What is essential is not the answer but the proper understanding of the question. This is so well lived out in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When she was asked by the angel if she would be the Mother of God, she asked; how this could be? While the angel explained, she did not know the answer to how the story would continue to unfold; instead she pondered in her heart and trusted that God would lead her. Her heart must have been full of questions when Jesus had to be born in a stable, Wise Men appear at the stable, a need to flee to Egypt, trusting Jesus as a young man to take care of the newly married couple at Cana, watching Him carry the cross up to Calvary and then His death. WOW the questions? Mary lived the questions as they arose. Even to the celebration of the fact that her cousin, Elizabeth, at her old age had conceived. This led Mary to the Visitation that is celebrated tomorrow. So one can not just sit and ponder but one also needs to act on the questions; and so we have the example of Mary. First, to pray and ponder and then to trust and act on the question is our daily challenge! When the question is lived it calls forth virtue and the use of the great gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Pentecost is the gift of understanding both questions and answers. It is a feast to listen to God and to ponder the great mysteries of relationship, communication and love as lived in the Trinity. It is being aware even when we speak the same language, we often don’t understand one another and what is behind the words or the emotions or attitudes in the questions or answer! It is difficult to accept, believe and live the statement that “there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit, there are different forms of service but the same Lord, there are different workings but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.” Questions about what all this means are so quick to jump up in our minds. We easily fall victim to a recent poll that shows that God’s approval rating has slipped. Fifty-two percent believe that He’s doing a great job. The other 48 percent were turned into pillars of salt.
In our time of prayer and pondering like Mary, we might well ask for a deepening of the gifts of wisdom, understanding, counsel, knowledge, piety, temperance, fear of the Lord. These gifts of the Spirit will help us to better contemplate the questions and see that the real answers of life are contained in the fruits of the Holy Spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. The gifts and fruits will help us to realize and live all the questions and answers and know that every 24 hours the world turns over on someone who was sitting on top of it!