Posted on 06/02/2006 5:40:20 PM PDT by Teófilo
Folks, the birthday of the Church is upon us. That's the Feast of Pentecost, to be celebrated this coming Sunday. To that effect, Dr. Marcellino D'Ambrosio has written a fine essay on the gifts and charisms of the Holy Spirit which you may read here.
There's a great many of you who deeply question the theological basis of the claims made by Catholic Charismatics. I understand them, and I respect them. Some of the criticism is very sharp and thought-provoking. I can't ignore them. Some of them are difficult to refute but, with enough time, I can intuit that old arguments can be reconciled with new ones, which in reality, are also old.
Yet, I can't ignore also the profound effect that meeting Christ through his Spirit within the Catholic Charismatic Renewal had in me. It may sound simplistic to your ears, but I can divide my life in "before" and "after" my "charismatic experience."
This "charismatic experience" triggered in me a thirst for the Sacraments--specially, the Eucharist--and for Holy Scripture persisting to this day. I gained a newer, better, and deeper understanding of who was the Triune God and what was the nature and meaning of the Church. From the youth prayer meeting I used to frequent, one man became a priest, another a deacon and a sweet young lady, a nun. Almost thirty years have passed since my "Year Zero" and I now find mysef discerning a vocation to the diaconate. The Lord touched us back then and to this day, the effects are felt.
The charismatic experience is a fact that for some threatens old theological moulds. It doesn't have to be this way. The "charismatic experience" is a quintessential Catholic experience. That the Lord has renewed it in his Church represents a singular sign, a bright beacon in these dark times. Doubters should really think the matter over before rejecting the reality and basic theological soundness of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement.
But Catholic Charimatics are not "scot free". What I've discovered during all these years is that the "charismatic experience" is not an end in itself. It's just a new beginning in one's sacramental life in Christ, perhaps the first step in the ladder of prayer and conservation. Its "possession" is not a guarantee of special or particular holiness. It is a door, a lobby, a vestibule, not the end all of Christian experience. It is an initial impetus to a deeper life in Christ. Many do not progress from the initial experience and then grow cold when they can't regenerate the initial blissful emotions. Others attempt to trigger them over and over and equate their walk with the Lord with the intensity of these warm feelings, only to keel over when they taste suffering or experience the rough edges of a Dark Night of the Soul. Their spiritual failure then becomes a warning to others.
The "charismatic experience' creates "spiritual babies." Christian maturity is only achieved through faith, in Word and in Sacrament, in perseverance and ultimately, in embracing one's Cross.
One day the charisms will pass away. St. Paul himself said so. Because the greatest of all the gifts is Love. All these charisms will fade one day and so will faith and hope. The day with see Him face to face, that's the day when Love will prevail, for He will give of Himself forever.
Dr. D'Ambrosio's article brought me some warm memories. It reminded me of the origins of my Love for the Lord; it reminded me of some old controversies that I've long set aside. Perhaps your walk with the Lord has been similar to ours, perhaps you should read Dr. D'Ambrosio's essay.
PING!
I agree. The Charismatic Renewal has been a great blessing to my spiritual life.
This was similar to my experience, too.
I was involved in it the year I went through RCIA...New Orleans had a very vibrant CCR group. Some very holy priests, like Father Harold Cohen, who also was very involved with the Divine Mercy Devotion and who did a lot of work with EWTN back in those days were involved in it as well.
It wasn't deep enough by itself, and its been a long, long time since I went to a Charismatic prayer meeting. I do know some people got hooked more into Charismatic over Catholic. And some prayer groups have gotten flakey. But it helped one of my friends get back into the church, and for his Assembly of God his wife-to-be it truly eased her conversion experience.
God uses many tools in bringing people into a closer walk.
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