BS: 143
Luke's gospel today emphasizes the need for perseverance in prayer. I have to remember that as I look for physical as well as spiritual gifts from the Lord. The Gospel passage, of course, is speaking about the gifts of the Holy Spirit; and in one sense the specific gifts I'm asking for are things I can't be positive that God will grant me. That is because physical health, and even mental health, are useful in this world, but only in a relative sense. There's many a saint who has been made so by his or her illnesses.
The Holy Spirit's gifts, however, confirm and strengthen the operation of both supernatural and natural virtues. The weak chink in the armor is temperance, which is precisely the area in which most of my difficulties are located. There are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit which operate in aid of the supernarural and cardinal moral virtues: knowledge and understanding for faith, fear of the Lord for hope, wisdom for charity, counsel for prudence, piety for justice, and fortitude the gift for fortitude the virtue. Temperance lacks a gift directly in aid of its operation.
Thus,in Ephesians 6, St. Paul bids us to " Stand fast with your loins girded in truth." The loins represent the seat of temperance for the physical body: the belt (ζώνη) that binds them is Gospel truth. A God-assisted prudence and a will shaped by the Father's love are the harness by which the unruliness of desire is to be broken and trained. Amen. Maranatha.
No comments:
Post a Comment