The Bishop Writes

(From the April 8, 1999 edition of the Inland Register)

A good basketball team combines several needed qualities. First, the gifts of the individual players are important. The skills just don’t happen but are developed over a period of many years of practice. One is never satisfied with a particular gift. Constant attention to shooting baskets and ball handling become critically important in team play.

Second, a team is not successful if there isn’t teamwork, a spirit of playing together. Sports teams usually are good examples of how skills and gifts come together to become something far greater than any one person.

The wisdom of the coach is very important as well. His direction of the team helps the members cooperate and get the most out of their working and playing as a unit.

Finally for a team, the support of fans is necessary. The spirit of solidarity expressed by fans with the team helps the players to use their gifts to the best of their ability. There is something about team spirit which goes far beyond just the players themselves. That common bonding can impact an entire community as we so well experienced during the recent NCAA tournament.

Basketball is one thing. Our lives of faith are another and perhaps not quite so unrelated.

In the sacrament of confirmation, one of the sacraments of initiation, we are reminded of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. When I confirm someone, I anoint him or her on the forehead with sacred Chrism, saying: “Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.” This marvelous gift of the Advocate has been implanted in us, along with our skills and talents.

The gifts of the Spirit are for our responsible use and development. God gives them to us, but we must also use and nourish them. The gifts of every person fit together in the human family to form a mosaic of God’s goodness. Each one of us is responsible for his or her gifts in continued growth and development. We may not be able to use our physical gifts all of our lives, but we do have the opportunity and responsibility to use and help our spiritual gifts grow and develop until the day we die. Such an approach calls us to constant conversion of heart and openness to the Holy Spirit.

Our gifts are best used in a community of faith. Much like the basketball team which dares not play as a group of “Lone Rangers,” so too a community of faith must work together for the maximum benefit of everyone. A ball team can’t afford to have a team member who thinks he or she knows it all. Each member is sensitive to everyone else. So, too, a similar spirit should permeate a faith community.

Finally, there is need for the continuing support of the entire faith community. This attitude is important to the vitality and enthusiasm of the continued journey of faith together. Sometimes our faith community has been characterized as a collective anonymity. We are challenged to be sensitive to one another and to sacrifice of ourselves for the sake of community. Every good relationship — whether in marriage, on the basketball court or at the basketball game, in the faith community or in the community at large — demands something from every one of us. Such generous giving and enthusiasm are affirming and contagious.

This Easter season gives us the opportunity to live our gifts with firm resolve to be joyful and responsible. The Holy Spirit will continue to touch us and be with us.

May God grant us much peace and joy.

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