Archbishop Bernard Hebda said that Catholics must remember that God has a plan for them and the Catholic Church. This plan is implemented, he said, through the distribution of gifts by the Holy Spirit.
In an episode of the “Practicing Catholic” radio show set to air at 9 p.m. May 30 on Relevant Radio 1330 AM, Archbishop Hebda told the show’s host, Patrick Conley, “We have that notion that God has a plan. It shouldn’t be surprising, then, that each one of us has distinct gifts and always sourced in the same Spirit, who’s kind of the great orchestra director of all the gifts and figures out how it is that we can together use those gifts for the glory of God.”
Even at the time of baptism, the archbishop said, God is bestowing gifts on the infant. These gifts are strengthened at the sacrament of confirmation and sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.
“This is confirmation season, so Bishop (Kevin) Kenney, Bishop (Michael) Izen and I have been doing a lot of confirmations and I think what I get most excited about is when I think about how it is that our Church is being enriched as the gifts that these young people who are being confirmed are being unlocked in a certain way by the Holy Spirit at the time of their confirmation, as they’re sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Wherever the confirmations are held, either at the Cathedral of St. Paul in St. Paul or the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis, the pews are packed with people, the archbishop said.
“They’re filled because people are excited to see how it is that our newly confirmed will bless the Church with their distinct gifts,” Archbishop Hebda said. “I always invite our young people to spend some time unwrapping the gift. … We see that in the early disciples. They’re very different men and women and yet it’s when they’re together, they’re contributing their gifts, that they’re able then to really bring such fruit into the Church.”
Archbishop Hebda made a comparison to the election of Pope Leo XIV, and how in the beginnings of the Church, Jesus promised Peter that he, and his successors in the Petrine office, would be the rock upon which the Church is built.
“That also means that they have to have the gifts to be able to do that,” Archbishop Hebda said. “Did Pope Leo know that when he was being confirmed at a parish in Chicago? I doubt it, but nonetheless I think that that gift was something that he had already been opened to and that was nurtured and nourished over all of those years. We have to hope that if we’re willing to open our hearts to the gift that the Holy Spirit wants to give, and if we’re willing to put those gifts at the service of the Church, that the Holy Spirit is going to step in and really take advantage of that too for the glory of God and the strengthening of the Church.”
To hear more from Archbishop Hebda about how gifts of the Holy Spirit contribute to God’s plan, tune into “Practicing Catholic,” which repeats at 1 p.m. May 31 and 2 p.m. June 1.
Also on the program, Father Jim Livingston, pastor of the Church of St. Paul in Ham Lake, shares what it means to become like a child as Jesus instructed. Also, Katie Steiner, a WCCO meteorologist, shares her perspective on living out the faith boldly.
Produced by Relevant Radio and the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, “Practicing Catholic” can be heard after it has aired at archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/practicing-catholic or choose a streaming platform at Spotify for Podcasters.
