Gifts of the Spirit

 

2nd Reading at today’s mass: 1 Corinthians 12:4-11

Brothers and sisters:

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit;

there are different forms of service but the same Lord;

there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

To each individual the manifestation of the Spirit is given for some benefit.

To one is given through the Spirit the expression of wisdom; to another, the expression of knowledge according to the same Spirit;

to another, faith by the same Spirit; to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit;

to another, mighty deeds; to another, prophecy; to another, discernment of spirits; to another, varieties of tongues; to another, interpretation of tongues.

But one and the same Spirit produces all of these, distributing them individually to each person as he wishes.

This list of the gifts of the spirit is a list of talents or vocations given by God.

The expression of wisdom: in other words, a teacher in the religious sense. A spiritual director, in Catholic terms. A guru.

The expression of knowledge: in other words, a teacher in the general sense.

Faith. This is listed as a special gift. Not everyone will have faith in this sense, even though also filled with the spirit. This I take to be the “heroic virtue” of sainthood: the ability to follow that path.

Healing. Being able to heal is a special talent and vocation. Nurses are more likely than doctors to have this gift. One knows it when one experiences it.

Mighty deeds refers most obviously to athleticism; although it may also mean generalship, leadership. Some translations have “miraculous powers,” presumably the ability to perform miracles. But I don’t think performing miracles, is a specific grace. It seems integrated with all the others. A gift of healing will produce miracles of healing. Accurate prophecy is miraculous as such. The saints all perform miracles. Miracles are everywhere.

Prophecy. Who is a prophet in this modern age? My answer is that of William Blake: the artist. True artists are inspired, just as the Old Testament prophets were inspired.

Discernment of spirits follows next because it refers to the talent of the art critic or person of good taste: he or she is able to discern good art from bad, that inspired by God from that inspired by dubious ambient spirits.

Varieties of tongues I take to mean the obvious, a facility for learning languages, not the “speaking in tongues” of Pentecostal services. Some people have a special talent for this, which can sometimes be genuinely miraculous.

“The interpretation of tongues” listed separately suggests to me that the talent for the receptive knowledge of language is separate from the talent for expressive knowledge of language. That is, it takes a different skill to speak or write in a new language than to read or understand it. This is in conformity with current linguistic theory. People are invariably better at one than the other.

So what? So understanding these as God-given talents implies that they cannot simply be taught. We currently ignore or fail to understand this, and do worse as a culture as a result. We do tend to accept that anyone cannot learn to be a great athlete, even with much practice. We mostly understand that going for a Master of Fine Arts cannot produce an artist. But we fail to see that two years of Teacher’s College cannot make a teacher, and five years of medical school cannot make a healer.