Solemnity of Pentecost, living Tradition
In the Sacred Hymns, Manzoni compares the spiritual fall of humanity to the plummeting of a great stone down a "splintered" slope; a boulder that finally "beats on the bottom and stands".
By nature, we do not have the ability to push back our boulder, rolled downhill and "abandoned to the rush of noisy landslide" [nor indeed to provide for its splintering].
But the Lord knows man in his need, and knows that not infrequently - in the time of our distress - by expressing ourselves even hastily, we make situations worse.
It is a condition rather than a fault.
Heaven comes to help us internalise; to set us on the path to indestructible Happiness, preventing tears from destroying even the soul.
To this end, the Spirit disposes to experience an eminent Attinence, of Abode and Reciprocity, of Interpretation and Root.
Its powerful wind - Ruah - is called 'Holy' both for its supreme quality and for its activity: to 'sanctify', that is, to separate people from the chasm of self-destruction.
And a profound discernment on the subject of life and death is not within our grasp.
That is why no less than four of the traditional seven Gifts of the Holy Spirit have a character of profound knowledge.
The global understanding of things is what characterises the Gift of Wisdom [from the Latin sāpere, to have taste] that transmits to concrete existence the taste of God Himself.
Wisdom infuses the believer with a subtle understanding, from the divine point of view, of the panorama and the individual sections of our journey: doubtful, uncertain, conditioned by outline situations.
God's eye catches the person in his or her radical destitution, which seeks completion (just as the rush of attempts or external opinions and influences plays tricks).
This is why, in traditional ascetics, Wisdom - the standard of God - was considered to bring the theological virtue of Charity to perfection.
In short, man in himself is not autonomous: he needs to be filled and saved.
Wisdom is the source of insight into our limitations: the principle of tolerance of others.
It conveys a balanced connaturality, and a different 'scent' in relationships; a pillar of a life dedicated to the good.
The Gift of Intellect [intus-lēgere, to read within things] uncovers God's weave in history and helps one evaluate oneself.
Deciphering the signs of the times with insight, we discover the not purely earthly dimension of events. Thus, divine grains deposited in creation and happenings.
We see deeply: that is why it was considered a Gift that brings to perfection the theological virtue of Faith: it guides us to the heart of things and does not let us judge trivially.
The Council leads to the evaluative exercise of the cardinal virtue of Prudence.
Once upon a time, the spiritual fathers associated it with the explanation of the passage of the adulteress: she saved from the hypocrites and the old rotters made immediately and finally conscious.
A gift that makes us understand the Plan of Salvation and helps us decide for the best in situations of unforeseen urgency or immediate danger.
It is capacity for discernment against precipitation.
The Council emphasises dialogue and synergy with regard to practice and prospects for personal fulfilment.
E.g.: how many times have we listened to the advice of parents and grandparents - to understand the world and treasure their experience and expertise!
For us who struggle to discover the things at hand, such a Gift opens wide God's direction: what is expedient in order to our maturity and ultimate Purpose.
The Gift of Science also brings the virtue of Faith to perfection, as it makes us understand the (extraordinary) value and the (so ordinary) limit of creatures.
Science from above does not allow one to fall into materialism, nor contempt for worldly things - which ultimately is denial of the ineffable and supreme work of the Creator.
From the indescribably small of Quantum Physics, to the infinitely large of Relativity [and their strange universe of missing correlations] we marvel at God.
Everything speaks of Him and can lead us to the Eternal. However, nothing captures it absolutely.
Knowing reality on a broad spectrum - as well as the vital contribution of different viewpoints and cultures - can also make one understand one's neighbour.
And it induces one to behave competently among things: of thought, of psyche, of soul.
Love unsupported by a capacity for versed discernment not infrequently drifts.
In the age of the fake connoisseur and dirigiste, there is perhaps nothing more devastating than an unprepared person unleashed into action.
My carpenter father knew that the best in his field is not the craftsman who makes the most chips.
The ancient spiritual fathers gladly reiterated: 'per Scientiam homo cognoscit defecus suos et rerum mundanarum'.We see this in the approximate teachings and even in the paroxysms of theologies devoured by vanity: intimate and closed, or practical but external; disembodied, fable-like, or baleful.
Thanks to the Gift of Fortitude, by recognising ourselves as weak we make room for God's vigour, not only in great trials.
A pinprick action can crumble our life more than a sabre rattling.
And he who has no inner strength is sick, conformist in his difficulties; he staggers and washes his hands of it.
Minimalism attenuates, it enervates, it makes men become bonsai men, who vegetate for a long time - remaining shrunken.
Constancy, courage and tenacity are an aid to weakness; only with grit do we give our best, even in our relationship with God - perfecting the same cardinal virtue of fortitude.
The Gift of Pietas - a family virtue - infuses religion with the heart; the character of intimacy and tenderness.
It is a childlike feeling that integrates and thins out the slave's fear of the master.
At one time it was considered a Gift that brought to the summit the cardinal virtue of Justice [towards God] not as a duty of worship, but as an expression of friendship.
Recognition of Gratuity received without merit: creaturely and redemptive.
The Fear of God finally drove to perfection the theological virtue of Hope, the character of the living being that awaits everything from the Father.
Pentecost was a Jewish festival celebrating the gift of the Law. The change of pace of the Faith has transformed it into the birthday of the people who unfold the Lord's loving Face in history.
Not because of a different doctrine, but because of the Action of a Motive and Engine that brings us, and renews the world in a way you do not expect.
Perhaps with passive rather than active virtues. Thanks to an infused or innate Knowledge, spontaneous and natural, rather than artificial.
Dwelling in the Person led back to the Source and in the web of the We, the Father does not pronounce Himself by issuing laws like the God-master of ancient religions.
Rather, it is expressed in the polyphonic creativity of life and in the unheard of love - the only convincing language capable of edifying.
Understandable to all.
In short, in the conviviality of differences each one is himself, in a relationship of enriching exchange.
Transparency in the flesh of the celestial condition.
Thus the Incarnation continues: reflection in the human of the unity, truth and intensity of Father-Son understanding.
Here even dust can become Splendour, because the complex of individual cardinal and theological virtues is sublimated and perfected in Relation: the We of the Spirit.
Such founding Eros is something else: even capable of transmuting our incoherence into an energetic state for New Horizons.
