What is Charismatic Renewal?

  Posted on December 31, 2017  by admin  No comments

A BRIEF HISTORY
There are many questions and many misunderstandings about Catholic charismatic renewal but essentially, it is a renewal of the Church in our times using all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, just as the Church was intended from the beginning, to proclaim the Gospel News of Jesus Christ, risen and Lord of all, and to give all glory to God.

Periodically throughout history, the Church has grown comfortable, complacent and has been in need of repentance, invigoration and a new spirit of evangelisation. At such times, there has always been a “fresh” outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but it does appear that in these times, this century, we are seeing a move of the Spirit of such proportions as the world has not experienced since the early days of the Church’s existence. During the Second Vatican Council, a need for a charismatic movement in the Church as a whole was cautiously alluded to:

“Moreover, it is not only through the Sacraments and the ministries that the Holy Spirit makes the people holy, leads them and enriches them with His virtues. Allotting His gifts “at will to each individual”, He also distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank. By these gifts, he makes them fit and ready to undertake various tasks and offices for the renewal and the building up of the Church, as it is written, “the manifestation of the Spirit is given to everyone for profit.”” (Article 12, Constitution of the Church)

Within a year or so of the end of Vatican II, prayer groups were gathering (coincidentally?) to pray for the gifts of the Holy Spirit as manifested at the first Pentecost and within a handful of years, the charismatic renewal was well underway. Individuals were experiencing the presence of the Spirit as of old, . Miracles began to happen throughout the world, a new fervour broke out, a love for God and the Gospel message and a sense of living in the presence of the Almighty began to touch the lives of many in such a profoundly moving way that they desired to spread the Good News of the Risen Lord, with urgency and zeal.

Of course there were doubts among many, and even today there are those who are sceptical of this renewal, but I think we might do well to remember that this has come about as a response to the heartfelt plea from the heart of the Vatican, with Pope John XXIII’s prayer:

“Renew your wonders in our times, as though for a new Pentecost, and grant that the holy Church, preserving unanimous and continuos prayer, together with Mary the Mother of Jesus and also under the guidance of St. Peter, may increase the reign of the Divine Saviour, the reign of love and peace. Amen.”

Since that time, the charismatic renewal has spread throughout the world, touching the lives and changing the hearts of millions, leading them to a new-found depth of spirituality and invigorating the Church with its joy filled worship and openness to the Spirit. The Renewal has moved from those heady but uncertain days to take its place as a part of Catholic spirituality , but there is still a long way to go.

 

RENEWAL IN OUR TIMES

Today the Church faces many challenges both from without and within. There are those who would seek to almost overturn the Second Vatican Council itself and move us back to a time perceived as “more faithful”, claiming that the changes which have happened within the Church are responsible for a falling away from the Faith. That is, in my opinion, far too simplistic a view. I believe the changes we see in he world today, the lessening of moral values, the lack of belief in fundamental virtues, are as a result of a major shift in societal concepts which have touched the faithful as well as nonbelievers, leaving hardly anyone unscathed. There are those who are at the other extreme and who have used Vatican II as an excuse for excesses, going way beyond the precept of the Council as they chase their own pet projects and drop teachings which may make them feel uncomfortable. Both sides cause difficulties within the Church, but perhaps more problematic is a prevalent attitude of complacency among the faithful.

In addition to problems within the Church, these societal shifts have created a self-seeking mentality which has given rise to a “contraceptive generation”, a generation which seeks pleasure without responsibility and which will quite literally kill whatever stands in its way, as evidenced by the horrific slaughter of millions of unwanted unborn babies. Life itself has lost value as some seek legislation to end the lives of the sick and the elderly. We have continued wars and have learned nothing from the genocide of this century. Many centuries old values have been tossed out. The world appears to have gone crazy and doesn’t appear to be in a hurry to improve.

Should we be surprised then, that given the seemingly insurmountable problems of our times, God should have prepared, just for these very times, something special , a fresh outpouring of His Spirit upon the earth to give us everything we need both to avoid falling into the many worldly traps ourselves, and also to evangelize others and persuade them that there is a better way God’s way, THE WAY, Jesus Christ? The truth is, God likes what is happening less than we do and He has given us everything we need to effectively combat the evils of our day.

 

IS RENEWAL NECESSARY?
The battle we face today is essentially a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare, no less. To fight on the spiritual level, we need spiritual gifts and God has been more than generous. We first need to be evangelized anew ourselves, and then to go out and evangelize others. For these tasks, we need the Holy Spirit as at that first Pentecost, perhaps more than at any other time since the days of the embryonic Church. The Holy Spirit is providing in ways we could have only dreamed of, but we have to co-operate.

To reach others, we are not left on our own. We are granted charisms of healing, of miracles, of discernment and wisdom. We cannot fail to point to the Living Christ when, through the laying on of hands, the sick are healed, the broken-hearted receive hope and peace, sinners turn their lives around and begin to follow Jesus. We cannot fail to be uplifted when the Lord speaks to us in the gift of prophecy. We cannot fail to evangelize when God’s love in our lives is total reality. We cannot fail to serve Him, when he makes us fall head over heels in love with Him. We cannot fail to recognize the Real Presence when Jesus makes himself manifestly present in the Eucharist. We cannot fail to serve each other and to minister to each other when we see Christ in everyone. In short, in the Holy Spirit, we simply cannot fail.

“Fellow Jews and all you who live in Jerusalem, listen to me and let me tell you what this means. These people are not drunk as you suppose: it is only Nine o’clock in the morning. Instead, this is what the prophet Joel spoke about:

‘This is what I will do in the last days, God says:
I will pour out my Spirit on everyone. Your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; Your young men shall see visions and your old men will have dreams. Yes, even on my servants both men and women I will pour out my Spirit in those days, And they will proclaim my message. I will perform miracles in the sky above and wonders on the earth below…”

Those words were spoken by St Peter in Acts 2 after the 120 disciples who had been gathered in the Upper Room received the Holy Spirit Who came like a rushing wind and rested upon each of them as tongues of fire. Prior to this moment, they had believed in Jesus, they had seen Jesus, lived with him, walked with him, talked with him, heard him. They had seen him crucified and they saw him risen from the dead. They were there at his ascension into heaven. In fact, they were totally aware of who he was and what he was, and yet they still needed the Holy Spirit.

Believing was not enough. Until the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost they could not witness effectively to the Risen Lord. They were afraid and they hid their “light”. But with the coming of the Spirit they were emboldened. They then poured out into the streets of Jerusalem to proclaim that Jesus was the Messiah, the Risen Lord. They had received His promise that when the Spirit came upon them, they would work miracles, speak in strange tongues and lay hands on the sick who would recover and it happened just as Jesus said it would.

Throughout Acts we see much evidence of the gifts of the Spirit at work as He created a vibrantly living Church filled with the presence of Jesus Christ. Those first Christians clearly believed the charisms were an integral part of being a disciple of Christ, signs that a person was indeed a believer, instruments with which they would demonstrate the power of the Risen Lord over the earth, over natural laws, over death itself.

We too know of Jesus. We may believe in him and claim to know who and what he is, but without the Holy Spirit we cannot truly enter into knowing him and we fail constantly to be good witnesses. We need those gifts no less today, not to edify ourselves, but to edify God and to enter into battle fully equipped with all we could need. As mentioned earlier, we are facing a dire time in human history and only through the power of the Spirit can we hope to overcome, in Christ Jesus. More than ever, we need to proclaim a clear message of Christ crucified and resurrected. More than ever we need to proclaim Christ’s victory over evil. More than ever, we need to speak to a truly wounded world. We cannot do this alone. We need this Renewal. We need God’s help. We need to be open to the prompting of the Spirit in an attitude of docility and obedience, and we need to accept His gifts that we might be truly empowered by God to carry out His tasks on the earth . In this power, we can do all things required of us by God. We can transform the Church into that living, vibrant Church of the New Testament. We can give glory to God in joy and with an enthusiasm which spreads to others. We can worship God as He intended, caught up in a true love-relationship that makes others want to be a part. Without this empowerment, we will continue to see our numbers decline. Without it, we become a people content with seeing to ourselves and unable to reach the millions who are hungry and thirsty for meaning in their lives. And without it, we will continue to see the cults attract those who are seeking for spiritual meaning, while the vast majority of mankind wanders round aimlessly and hopelessly because we have failed them..

Yes, this renewal is necessary. But more than that – it is essential.

 

IS THIS REALLY CATHOLIC?

Many wonder if this is really Catholic, and some have problems with the terminology which may seem initially alien to us, but in answer to the question “Is this Catholic”, the response is a resounding YES!

“Through Him, with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour are yours, Almighty Father.”

This message is proclaimed by the Spirit, time and again and again in that Sacrament which belongs, which is at the heart of the Catholic Church, and charisms are at the very core of our belief. We encounter the Holy Spirit in all our Sacraments, but most obviously in the initiation Sacraments of baptism and confirmation. However, the charisms, these very special gifts of the Holy Spirit are not confined to those sacramental encounters but are given for use in our everyday lives. They are conferred upon us at the moment of our baptism but are awaiting our fiat, our agreement, our acceptance before they can be stirred up into full use.

From the very beginning, charisms, as we have seen, have been at the centre of Christian action and were expected by the early Church. After Acts of the Apostles and the letters of St Paul, where the gifts of the Spirit are frequently mentioned, we go to the early Church Fathers to see how the Holy Spirit was dynamically active.

Tertullian (c160 – 225) addressed those who had just been baptized, before they received the Eucharist, with these words:

“Therefore, ye blessed ones, for whom the grace of God is waiting, when you come up from the most sacred bath of the new birth, when you spread out your hands for the first time at your mother’s house (which is taken to mean the Church) with your brethren, ask your Father, ask your Lord, for the special gifts of His inheritance, the distribution of charisms…”

He urged them to ask and assured them they would receive.

Towards the end of his lifetime, Hilary of Poiters (c.315-367) wrote,

“We begin to have insight into the mysteries of faith, we are able to prophecy and speak with wisdom. We become steadfast in hope and receive the gifts of healing…”

Hilary is convinced that the charisms, the gifts, are central to the Church, while Cyril of Jerusalem, at around the same period, stated:

“Great, omnipotent and admirable is the Holy Spirit in the charisms.”

He makes no attempt to restrict these gifts to a chosen few but stated that all of us have these charisms.

Just a little later, we hear John Chrysostem complain that the charism which he had seen manifested were now long gone, while John of Apamea is still witnessing the charisms and mentions two baptisms, stating that the second one is an actualizing of the first, after which people receive spiritual gifts. Then we leap two hundred years only to find that there is still much mention of the charisms being used to the glory of God.

It is clear that the Church Fathers did not regard Baptism in the Holy Spirit as a separate action, another Sacrament distinct from our initial baptism, but that in our water baptism, God imparts His Spirit and then we at some point , accept this gift and offer it back, using it to glorify Him and to give Him honour.

As we journey through the centuries we see less and less of a manifestation of the charisms, especially among the laity and even among the ordained ministries, until the times comes when God intervenes to bring a complacent Church back to an invigorated Church. Times when renewal and re-evangelisation are necessary occur periodically, then once more we see an outpouring of the Holy Spirit accompanied by charism manifestation.

In recent years we have the words of the popes to illustrate the necessity of renewal in the Holy Spirit. We have already seen how Pope John XXIII sought from God a Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit in our days. This call was taken up by Pope Paul VI, who stated an an international charismatic conference:

“The Church and the world need more than ever that the miracle of Pentecost should continue in history.”
Pope John Paul II, addressing the leaders of the Council of the International Charismatic Renewal Office in 1992 stated:

“In the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit, I welcome the Council of the International Charismatic Renewal Office. As you celebrate the 25th anniversary of the beginning of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, I willingly join you in giving praise to God for the many fruits which it has borne in the life of the Church. The emergence of the Renewal following the Second Vatican Council was a particular gift of the Holy Spirit to the Church.”

Furthermore, the Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that charisms of the Spirit are to be gratefully received for the upbuilding of God’s Church. So we see that in our times, recent popes and the Magisterium of the Church not only recognize, but welcome this move of the Spirit, this sovereign act of God in our days. just as they were welcomed and even expected by the embryonic Church 2,000 years ago.

In short, there can be nothing more Catholic than to be open to all with which the Holy Spirit seeks to endow us, for the building up of God’s people and with which to glorify God Himself. Perhaps it is time that we really and truly understood this and embraced the workings of the Spirit, and then perhaps we will see that Second Pentecost for which we have all hungered and thirsted so long, descending upon us as tongues of fire, once more.

CHARISMS AND WORSHIP CHARISMS

There is so much attention paid to the charisms and to particularly to manifestations of the Spirit and charismatic worship that we can often lose sight of the purpose behind them, which is always to bring us into a deeper relationship with and worship of God, readying us to serve Him and to build up His Church. Having said that, we cannot ignore the charisms or the many manifestations of our encounter with God. They play an invaluable part in our own spiritual growth as well as reaching out from within us to touch the lives of those around us with the power of the Living Christ.

Jesus came healing the sick, setting captives free and proclaiming God’s favor. Furthermore, he promised that when the Holy Spirit came, his followers would do the same. The charisms help us imitate Jesus, allow the power of the Living Christ to manifest within us and to shine from us. We may speak of healing, but how much more potently is the healing power of Christ proclaimed when we lay hands on the sick and they recover! How much more meaningful is confession when a person who has confessed their sin suddenly becomes aware of the healing power of God’s forgiveness! How liberating when, through prayer, a person is freed from a particular habitual sin and turns their life around and suddenly gains hope!

All the charisms point to Jesus, alive today, and to his Kingship and Lordship over everything. Jesus told us we would lay hands on the sick, who would then recover. Jesus told us we would heal the broken-hearted. Jesus told us we would cast out demons. Jesus told us we would receive wisdom and understanding. All that charismatic spirituality demands of us is that we simply believe what Jesus promised – and that all these things and more would be done in his Name, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Some have problems with the idea of speaking in tongues, but again, Jesus said this would happen and when Peter went to the house of Cornelius, it was precisely this speaking in tongues which demonstrated to him that those present had received the Spirit. Praying in tongues is a wonderful gift, freeing us from wondering what to pray for as we let the Spirit pray in us – or rather, we pray in Him. Prayer-tongues edify God, grant us a freedom and often a greater sense of discernment. They are not to be feared, they can be learned, and they are always under the control of the person praying.

Prophecy is little understood by many, but this is nothing more (nor less!) than a person being gifted to hear what God wishes to impart at a particular time – a word of exhortation, sometimes a gentle rebuke, a call to deeper repentance and, occasionally, a glimpse into a plan God has, given it would seem, on a need-to-know basis.

These, and all the many gifts gifts of the Spirit are to be received with gratitude, for they come freely but it is up to us to accept them and then to use them as the are intended.
WORSHIP

A hallmark of charismatic worship is the joy, the singing, the dancing and while it is true that the music we play, the songs we sing, are designed to put us in a frame of mind where we can be open to the Lord, this is no different from any other form of liturgy. Whether it is Gregorian Chant, some of the classic hymns, the folksy songs of the Sixties and Seventies, or so-called charismatic hymns, all are designed to focus our attention on the spiritual, the supernatural, on God. This is the purpose of all liturgical celebration and is no less the case with charismatic worship.

I have heard it said that this joy is forced, artificial, superficial, but the contrary is true. When Jesus makes his presence known, when the Holy Spirit stirs us in love, when we feel close to the Throne Of Grace, we cannot help but react with delight, hands raised in welcome, hands open and ready to receive. Our happiness is a response to Him, to his sheer majesty and awesome beauty which overwhelm until we react in the only way we humanly know. No-one would react without delight at the approach of a lover. How can we react less eagerly at the approach of THE BELOVED?

MANIFESTATIONS

Much has been spoken over recent years about certain manifestations of the Spirit, the way some react to His presence, and much confusion has arisen as to what is coming from God, what is coming from the flesh (what the mid suggests) and what might be coming from other sources. I believe we need to remember that the manifestations we see today are not new among Christians. They have been in evidence time after time in the history of the Church, whenever renewal has been taking place, when we have been in need of repentance and an invigoration. Most of these manifestations are a response to the touch of the Most high God. Who wouldn’t weep in His presence? Who wouldn’t tremble at His approach?

Often ,the touch of the Lord can be so overwhelming that a person may fall down (rest in the Spirit) and at such times we can be certain that the Lord is accomplishing something in that person’s life at that moment. For those who have never witnessed it, it may be a little disturbing, but it is a wonderfully healing gift, as if God is accomplishing in moments what a person might take years of work to amend. Occasionally a person may weep, or may laugh. These are not manifestations to be feared but are often a consequence of the Lord bringing about some healing at a deeper level in that person’s life. Still others may rest of a long time in a perfectly still and very peaceful state, held in tender suspension and total relaxation. All these are wonderfully healing, setting people free, bringing them to the knowledge of just how loved they are by our awesome God. Memories may surface and be washed away by our Father’s love. Old wounds are bathed in the balm of Jesus’ tender mercy. What a gift!

In summary, all charisms have been with us for 2,000 years and all are to be gratefully received. They are for the glory of God, bringing many into a knowledge of His love for them. charismatic worship is an expression of the joy, the sheer delight of being in God’s presence, of being redeemed by the Blood of The Lamb. It is about encountering the Divine, becoming aware of His touch, and as such it is to be welcomed, fostered and longed for, not just for few, bit for all God’s people, everywhere.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, an openness to the Holy Spirits action in a mighty and powerful way is part of our Catholic Christian heritage. To day, we are seeing an almost unprecedented outpouring of the Holy Spirit to meet these times in which we live. We need these gifts, we need the Spirit. The world is in need. We have to evangelize. This is one of the tasks given to us by Jesus Christ, but to evangelize effectively, we need to use all that the Lord would have us use – and often that mean we first need to be re-evangelized ourselves.

We cannot afford to neglect this sovereign act of God, this free gift to the world of today, but rather we need to embrace renewal with open hands and eager hearts so that we may be open to the Holy Spirit in all that we say, do and think as we move forward into the next century.

There are trials, many of them, and these could increase, but God has not left us orphaned. He is the same God who sent His Only Son, the same God who sent us the Holy Spirit. He has given us everything we need to overcome the evils of this world, insofar as this His plan. Our task is to work towards His Kingdom with eagerness and enthusiastic anticipation rather than complaining and lamenting the decline in Christian faith while watching as if helpless while cults attract the spiritually starving. We need the Holy Spirit. We need to beg the Lord to send His Spirit. We need to repent of our arrogance and our complacency and plead with the Lord to accomplish in us all he wishes to accomplish.

I believe that we could be on the verge of such an outpouring of God’s Spirit that we can’t even begin to imagine the immensity of it. It is quite possible that we could be the most privileged generation in 2,000 years – but we have to be ready, we have to be open, we have to be hungry and we have to thirst of him as never before.

If we carefully and prayerfully prepare ourselves, we might yet see the greatest year of favor, in the Great Jubilee, than we could possibly have dreamt of and we might just cross that Threshold Of Hope for which Pope John Paul II so eagerly prays and enter a world beyond our wildest imaginings. Let us join, therefore, in prayer, docile to the Holy Spirit, happy to receive what He seeks to give for the benefit of all, and let us lift up our eyes and await in eager anticipation all that the Lord is preparing.

All praise and honor and glory to God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit

Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus, come. Amen.