lose part of it; such a loss would be like a mutilation of your own body. Why, if you had been given gold dust, would you not take the utmost care to hold it fast. Not letting a grain slip through your fingers, lest you be so much the poorer.”
 
1375 It is by the conversion of the bread and wine into Christ's body and blood that Christ becomes present in this sacrament. The Church Fathers strongly affirmed the faith of the Church in the efficacy of the Word of Christ and of the action of the Holy Spirit to bring about this conversion. Thus St. John Chrysostom declares:  It is not man that causes the things offered to become the Body and Blood of Christ, but he who was crucified for us, Christ himself. The priest, in the role of Christ, pronounces these words, but their power and grace are God's. This is my body, he says. This word transforms the things offered.
 
And St. Ambrose says about this conversion: Be convinced that this is not what nature has formed, but what the blessing has consecrated. The power of the blessing prevails over that of nature, because by the blessing nature itself is changed. . . . Could not Christ's word, which can make from nothing what did not exist, change existing things into what they were not before? It is no less a feat to give things their original nature than to change their nature.
 
1376 The Council of Trent summarizes the Catholic faith by declaring: "Because Christ our Redeemer said that it was truly his body that he was offering under the species of bread, it has always been the conviction of the Church of God, and this holy Council now declares again, that by the consecration of the bread and wine there takes place a change of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of the body of Christ our Lord and of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood. This change the holy Catholic Church has fittingly and properly called transubstantiation."
 
1377 The Eucharistic presence of Christ begins at the moment of the consecration and endures as long as the Eucharistic species subsist. Christ is present whole and entire in each of the species and whole and entire in each of their parts, in such a way that the breaking of the bread does not divide Christ.

Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth; and God has placed in the human heart a desire to know the truth—in a word, to know himself—so that, by knowing and loving God, men and women may also come to the fullness of truth about themselves. (cf. Ex 33:18; Ps 27:8-9; 63:2-3; Jn 14:8; 1 Jn 3:2)
 
Understanding the mysteries of our faith, such as the Most Holy Trinity is made possible by both Faith and Reason.  God reveals the truth of the Trinity through revelation to the faithful. But God has also created us with the desire to know the Truth through rational contemplation of our human experience, which we call Philosophy in particular and through intellectual analysis which we would call the natural sciences.
 
I am who am. God is. God is a total unity of three persons, an everlasting community of living love, of mutual self-giving. There is no holding back, there are no hidden agendas, there is no manipulation - the inner life of God is absolute, no-holds-barred generosity, eternal and unlimited self-donation. God is: three perfect divine persons who perfectly share the unique divine nature.
 
The way of redemption showcases these roles in a clear manner. The Father designed and organized how mankind would be redeemed (Galatians 4:4-5). The Son carried out the plan (John 6:37-38). The Holy Spirit sees to it that every person experiences a desire for God's saving grace (John 14:26, John 16:8; Romans 1:19-20). For those who receive and cooperate with that grace, their lives are altered through the transformation of their minds and hearts.

God has been revealed to us as Trinitarian and has invited us into that inner life and communion of love, which alone is the origin, goal, and meaning of our life. As we read in the Catechism, “By sending his only Son and the Spirit of Love in the fullness of time, God has revealed his innermost secret: God himself is an eternal exchange of love, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and he has destined us to share in that exchange” (CCC 221). On Trinity Sunday, the Church proclaims the truth about God—that God is love (1 John 4:8)—and the truth about us: we are made for this love. We eternally belong to God—we have an eternal home!‘What’ is the Trinity?The mystery of the Holy Trinity is the most fundamental of our faith. On it everything else depends, and from it everything else derives. Hence the Church’s constant concern to safeguard the revealed truth that God is One in nature and Three in Persons. The Trinity is “the central mystery of Christian faith and life…[and is] the source of all the other mysteries of faith” (CCC 234)
 
All teaching in the Church about the Trinity begins in Scripture which shows how each member of the Trinity fulfills a specific role, and it also reveals how those three roles interrelate. The Church has conceived “a theological process by which an essential aspect of the Trinity – common to all three divine Persons – is specifically attributed to one of them,” explains the Dominican Gilles Emery. For example, the Creation is attributed to the Father, the Redemption to the Son, and the sanctification to the Holy Spirit; omnipotence to the Father, wisdom to the Son and goodness with love to the Holy Spirit. In simple terms: The Father creates a plan, Jesus Christ implements the plan, and the Holy Spirit administers the plan.
 

• God the Father—Jesus Christ referred to His Father as God (John 6:27).
  
• God the Son--John 1:1 identifies Jesus as divine. His Father did apply the title to Him (Heb. 1:8). Furthermore, Jesus acknowledged having unlimited power—an attribute possessed only by the divine Creator (Matt. 28:18)—and also accepted worship (Matt. 14:33; John 9:38).
  
• God the Holy Spirit—After declaring that God raised Christ from the dead, the New Testament goes on to credit the Holy Spirit with the resurrection (Acts 4:10; Rom. 8:11). Jesus reinforced that idea when He commanded the disciples to baptize new believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

 
The three divine Persons are only one God because each of them equally possesses the fullness of the one and indivisible divine nature. They are really distinct from each other by reason of the relations which place them in correspondence to each other. The Father generates the Son; the Son is generated by the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son [CCC 48].
 
We must keep in mind that the action of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is always one and the same. Each act of God is the work of Trinity as a whole. So, we cannot attribute a property or an action to one specific divine person alone. But to this, we must immediately add that the way the divine persons operate depends on how one of them relates to the others: the Father to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and vice-versa. So, in the Trinity, the Father is the One who loves – the source and the beginning of all things; the Son is the beloved and the Holy Spirit is their love for one another. The Catechism of the Catholic Church stipulates: “… each divine person performs the common work according to his unique personal property” (CCC 258). 
 
At the beginning of time, we were slowly made aware of the reality of God the Father.  The Great I AM.  It was revealed to us through the prophets and patriarchs that there was one God and only one.  But as time passed, we were also made aware of the Messiah who was the Son of God.  As we came to know this Son, in the person of Jesus, we came to realize that He also was I AM.  He also was God.  Then the Son began to reveal to us that He would send His Advocate, the Holy Spirit.  And we came to realize that this Holy Spirit is also God, also I AM.  This was God’s way of slowly revealing the full truth of Who He is over time.  He is One, yet He is also Three.  One God, three divine Persons.
 
The more deeply we ponder and absorb this revelation of God, the more we know and love God.  Since we are created to love God, we will be happier with abiding joy and peace the more we love. Because when we do what we were made to do, we experience fulfillment of our meaning and purpose.

To love him more, we must know him better, as the old proverb says, "You cannot love what you do not know." To use a crude example: someone who has never tasted apple pie can't say, "I love apple pie." But if that same person has experienced a piece of home-baked apple pie, right out of the oven, then he knows what it is, and he can say, "I love apple pie." If we know who God is, if we go beyond vague, fuzzy ideas and really get a clear view of his glory and his goodness, it will stimulate our spiritual taste buds and stir up our love. This is the reason that God has revealed himself to us. He wants us to know him, to love and serve him.
​
Today, on this feast of the Blessed Trinity, we need to ask ourselves: how well do we know God?

• Have we become satisfied with the bare minimum? 
• Are we striving to know him better? 
• Do we know him better today than we did one year ago, five years ago, twenty years ago?

How will we come to know God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit better?

• Pray, Read and Study the Living Word of God.
• Pray, listen, and remember during Mass.
• Pray, Read and Study the Documents of the Church.
• Pray, Read and Study the Catechism.
• Pray, Read and Study the Writings of the Saints.
• Got questions, seek answers from those who know.
• Confused, seek a guide who is farther along the journey than you.
• Participate in parish / diocesan formation and education opportunities.
• Go on retreat, pray and listen to God.
• Spend time in Adoration praying and listening to God.
• Have a spiritual mentor, guide, counselor, director. 

The Holy Spirit
Pope Benedict XVI said, “The Holy Spirit has been in some ways the neglected person of the Blessed Trinity.” In my experience as a Catholic and a Priest these last 30+ years, I would definitely agree.  Although there have been so called ‘charismatic’ movements in the Universal Church, most recently in the past 60 years and, although there have been documents from various Popes and of course our belief and teachings regarding the Sacramental Theology of Baptism and Confirmation-the Holy Spirit still ranks in the average Catholics faith life as a sort of ‘oh yeah, and the Holy Spirit’.
 
I think that the role of the Holy Spirit, even though we intellectually understand that the Holy Spirit is a distinct person of the Holy Trinity, who exists as the communication and personification of the mutual, flowing, and never-ending relationship of love and unity between God the Father and God the Son – we do not know what it means for us to ‘have a relationship with that person of the Trinity, nor do we fully understand how we are to experience the Holy Spirit at work in ourselves and our Church.
 
All teaching in the Church about the Trinity begins in Scripture which shows how each member of the Trinity fulfills a specific role, and it also reveals how those three roles interrelate. The Church has conceived “a theological process by which an essential aspect of the Trinity – common to all three divine Persons – is specifically attributed to one of them,” explains the Dominican Gilles Emery. For example, the Creation is attributed to the Father, the Redemption to the Son, and the sanctification to the Holy Spirit; omnipotence to the Father, wisdom to the Son and goodness with love to the Holy Spirit. In simple terms: The Father creates a plan, Jesus Christ implements the plan, and the Holy Spirit administers the plan.  However, we cannot forget that first and foremost, even though each has their own role, according to the scriptures, all three members of the Trinity are fully God:

• God the Father—Jesus Christ referred to His Father as God (John 6:27).
  
• God the Son--John 1:1 identifies Jesus as divine. His Father did apply the title to Him (Heb. 1:8). Furthermore, Jesus acknowledged having unlimited power—an attribute possessed only by the divine Creator (Matt. 28:18)—and also accepted worship (Matt. 14:33; John 9:38).
  
• God the Holy Spirit—After declaring that God raised Christ from the dead, the New Testament goes on to credit the Holy Spirit with the resurrection (Acts 4:10; Rom. 8:11). Jesus reinforced that idea when He commanded the disciples to baptize new believers in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

 
The way of redemption showcases these roles in a clear manner. The Father designed and organized how mankind would be redeemed (Galatians 4:4-5). The Son carried out the plan (John 6:37-38). The Holy Spirit sees to it that every person experiences a desire for God's saving grace (John 14:26, John 16:8; Romans 1:19-20). For those who receive and cooperate with that grace, their lives are altered through the transformation of their minds and hearts.
 
It is important to point out that the age we are in now, the age after the life, death, resurrection and ascension of the Son, is especially the age of the Holy Spirit!  This is the time when the Holy Spirit is especially active in our world and in the Church.  The Father is especially seen and revealed in the creation of the world, the Son is especially seen and revealed in the redemption of the world after it fell from innocence, and the Holy Spirit is now clearly seen and revealed as the one active in our lives and in the Church sanctifying (making holy) all who follow Jesus and all who seek the will of the Father.
 
Pope John Paul II wrote, "Having accomplished the work that the Father had entrusted to the Son on earth (John 17:4), on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent to sanctify the Church for ever, so that believers might have access to the Father through Christ in one Spirit" (Eph 2: 18).
 
What is Pentecost?
Now that we better understand the nature of the Trinity so that we can more clearly reflect on the role of the Holy Spirit, we can enter more deeply into the experience of the apostles who were all gathered in one room at the time of the Jewish feast of Pentecost.  The feast was the only Old Testament festival determined by counting. On the day after the Sabbath after Passover, the ancient Israelites selected a sheaf of the first grain that had been harvested in the spring. This grain became an offering, and the priest waved it “before the Lord” (Leviticus 23:11-12).  Judaism came to regard Pentecost as the anniversary of the giving of the old covenant and law at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20–24) fifty days after the Exodus Passover. For St. Luke this would be seen as having a Christian fulfilment in the giving of the Spirit fifty days after the Christian Exodus Passover, the Crucifixion and Resurrection.
 
The Spirit coming in human minds was a kind of “second giving of the law”; the Spirit replaced the law as the guide for God’s people. It was, in Paul’s expression, “the law of the Spirit who gives life,” which came through the new righteousness that is in Christ (Romans 8:1-2). The Spirit-filled church made possible by Pentecost existed in continuity with Israel. In the Pentecost experience, the Spirit becomes, in Paul’s words, “the righteousness of God has been made known…apart from the law…to which the Law and Prophets testify” (Romans 3:21). This makes it possible for humans to experience oneness with God through the connecting link of spiritual love. As Paul wrote, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5).
 
Until the age of the Church and the Holy Spirit, the way of life for the faithful was Torah- or law-centered. The new covenantal way of life for the faithful became and remains Christ-centered and Spirit-directed. On this day, the “first-fruits” of disciples would be transformed by the Spirit as a token or representative offering, giving evidence that one day all the nations would seek God, and his truth would cover the earth (Isaiah 2:2-3, 11:9).
 
Descent of the Holy Spirit
John the Baptist had spoken of the Messiah carrying out a baptism of the Holy Spirit (hence, “wind”) and fire (Luke 3:16). For the disciples as well, these signs were instructive. They understood that Jesus Christ was bringing to fruition something he had promised (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-5, 8).
 
The descent of the Holy Spirit, as we heard, was described as the sound of a mighty wind from heaven filling the whole house.  The word in Greek for ‘spirit’ and ‘wind’ is the same, so the wind clearly indicates the Spirit of God. First was the sound of a hurricane-like wind (Greek, pneuma) (2:3). Both the Hebrew word ruach and the Greek pneuma can mean either wind or spirit, as determined by the context. The wind was a physical manifestation of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The wind symbolized the Spirit of God. The sound of a strong wind is also reminiscent of Old Testament theophanies in which God manifested himself (Ezekiel 13:13). The loud sound of this wind also had a practical result: It attracted God-fearing Jews who were curious as to what was happening.
 
The Jews who were present in Jerusalem and near to the location of the Apostles seemed to have become attentive due to the sound of the wind, and they were certainly awed by the second manifestation of the presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. Due to the “tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them” (2:3), each heard the apostles speaking in their own language. Fire was another symbol of the divine presence. We remember that, as the Israelites wandered through the desert, they were accompanied during the night by a pillar of fire – God was with them.  God appeared to Moses in flames coming from a bush (Exodus 3:2-5). Fire was a frequent feature of Old Testament theophanies, especially those surrounding the Exodus and the giving of the law. [Exodus 13:21-22; 14:24; 19:18; 24:17; Deuteronomy 4:12, 24, 33; 5:4; 10:4.].
 
These two signs — the wind and fire — were the outward demonstration of what was happening inside the disciples. “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit” (2:4). The church — the Israel of the Spirit — was born through the Holy Spirit, and the disciples were spiritually transformed. All Christians continue to participate in the internal transformation that Pentecost symbolizes. In the Sacraments of baptism and Confirmation all receive and are sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit. [Acts 2:38; 9:17; 11:17; 19:2; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 3:2; Ephesians 1:13; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 6:4; 1 John 3:24.]
 
A message for all, speaking in various languages
On that first Pentecost a third manifestation of the Spirit’s presence occurred. Immediately, the apostles go out and begin to speak to the crowds of people in other languages (“tongues”), “as the Spirit enabled them” (2:4).  Simple Galileans appeared to have sudden skill in most of the languages spoken in that region of the world.
 
Luke tells us there were “God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven” staying in Jerusalem (2:5). Among the crowd there were also converts or “proselytes” from paganism to Judaism (2:11). The multitude was made up of devout Jews and proselytes, who were in Jerusalem to worship God during the festival of Pentecost.  They were visitors and emigres from all over the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, Egypt and North Africa, even Rome, to celebrate the feast.  Luke’s account makes it clear that the “tongues” were real languages, and they could be understood. The supernatural aspect of this was not lost on the hearers, who were “utterly amazed” (2:7). More than this, each person in the crowd heard the disciples speaking in his own native language (2:8). The Greek literally means, “We are hearing in our own language in which we were born.” The meaning is clear.  What the apostles are preaching is a message destined for the whole world.  
 
One authority estimated that over 100,000 people attended Passover in Jesus’ day. Josephus wrote of the large crowds in Jerusalem for this feast. [Josephus, Antiquities 14:337; 17:254; Wars 1:253; 2:42-43.]  Jews would come to the city from throughout the Roman Empire, and from eastern kingdoms. Philo (20 B.C.–A.D. 50), a Jewish philosopher from Egypt who lived at the same time as Jesus and Paul, said that there were “vast numbers of Jews scattered over every city of Asia and Syria.” [Philo, Embassy to Gaius 245.]  He claimed that there were about a million Jews in Egypt. [Philo, Flaccus 43, 55.]
 
Luke’s point is clear. The miraculous coming of the Holy Spirit was witnessed in Jerusalem by Jews from all over the world. Many of these individuals from far-flung international areas believed the gospel and received the Spirit. They were later scattered because of persecution and “preached the word wherever they went” (8:1, 4).
 
Special gifts
In the experience of our own ‘personal pentecost’ during Baptism / Confirmation – being born of water and the Spirit, we receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Those seven gifts according to Catholic Tradition are, wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of God. The standard interpretation of how we are to understand these gifts, has been the one that St. Thomas Aquinas worked out in the thirteenth century in his Summa Theologiae:

• Wisdom is both the knowledge of and judgment about “divine things” and the ability to judge and direct human affairs according to divine truth (I/I.1.6; I/II.69.3; II/II.8.6; II/II.45.1–5).
• Understanding is penetrating insight into the very heart of things, especially those higher truths that are necessary for our eternal salvation—in effect, the ability to “see” God (I/I.12.5; I/II.69.2; II/II.8.1–3).
• Counsel allows a man to be directed by God in matters necessary for his salvation (II/II.52.1).
• Fortitude denotes a firmness of mind in doing good and in avoiding evil, particularly when it is difficult or dangerous to do so, and the confidence to overcome all obstacles, even deadly ones, by virtue of the assurance of everlasting life (I/II.61.3; II/II.123.2; II/II.139.1).
• Knowledge is the ability to judge correctly about matters of faith and right action, so as to never wander from the straight path of justice (II/II.9.3).
• Piety is, principally, revering God with filial affection, paying worship and duty to God, paying due duty to all men on account of their relationship to God, and honoring the saints and not contradicting Scripture. The Latin word pietas denotes the reverence that we give to our father and to our country; since God is the Father of all, the worship of God is also called piety (I/II.68.4; II/II.121.1).
• Fear of God is, in this context, “filial” or chaste fear whereby we revere God and avoid separating ourselves from him—as opposed to “servile” fear, whereby we fear punishment (I/II.67.4; II/II.19.9).

 
These are heroic character traits that Jesus Christ alone possesses in their plenitude but that he freely shares among the members of his mystical body the Church. These traits are infused into every Christian as a permanent endowment and are nurtured by the practice of the seven virtues, and sealed in the sacrament of confirmation. They are also known as the sanctifying gifts of the Spirit, because they serve the purpose of rendering their recipients docile to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in their lives, helping them to grow in holiness and making them fit for heaven.
 
These gifts, according to Aquinas, are “habits,” “instincts,” or “dispositions” provided by God as supernatural helps to man in the process of his “perfection.” They enable man to transcend the limitations of human reason and human nature and participate in the very life of God, as Christ promised (John 14:23). Aquinas insisted that they are necessary for man’s salvation, which he cannot achieve on his own. They serve to “perfect” the four cardinal or moral virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) and the three theological virtues(faith, hope, and charity). The virtue of charity is the key that unlocks the potential power of the seven gifts, which can (and will) lie dormant in the soul after baptism unless so acted upon.
 
Because “grace builds upon nature” (ST I/I.2.3), the seven gifts work synergistically with the seven virtues and also with the twelve fruits of the Spirit and the eight beatitudes. The emergence of the gifts is fostered by the practice of the virtues, which in turn are perfected by the exercise of the gifts. The proper exercise of the gifts, in turn, produce the fruits of the Spirit in the life of the Christian: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, modesty, self-control, and chastity (Gal. 5:22–23). The goal of this cooperation among virtues, gifts, and fruits is the attainment of the eight-fold state of beatitude described by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5:3–10).
 
Today’s second reading speaks of the gifts that the Spirit of God and Jesus gives to each one for this work.  We are not all called to the same thing in the same way.  “There are all sorts of service to be done but always to the same Lord; working in all sorts of different ways in different people, it is the same God who is working in all of them.”  We all have exactly the same ultimate goal, energized from the same Source, but, with our different qualities of character and ability and depending on the environmental situation in which we find ourselves, we aim at that goal in different ways.
 
Working together in different ways towards a common aim, Paul compares us to a human body.  It consists of many parts but each part is ordered to the well-being of the whole.  That should be a picture of the Christian community, of our diocese and of each parish and of each community within a parish.  We are all equal in dignity – Jew or Greek, slave or citizen, man or woman, cleric or lay – but different in calling and manner of service.
 
On this feast of Pentecost, as we celebrate the formation and the mission of the whole Christian community, we also need to reflect on the particular role that God has for me, to reflect on the particular contribution that I can make to the corporate mission of the Church and of the particular group with which I am involved.
 
It would be wrong to conclude from the account of the decent of the Holy Spirit in the first reading, that the Holy Spirit's normal way of acting is through dramatic fireworks.  The truth is that God's actions are most often gentle and hardly perceptible at first. How does Jesus send the Spirit to his Apostles after his resurrection? He breathes on them - quietly and subtly. How does St Paul describe the action of the Holy Spirit in the Church? Like the soul of a body - powerful, essential, but invisible and subtle. The Holy Spirit works quietly.
 
There is only one condition attached to this gift.  To experience God's transforming presence in our lives, we must obey his will out of love: "Whoever loves me will keep my word," as Jesus says in the Gospel. All of us here today want to obey God's will in our lives - some want to do so passionately, others reluctantly, but we all want to - otherwise we wouldn't be here. The Holy Spirit quietly reveals God's will to us in two ways. First, he inspires and guides the teaching of the Church through the commandments of the Bible, the instructions in the Catechism, the examples of the saints, the regular updates from the pope's encyclicals - the Holy Spirit wants us to know how a Christian should live.