God never does the same thing twice, not even snowflakes, much less the
outpouring of His Spirit on human flesh. He cries out “"Remember not the
former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing;
now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert.”[i]
In order to understand the
Charisms, the Gifts of the Spirit, we have to look at the Incarnation and its
implication for us and also at the same time view the Charisms in the context
of the larger work of the Spirit which is our deification, or sanctification. When the Spirit of God comes to dwell in us
he comes with all that he is, including both the fruit of the Spirit and the
Charisms. Let me remind you of Gregory Palamas teaching on deification:
The grace of deification . . .
transcends nature, virtue and knowledge, and . . . “all these things are
inferior to it.” Every virtue and
imitation of God on our part indeed prepares those who practice them for divine
union, but the mysterious union itself is effected by grace. It is through grace that “the entire Divinity
comes to dwell in fullness in those deemed worthy,” and all the saints in their
entire being dwell in God, receiving God in His wholeness, and gaining no other
reward for their ascent to Him than God Himself. “He is conjoined to them as a soul is to its
body, to its own limbs”; judging it right to dwell with believers by the
authentic adoption, according to the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit.[ii]
Reference:
1 Corinthians 3:16 16 Do
you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?[iii]
If
the Holy Spirit is in you, joined “as a soul to its body, to its own limbs,”
the whole of the Spirit dwells within you; you cannot pick and choose what part
of the Spirit of God you want to possess. John the baptizer states a principle
that applies to the Incarnate Christ and to all who are called by His name: “For
he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without
measure.”[iv] You cannot have half a cup of the Holy Spirit. However what you experience depends on your
receptivity and openness. That is why
the Psalmist says, “I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge
my heart.”[v] Our hearts are enlarged by sharing in the
ministry of God’s love incarnate in our hearts, by loving God with all our
hearts, souls and bodies, and by loving our neighbors as ourselves.” It is the work of responsive love that
enlarges our hearts.
On
the Charisms
The word “charismatic” is derived
from the Greek word “charism,” a New Testament word for a gift of the Holy
Spirit. Cardinal Suenens of Belgium once said, “No charisms, no Church.” Both
Christ and His Church are charismatic in nature. All ministry of the Holy Spirit in and
through the Church is carried out by the charisms of the Holy Spirit. The shape
of the ministry of the Church is determined by the charisms of the Holy Spirit.
Where this is no longer true, you have only a dead and lifeless orthodoxy.
The charisms of the Holy Spirit
are so evident in the life and ministry of Jesus that His very title “Christ”
refers to the Chrism, or Anointing of the gift giving Spirit of God. We
ourselves are called “Christians.” The word was originally an insult referring
to “little anointeds.” We are in a deep sense charismatic, precisely because we
bear the name Christian. That is why at every confirmation the Bishop prays
over the new confirmands saying, “By the sealing of your Holy Spirit you have
bound us to your service. Renew in these your servants the covenant you made
with them at their baptism. Send them forth in the power of that Spirit to
perform the service you set before them; through Jesus Christ your Son our
Lord.” Palamas anchors his teaching on
charisms in the life of prayer.
Indeed every man of sense knows well
that most of the charisms of the Spirit are granted to those worthy of them at
the time of prayer. “Ask and it shall be
given”, the Lord says. This applies not
only to being ravished “even to the third heaven”, but to all the gifts of the
Spirit. The gift of diversity of tongues
and their interpretation, which Paul recommends us to acquire by prayer, shows
that certain charisms operate through the body…. The same is true of the word
of instruction, the gift of healing, the performing of miracles, and Paul’s
laying on of hands by which he communicated the Holy Spirit.
Reference: 2
Corinthians 3: 17 Now the Lord is
the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18
And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being
transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this
comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.[vi]
It
is prayer, that dynamic and living connection with God through His Spirit, that
releases the Gifts of the Spirit in His people in response to the ministries to
which each person is called. There is an
old principle, “God never calls anyone to minister without standing ready to
equip that person for ministry.” Palamas
goes on to say:
In
the case of the gifts of instruction and of tongues and their interpretation,
even though these are acquired by prayer, yet it is possible that they may
operate even when prayer is absent from the soul. But healings and miracles never take place
unless the soul of the one exercising either gift be in a state of intense
mental prayer and his body in perfect tune with his soul.
In
short the transmission of the Spirit is effected not only when prayer is
present in the soul, a prayer which mystically accomplishes the union with the
perpetual source of these benefits; not only when one is practicing mental
prayer, since it is not recorded that the apostles uttered any audible words at
the moment of laying on their hands.
This communication takes place, then, not only during the mental prayer
of the soul, but also at those moments when the body is operating, when for
instance the hands through which the Holy Spirit is sent down are touching the
man who is being ordained. How can you
say that such charisms involving the body are not just as much gifts of God,
given for the good of those who pray to possess them, alleging as your reason
that those “ravished to the third heaven” must forget what concerns the body.[vii]
The basic gifts of the Spirit are
listed in I Corinthians 12:4-11, but the New Testament in other places lists
approximately twenty-six gifts of the Spirit, although the gifts of the Spirit
should not be limited to just those actually listed in either Old or New
Testaments.[viii] The Spirit is infinite in nature and in the
variety of His works.
I4 Now
there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are
varieties of service, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties
of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. 7 To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the
Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge
according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit,
to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the
working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish
between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the
interpretation of tongues. 11
All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one
individually as he wills.[ix]
God’s
exhortation to his people is “Remember not the former things, nor consider the
things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not
perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” We
cannot relive the past, but we can be open to a future unfolding of the
Charisms and ministry of the Holy Spirit. The Lord is doing a new thing. It is
at once Biblical, Sacramental, and Growing in the Spirit. It is deeply rooted
in Scripture, tradition and the theology and history of the Church, and it is a
logical continuation of those things that the Church has always believed. It is
a new thing in that it is a fresh experience of the Holy Spirit, Who Himself
makes all things new. It is not God’s intention that we fondle faded glories,
but that we renew His work in this present time by opening our minds and hearts
and surrendering to the Lord who breathes new life into His people.
[i] Isaiah 43:18-19
[ii] Gregory Palamas, The Triads, The Classics of Western Spirituality,
(Mahwah, New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1983), pp. 52-53.
[iii] 1 Corinthians 3:16
[iv] John 3:34
[v] Psalm 119:32
[vi] 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
[vii] Palamas, p. 83
[viii] In the Old Testament Moses speaks of the Gifts of the Spirit given
to Bezalel: Exodus 35:30-31 "See,
the LORD has called by name Bezalel the son of Uri, son of Hur, of the tribe of
Judah; 31 and he has filled him with the
Spirit of God, with skill, with intelligence, with knowledge, and with all
craftsmanship,
[ix] 1 Corinthians 12:4-11. Note
also from the Second Book of Homilies in the sermon “On the Coming Down of the
Holy Ghost and the Manifold Gifts Thereof, “The holy Ghost doeth alwayes
declare himselfe by his fruitfull and gracious giftes, namely, by the worde of
wisedome, by the worde of knowledge, which is the vnderstanding of the
Scriptures, by faith, in doing of miracles, by healing them that are diseased,
by prophesie, which is the declaration of GODS mysteries, by discerning of
spirits, diuersities of tongues, interpretation of tongues, and so foorth. All
which giftes, as they proceede from one spirit, and are seuerally giuen to man
according to the measurable distribution of the holy Ghost: Euen so doe they
bring men, and not without good cause, into a wonderfull admiration of GODS
diuine power (1 Corinthians 12.7-11). [1562-1563]
