Charisms

CHARISMS. - The word c. (χάρισμα) occurs 16 times in the letters of Paul and once in 1 Pt. (4:10). Sometimes it has the generic meaning of a gracious gift, and can thus be applied even to sanctifying Grace, as in Rom. 6:23; but besides this, it possesses a special meaning, namely that of a supernatural gift granted to a person not so much for himself as for the benefit of others, so that the Gospel may spread and the mystical body of Christ may be built up: it is given "for the advantage" of the Church (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph. 4:12). To this Pauline concept of the charism corresponds the definition that St. Thomas gives of "gratia gratis data," granted by God "potius ut ad iustificationem alterius cooperetur" (Sum. Theol., 1ᵃ-2ᵃc, q. 3, a. 1). This is the sense considered here.

St. Paul gave four lists of charisms, without intending to give them as complete or in agreement with one another. In 1 Cor. 12 he once numbered nine of them (vv. 8-10) and another time eight. In Rom. 12:6-8 seven are listed, and in Eph. 4:11 only five. Here is the longest enumeration: "To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom; to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gift of healings by the same Spirit; to another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another the discernment of spirits; to another every kind of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues" (1 Cor. 12:8-11).

In all, the four lists enumerate about twenty different gifts. Some are prodigious, such as the gifts of tongues, of healings, of miracles; others involve only a better aptitude for certain offices, such as preaching, exhorting, governing. St. Paul attributes them preferentially to the Holy Spirit, but also to the Father (1 Cor. 12:28) and to the Son (Eph. 4:11). Charisms can be transitory, according to the good pleasure of the Holy Spirit.

Any division of the charisms is rather arbitrary; nevertheless they can conveniently be distinguished into gifts of government, gifts of teaching and exhortation, and gifts of bodily assistance.

Those who possess the gift of teaching or of exhortation are the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the teachers, the glossolalists. The first four always serve in this order. The apostles named by St. Paul among the possessors of charisms are not the "twelve," but missionaries impelled by the Holy Spirit to found new Christian communities. They must be bishops. In the Didaché, 12:3, they are forbidden to stay more than two days in an already established church, or to ask for money. The prophets exhort the faithful under the inspiration of the Spirit; they possess the utterance of wisdom; it is not necessary that they reveal future things (1 Cor. 14:3). The teachers, as the name indicates, have a function of a predominantly intellectual order and possess the utterance of knowledge. The evangelists here are not the authors of the four Gospels, but those who preached the Gospel in already established churches, perhaps treating by preference the events of the life of Jesus Christ.

The gift of tongues, also called glossolalia, of which St. Paul speaks may not be the one that the Apostles enjoyed on the day of Pentecost, which consisted in being understood by people of different languages, as if they had spoken the language of each one. The glossolalist spoke to God in a language that he himself did not understand, and which only the one who had the charism of interpretation could translate. And therefore St. Paul commands that the glossolalist not speak aloud in the assembly, unless there is someone who can interpret him (1 Cor. 14).

The charisms of bodily assistance were not all miraculous. Some consisted in a special generosity or aptitude for helping one's neighbor with alms or with other forms of assistance; but there also existed the thaumaturgic power, whether to heal bodies or to perform other prodigies. With this power is related the charism of faith, which is the faith of miracles, that is, a supernatural instinct that gives absolute confidence in a miraculous intervention of God.

Some Protestants have maintained that the early Church lived without a hierarchy and was directed by charisms alone. This is a manifest exaggeration. St. Paul knows the hierarchy and principally the authority of the Apostles, and he himself imparts rules for the use of charisms. Hierarchy and charisms stood together, and it seems that according to the Apostle's thought they must always stand together in the Church. Indeed some charisms, such as glossolalia, have disappeared or become extremely rare; but supernatural gifts granted for the common good always exist in the Church of Jesus Christ: they can be found outside the hierarchy, but they can also be given to the leaders of the Church. What are called graces of state are nothing other than charisms.

Carlo Boyer