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Piety, by which we cry, "Abba, Father!": Gifts of the Holy Spirit (part 7 of 8)

Associate Pastor's Column

Sunday, August 20, 2006

            “You have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in which we cry out, Abba, Father!” So St. Paul (Rom 8:15). The gift by which we cry out thus has a name, which is Piety.

            Allow me to digress, especially with this digression, which will help us understand something important about Piety, and about all the gifts of the Holy Spirit: there are people in this world who attempt to change realities either by changing words or their definitions.

            For example, in public schools today, there are some abominable “sex ed” courses which systematically remove the word “marriage,” in favor of “monogamous heterosexual union.” So much so, that you can’t find the word “marriage” in any of the books of any of the class-years. Or another example, when a priest is no longer called the “celebrant” of the Mass, but the “presider.”

            And so, with the change of words, there come nuances of ideas that get changed with them; and so realities to which these words are applied are only understood in a false way.

            I have found this problem with the how the gift of Piety, and the other six gifts of the Holy Spirit, are explained in many pathetic catechetical books today. Four of the seven gifts are popularly re-named: counsel is called right judgment, which is not the essence of counsel; fortitude is called courage, yet courage is only a part of fortitude; fear of the Lord – get ready to laugh, now – is dubbed, wonder and awe in God’s presence. (?!) And piety is similarly re-named... I’ll get to that in just a second. So, not only is the student’s mind misled as to the nature of these gifts, but also the modernists who so renamed them have abandoned the biblical and traditional terminology, a fact that should shock us all.

            Changing names and definitions is, of course, a logical fallacy which Aristotle pointed out in his logical works (the Organon), named equivocation.

            Piety is re-named by them, sadly, reverence.Yet this renaming only obscures the nature of the gift of Piety. Piety, as St. Thomas teaches (S. Th., IIaIIae q.121, a.1), is “the gift by which we show duty and worship to God as father through the prompting of the Holy Spirit.” Is it similar to the virtue called religion. Religion, as a virtue, moves us to give cult to God as Lord and Creator. The added dimension of paternal love makes the Holy Spirit’s gift of piety superior to the virtue of religion, but both are good and necessary.

            As a virtue that anyone can live, piety is a habit by which we attribute due honor and service to parents, homeland, and all related to these. But piety as a gift of the Holy Spirit is something grater than the virtue of the same name. Habitual grace excites filial love to God specifically as Father; and accidentally, it excites supernatural, fraternal love towards all men, created by God; and this is the gift, not just the virtue, of piety. The virtue takes lots of effort; the gift brings forth its fruit not by sweat and toil, like the virtue, but with ease and fruition by God’s motion.

            The gift of piety enables us to adore God the Father, to abandon ourselves to his paternal love in so many of our troubles and difficulties, to love God with filial tenderness, and  to love our neighbor as our brother. This gift fills us with meekness and justice, and inspires in us acts of adoration and of mercy. Therefore renaming this gift “reverence” is a serious downgrade, reducing the Holy Spirit’s gift to one part of one aspect of it.

            Let us therefore meditate frequently on the fact that God is Father. No, not “parent,” nor “mother,” even though it is true that God has all of the specific perfections of both fatherhood and motherhood, as the Catechism teaches... only that He revealed himself always with the word “Father” in revelation, and never “mother,” and it’s not up to man to decide whether he likes revelation that way or not. So, we need to return to God’s title as “Father.” And let us look at the baptized as brothers in Christ; the non-baptized as brothers by creation; and all created things in the universe as the immense house and home God has made for us, his children, a home which has come from his hands.

Picture: Charles de la Fosse (1636-1716, Paris), God the Father Supported by Angels

Thanks to: http://www.art.com/asp/sp-asp/_/PD--12020019/SP--A/IGID--1452173/God_the_Father_Supported_by_Angels.htm?sOrig=CRT&sOrigId=27834&ui=8F1A3DDC14CE46939A9F7130BACB3E6F.