Catechism of the Catholic Church on Personal Charisms

This is one of the many gems in "Section IV: Prayer"

2684 In the communion of saints, many and varied spiritualities have been developed throughout the history of the churches. The personal charism of some witnesses to God's love for men has been handed on, like "the spirit" of Elijah to Elisha and John the Baptist, so that their followers may have a share in this spirit. A distinct spirituality can also arise at the point of convergence of liturgical and theological currents, bearing witness to the integration of the faith into a particular human environment and its history. The different schools of Christian spirituality share in the living tradition of prayer and are essential guides for the faithful. In their rich diversity they are refractions of the one pure light of the Holy Spirit.

I'm Like Paul, and You're Like Timothy...

Over at La Perruque, I was provoked a bit by this comment, which asserts that "For Paul, this irruptive even is precisely not about him: it is constitutive of ecclesia."

In Galatians 1:11-12, St. Paul writes that "the gospel preached by me is not of human origin. For I did not receive it from a human being, nor was I taught it, but it came through a revelation of Jesus Christ" (NAB).

In Acts 1:21-22, however, St. Peter proposes electing an Apostle to replace Judas, with the following criteria: "Therefore, it is necessary that one of the men who accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus came and went among us, beginning from the baptism of John until the day on which he was taken up from us, become with us a witness to his resurrection" (NAB).

In Galatians, St. Paul claims that his office as Apostle was received through a special revelation of Jesus Christ whereas in Acts an Apostle is chosen to succeed Judas (who was never an Apostle but one of the Twelve) according to criteria set by the Church and with a reliance on God's grace to perfect this criteria. In the Catholic Church, the bishops are the successors to the Apostles (as teachers of the faith). And yet, the bishops have taken a decidedly pastoral role of local governance, while the bishop of Rome, the Pope, still bears a universal responsibility, that is, apostolic succession. Not surprisingly, the election of a new pope is reminiscent of this scene from Acts.

In congregational Protestantism especially, this Pauline apostleship is taken as normative. That is, anybody at any time can announce that they have been selected by Jesus Christ to bear responsibility for the whole Church. And so it happens that a Bible study teacher believes himself called and starts a new congregation. The group that I met in college was started in order to relive the freshness of the Church as recorded in Acts. At that time, some left to begin again since the existing group was already becoming too institutional.

In Catholicism, however, we have had many men and women who have received a special prophecy from the Holy Spirit which even as it does not add or change the tradition received from the Apostles, yet allows the central person of Jesus Christ to shine forth in a new and splendid way (just as the revelation which St. Paul received brought a distinctive perspective on the work of Christ). These prophetic charisms are inspired in the most diverse people within the Church: women and men, servants and free, of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds and educations. Some of these Christian prophets live a hundredfold paternity, with their spiritual children witnessing to the same prophetic gift for hundreds of years: like Elisha, these spiritual sons and daughters inherit the prophetic gift of their founder. And like St. Paul, these visionaries have often had blind spots which were healed by submitting to the pastoral leaders of the Church as St. Paul did to Ananias in Damascus. It is this phenomenon which accounts for much of the rich diversity and vitality of the Catholic Church — which makes it catholic instead of parochial.

The disruptive irruption of prophetic apostles is an essential characteristic of the Church and is  truly generative — reviving the love of the Baptized for Jesus Christ. St. Paul is inimitible and unique, as are the many founders of orders and movements — and yet they share a common goal: that Christ may be followed.

What Do We Mean when We Refer to Charisms of Orders or Movements in the Church?

[cross post from Deep Furrows, originally posted 11/11/2007. It relates both the the Pauline dimension of the Catholic Church lately discussed here as well as to the question of charisms in lay movements...]

Charisms are given for the whole Church

68 - If charisms are exclusively personal, they can hardly claim the Holy Spirit of the Church for themselves: it is from the wholeness of the Church that he distributes his gifts. Isolated, such a charism gradually becomes ideologized; either it is adopted for the whole, whereas it only constitutes a part, or the part is made an absolute and taken for the epitome of the Gospel.

The radiance of Christian mission in the Church

82-83 - the Church is no abstract entity; only real, corporeal persons participate in her. They are ecclesial to the degree in which their personal mission - Origen speaks of an anima ecclesiastica [ecclesiastical soul] - their charism, extends into the reality of the universal Church, as happens, in the case of prayer, for instance, or of suffering.
[...]
the ecclesial radiance of a person extends as far as his (accomplished) mission. Seen from that angle, Mary's mission radiates throughout the whole Church (the image of the "protective mantle" expresses this symbolically), and analogous to this, other charisms radiate across vast spaces of the Church. Remember Saint Francis, who not only radiates throughout the orders which live through its mission, but beyond that, all "franciscan" souls. Saint Francis is not an idea, but a reality.

The Holy Spirit uses persons
to renew access to the core of revelation

88-89 - The Holy Spirit may suddenly illuminate parts of revelation that have always been there, but have not been sufficiently reflected upon. The history of the Church confirms this. Before Saint Francis, no one had thought so deeply about the poverty of Christ. This poverty is not a secondary consideration but a new access to the center. Before Augustine, many had spoken of the love of God, but none did it in as penetrating a manner as he. Before Ignatius, no one had grasped Christ's obedience to the Father in quite so central a way.

Test Everything: Hold Fast to What is Good.
Page numbers head each quotation
from a remarkable conversation between
Hans Urs von Balthasar and Angelo Scola.

A History of Surprising New Charisms in the Church

At Inhabitatio Dei, Halden takes up a reading of Balthsar which sees the Petrine mission in the Church as having priority over the Pauline, Johannine, and Marian traditions. This reading construes the Petrine as normative and the others as exceptions. 

The Petrine certainly has its place, but Christ is the conductor of the symphony, not Peter. Did you catch the critical aside Balthasar makes regarding the Petrine: that is, "a certain absence of New Testament prophecy" (GL 1, p354)?

On the other hand, "the threefold archetypal experience of Christ [Peter, Paul, John], which is conferred by the Apostles on the Church for its use, remains permanently sustained and undergirded by the Marian experience of Christ, which in its depth and simplicity is quite beyond the power of words. But the Marian experience existed prior to the apostolic experience, and it thus wholly conditions it, for Mary, as Mother of the Head, is also Mother of the Body" (GL 1, p362). 

John is also a strong point of unity, as his testimony "constitutes something like a synthesis of the Petrine and Pauline elements" (GL 1, p 357).

What jumps out at me is the form of the Pauline mission in the Church through history: that is, the Holy Spirit's repeated irruption in history of new charisms: Benedict, Francis, Ignatius, etc. The Catholic Church is increasingly reflecting upon her history as profoundly Pauline, and this can be understood by reading the official documents on the laity, religious life, consecrated life, etc.

Cross-posted from the comments at Inhabitatio Dei.

The Pauline Tradition and the Surprise of New Charisms

Balthasar is an inherently pluralistic or symphonic theologian. Thus, the Pauline tradition is complemented by the Petrine, the Johannine and the Marian traditions (352-365). Balthasar's reading in these sections is profoundly both scriptural and ecclesial.

What's fascinating about the Pauline tradition is that it includes the surprise of new charisms, something that makes the Church ever more pluralistic as she abides in history. In this section, Balthasar explicitly includes Augustine and Newman as examples of new charisms. Elsewhere he discusses Antony of Egypt, Benedict, Francis, and Ignatius - all founders of ecclesial communities with monastic/ missionary tasks.

A "charism" as Balthasar discusses it here (also in the documents of the Catholic Church) could be described as a personal prophetic charism that opens up new avenues to the heart of revelation: Jesus Christ. It has also been observed that the Holy Spirit bestows these charisms according to particular circumstances and times in history.

And what was Paul's gift? "Jesus is the Torah in person; I have the whole of it when I have Jesus. This substitution of the name Jesus for the word Torah is Paul's 'Gospel'; it is the content of his doctrine of justification" (Ratzinger, Gospel, Catechesis, Catechism, 54).

Cross-posted from the comments at La Perruque

What Balthasar Said about St. Paul

The Irruption of Paul of Tarsus, According to von Balthasar
Thomas Bridges at La Perruque has posted two generous helpings from The Glory of the Lord: Volume One. I confess I had these passages in my head when I wrote my previous post, not wanting to dig out the Balthasar... and yes, this passage goes right along with the theme I've been hammering away at through Dawson, Ratzinger, and Balthasar.

I cannot resist repeating one snippet: 

The Pauline tradition, on the other hand, will mean the continued fostering of Paul’s view of revelation; but, on the other hand, it will also mean the ever-new and unforeseen vertical irruption of new charisms in the history of the Church. In this (discontinuous) tradition are to be found the great charisms of mission which suddenly visit and fructify the Church, the great conversions (from Augustine to Newman), the great visions which are ‘ineffable’ in themselves (2 Cor. 12.4) and yet are poured out over the Church in words inspired by the Spirit. [Glory of the Lord 1]