THE GIFT OF PIETY


MONDAY, SEVENTH WEEK OF EASTERTIDE   

Acts 19:1-18; Ps 68:2-7; Jn 16:29-33

The Spirit of Piety

One of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit is piety. The gift of piety is not irrelevant in our spiritual life and walk, for it is a virtue that deepens and strengthens our religious commitment to God. It usually arises from a deep knowledge of God gained through faith. Naturally, we do not know God. We do not understand his essence, which is beyond our comprehension. The little we know of God is usually through analogy, as in the use of metaphors by our Lord. We are made in the image of God, which is within us. But the image is dark without divine light. It is only in Jesus Christ that we see the divine image most illuminated by the divine light. Hence, the Son of Man is a mystery to our human gaze. The image is not what is outwardly given, but inwardly seen with the spiritual sight. None of us has his spiritual sight untarnished by sin. Hence, we need the Holy Spirit to give us spiritual life and sight to gaze upon and understand the image of God within us, which the Son of Man came to renew. Without the Holy Spirit, the apostles were completely at a loss; they could not understand the divine identity of the Son of Man. Even Peter, who received divine revelation of his identity and proclaimed it to Jesus Christ, hardly understood the meaning of the words he uttered; for he immediately contradicted his words by counselling his master against doing the will of his Father. These show how we stand in need of the Holy Spirit.

In the Gospel reading, the words of our Lord to his disciples made no serious meaning to them until he spoke in plain language. “His disciples said to Jesus, ‘Now you are speaking plainly and not using metaphors! Now we see that you know everything, and do not have to wait for questions to be put into words; because of this, we believe that you came from God.’” Yet they were still floating and without commitment, even when they thought they have understood him. “Jesus answered them: ‘Do you believe at last? Listen; the time will come—in fact, it has come already—when you will be scattered, each going his own way and leaving me alone.” Jesus directs these words to each of us. We would all fall away from our faith in God and deny him if the Holy Spirit were not given personally to each of us as our Counsellor. He gives us a new spirit, and his divine presence and light so consolidate us in the divine truth that we would be ready to lay down our lives for the faith. The gift of piety that comes with his presence in us makes us so deeply convinced of the divine reality that we consecrate our lives in worship of God. Our strong devotion to God is a result of this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. It becomes better, and the light of faith shines brighter as we follow his prompts to journey deeper into the mysteries of Jesus Christ.

The disciples Saint Paul saw at Ephesus displayed certain shallowness in their devotion that caused him to question them. “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ they answered, ‘No, we were never even told there was such a thing as a Holy Spirit.’ ‘Then how were you baptised?’ he asked. ‘With John’s baptism’ they replied.” Repentance, which John the Baptist preached, was not enough to receive the Holy Spirit. With the Son of Man, repentance was a complete metanoia, requiring death to the old self and the reception of a new life in the Holy Spirit. Because the new life is the same as the life of the Son of Man, it is totally consecrated to the Father and can only grow on the heavenly food that is Jesus Christ. Genuine piety grows from this spiritual filiation caused by the presence of the Holy Spirit in each believer. Hence, Paul immediately baptised them, so that the Holy Spirit may give them new life in Jesus Christ. “When they heard this, they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus, and the moment Paul had laid hands on them the Holy Spirit came down on them, and they began to speak with tongues and to prophesy.” We can only receive the knowledge of God within this new spiritual self, for our spirits grow into Jesus Christ as we follow the Holy Spirit. The words of the psalmist underscore this. “But the just shall rejoice at the presence of God, they shall exult and dance for joy.”

Let us pray: May the power of the Holy Spirit come to us, we pray, O Lord, that we may keep your will faithfully in mind and express it in a devout way of life. Through our Lord Jesus, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

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