All For One

A Reflection on the Second Reading for June 9th, 2019:
The Solemnity of Pentecost Sunday

1Corinthians 12.3-7,12-13 

Brothers and sisters: No one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body — Jews or Greeks, slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

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Saint Paul wrote this letter to the Corinthians to address the issues they were experiencing as a young community. Basically, in this passage, he was addressing the envy that they felt as the people were given different gifts and different forms of expressing the same gifts. He wrote in this letter that all of those gifts, in their different forms and manifestations were all from the same Spirit. They were serving the same God and these gifts were to benefit the “common good.”

I am a cradle Catholic, formed, tutored, and mentored by nuns during all of my student life. You can just imagine how traditional that upbringing was (being prior to the Charasmatic Renewal). In the years before we came to Canada, my husband and I joined a prayer group of renewed Catholics and there we were introduced to the workings of the Holy Spirit. We experienced His powerful presence and the gifts of wisdom, knowledge, and discernment, as well as His guidance and inspiration as we made life changing decisions for our family.

Shortly after we got to Canada, we joined a prayer group with the same orientation as the one we had back home. I was initially alarmed to witness one of our members pray with such emotion and, I thought, in a ‘trance’ as she went into deep prayer in the Spirit. My old traditional judgmental self kicked in as I thought that this should not happen; I’d never seen anything like this before. I prayed hard to the Holy Spirit to enlighten me, to open my mind more to His workings and to accept what I see and experience as part of His gifts. Through that prayer, I was led to the passage above. Indeed, God gives to us what we need, what we can handle, and what we can work with. It is by His grace that we can pray and trust in Him as we try to grow in love and service of Him.

"Indeed, God gives to us what we need, what we can handle, and what we can work with."

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What I have learned is that I cannot say “Jesus is Lord” if deep in my heart I cannot accept that people are all wired differently; that God manifests Himself to them differently from how He makes Himself known to me. To each is given what will work well with them in accordance with their God given talents and abilities. 

Let us Pray:
Dear Lord, I pray for an outpouring of the spirit of humility to accept others as they are; to realize that they too are loved by You as You love me. I pray for all of us as we try to spread Your word and do Your work here on earth with the different skills and capabilities that You’ve given us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen. ​

​Liz Venezuela

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