Transcript

The Christian moral life has a lot of lists, you may be feeling by now.

There's the Ten Commandments, and then the virtues, the moral virtues, the theological virtues, the precepts of the church, and so forth.

A description of the Christian moral life would not be complete without an explanation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the Beatitudes.

And so, it may seem daunting at first blush to have another list of things to consider, but it's really a great consolation.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit in particular show us just how much God intends to bless us with His grace, while the Beatitudes show us what the Christian life should look like when it's lived to the fullest.

By His grace, God gives us not only the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, but also the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit; knowledge, understanding, wisdom, counsel, piety, fortitude, and fear of the Lord.

And these gifts strengthen the theological virtues in our life.

They allow us to act in an even more supernatural way.

Their stable dispositions or qualities that God places in our souls to make us receptive to his action.

According to the classic image, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are like sails placed in the ship of our soul.

Think of a grand ship with, with lots of different sails.

The sails, if you think about it, let the ship catch the force of the wind and be propelled.

And in the same way, we need the gifts of the Holy Spirit to receive the powerful movements of the Holy Spirit, to be propelled in our spiritual life.

God has an incredible task to accomplish, the building up of the Kingdom of God and the salvation of souls.

And so, in order to be successful at any task we do, we need to choose the right method to accomplish it.

And so, with the grand task of salvation that the Lord has chosen, He's also chosen the right means to accomplish His goal.

Divine tasks call for divine means, and divine direction and power.

So God has chosen the divine means, the gifts of the Holy Spirit, to accomplish His divine end, which is salvation.

The gifts are listed in the book of the Prophet Isaiah as traits belonging to the promised Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ was the one most filled with the Holy Spirit, so as we're conformed to Christ, we're also infused with the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Anyone in the state of sanctifying grace also enjoys these gifts.

The gifts of the Holy Spirit are infused at baptism, but they're especially strengthened in us by the Sacrament of Confirmation.

And as we grow in holiness, the gifts become more and more operative to us.

Our spiritual sails should grow and become more receptive to God's action, more and more dependent on His guidance and force.

Each of the gifts actually has a special meaning and role.

The gift of knowledge helps us to see the passing value of earthly things, and the gift of wisdom helps us to judge the immense value of spiritual things.

Understanding strengthens our faith and helps us to penetrate into divine mysteries.

Counsel perfects our human prudence and judgment and moves us to act according to God's plan.

Piety helps us to know our true identity as children of God.

And fear of the Lord is also a gift.

The gift of fear is not so much about being afraid of God as it is about revering Him in a holy awe.

It gives a reverence for God as a loving Father and strengthens our hope.

Fortitude gives us confidence to overcome fears and attain difficult goods, even the greatest and perhaps most difficult of goods, that of Heaven.

It's good to pray for an increase in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially those we feel we need the most.

For example, if we're facing a hard decision, not exactly sure which path we should take in the moment, we should pray for the Holy Spirit's gift of counsel.

Or if we're struggling with some difficult trial, we should pray for the Holy Spirit's gift of fortitude.

Saint Augustine, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and many of the other holy teachers of the faith throughout the centuries have drawn a close connection between the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the one hand and the Beatitudes, which are at the heart of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.

Propelled by the gifts of the Holy Spirit, Christians strive to attain the pattern of holiness set out in the Beatitudes.

You've probably heard of the Beatitudes before, but it's worth actually going through them again to refresh us.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are they who mourn, for they will be comforted.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

You can find a complete list of the Beatitudes in this chapter.

Beatitude simply means happiness.

And so, the Beatitudes are essentially promises of happiness.

It doesn't seem at first blush like being poor or meek or hungry or mourning or being persecuted are paths to happiness, but the world tells us that power, wealth, and pleasure will make us happy, and Christ offers us something different, a different path of holiness.

Following Him results in happiness, but the full happiness we'll experience is something we await to be found in eternal life with God.

The Beatitudes reveal to us the face of Christ.

He is the poor one who has been persecuted for righteousness' sake, but who has received the blessed inheritance of the Son of God.

While the Ten Commandments are the foundational laws of the Christian moral life, the Beatitudes show us the Gospel's call to fullness of life in Christ.

The Beatitudes reveal to us that Christianity does not have to be a morality of the minimum, but a morality of the maximum.

There's no upper limit to holiness.

We're all called to strive in holiness and to grow in charity, reaching out for the fullness of happiness that comes through Christ.

In our next lesson, we'll explore the priesthood and religious life, which are special ways of following the Lord's call to holiness.