Discernment of Gifts – Part III

We will continue with the third part of this series of articles on Discernment of Gifts. Part I can be found here, and Part II can be found here.

In Part I, we talked about becoming aware of our gifts, which are different from acquired skills that take time to learn. In Part II, we moved on to talk about how God reveals to us, usually in the form of a personal miracle, how wonderful it can be to allow Him to work through us and transform our gifts into service for others, which leads to our own fulfillment, since it is our purpose and mission in God’s master plan.

In Part III, we will look at how Parts I and II are building up to something greater. Already we are aware that we have a particular gift, and that using our particular gift in service for others brings us fulfillment. Now God wants to show us the bigger picture; He wants us to use our gift to bless the world. I present to you the third stage:

3. The Third Luminous Mystery – The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God

Seeing the crowds, Jesus went up the hill. There he sat down and was joined by his disciples. Then he began to speak. This is what he taught them:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the gentle: they shall have the earth for their heritage.
Blessed are those who mourn: they shall be comforted.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for what is right: they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful: they shall have mercy shown them.
Blessed are the pure in heart: they shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers: they shall be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted in the cause of right: theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people abuse you and persecute you and speak all kinds of calumny against you on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven; this is how they persecuted the prophets before you.”
- Matthew 5:1-12

In this meditation on the third luminous mystery, we look at the mystery by which Jesus proclaims the coming of the Kingdom of God, His calls to conversion, and the forgiveness of sins of all who draw near to Him in humble trust. This is the inauguration of that ministry of mercy which He continues to exercise until the end of the world, particularly through the Sacrament of Reconciliation which He has entrusted to His Church. (cf. Rosarium Virginis Mariae p. 21, Pope John Paul II, 2002)

In a nutshell, Jesus is calling people to Himself, to be reconciled with God, and He does this through His own gifts of preaching and healing. We have already become aware of our gifts, and we are already aware of what we can do with them through the power of Jesus. Now in this meditation, we want to look at the purpose of this gift. Why do we have this gift? How does it fit into God’s master plan?

There is a danger here in paying too much attention to the gift itself, and forgetting the reason why we have the gift in the first place. We must never forget that the purpose of the gift is to bring us into deeper communion with God, and making us ready to serve Him and to build up His Church. These gifts have been given to us for two reasons – for our own sanctification, that is, to make us holy; and for the service of others. These gifts that we have enable us to reach out to others, and to proclaim to them the coming of the Kingdom of God.

In the second meditation, we have seen the manifestation of this gift of ours in a personal miracle. We have seen how we have blessed the lives of one or a few other people in a private capacity. Now God wants us to use our gifts to bless the world.

It’s time for another sharing from my own life experience. After writing the biography of the World War II pilot, I was ecstatic. Here was I, having completed two major writing projects within a year. “Where else can I use this gift of writing?” I asked the Lord. Perhaps journalism? But having been a science student all my life, I had no experience in journalism at all. Who would hire me to be a journalist if I didn’t have the necessary qualifications?

It was around this time that I was asking for direction that there became an opening in my current job. An acquaintance of mine made known to me that the writer for the diocesan newspaper was resigning soon and, knowing my passion for writing, this acquaintance urged me to try for the job. Following her advice, I decided to make known to the managing editor my desire to try my hand at journalism. We sat down, had a chat, and he gave me some pointers before sending me off to cover what would later become one of the biggest stories I had ever covered – the visit of then Archbishop (now Cardinal) Giovanni Lajolo (then Vatican Foreign Minister) to Singapore.

To tell the truth, I was a nervous wreck. I braved a fever to attend my first-ever press conference, rubbing shoulders with reporters from the secular media. I chased the Archbishop Lajolo for three days, stopping short of having an interview with him. All in all, I accomplished three of the four tasks given to me, and I returned to the managing editor of the diocesan newspaper with many photographs and some news articles of the events.

Before long, I was hired for the job, despite not having any prior experience nor qualifications in journalism. To this date, I thank my employer for seeing in me the gift and passion for writing, and gave me the chance to use my gift of writing to serve God, and to build up His Church. It is the usage of this gift that has carried me through and brought me much joy and fulfillment in my work. I continue to receive joy and fulfillment because I am publicly using my gift of writing to bless the world.

In the same way, once you become aware of your gift, and God has revealed to you in a private revelation how using your gift in service of others can bring you joy and fulfillment, God will also ask you to use your gift to bless the world. I’m not kidding you when I say it will be intimidating. So many times while chasing that Archbishop, I had wanted to cave in and give up, and say that I’m not cut out for this. But I persevered because when it came down to it, I had to be honest with myself – I really liked what I was doing. And I know you do too.

So stage 3 of the discernment of gifts is: Using your gift to bless the world.

I will continue with Part IV of this series later.