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The Mystical Dimension of the Charisms
Pat Collins C.M. who is currently on sabbatical in the USA, is a popular writer and speaker on spirituality, who has been involved in Catholic Charismatic Renewal for over 30 years. Below he reflects on how the biblical charisms help people to experience the nearness and presence of God in their lives.
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A mystic is a person who goes beyond mere head knowledge about God, to have a direct, heartfelt awareness of the length and breadth, the height and depth of the love of Christ (Cf Eph 3:18-19). Mystic consciousness, whether mild or intense, is a characteristic of religious experience and lies at the heart of all genuine Christianity. Ever since my dramatic spiritual awakening 33 years ago, I have firmly believed that one of the reasons why the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements have been so successful, is that they frequently have a mystical dimension to their spiritualities. One has only to read about how charismatics have experienced visions, revelations, the gift of tears, and resting in the Spirit, to appreciate that their spirituality has a lot in common with traditional mysticism. In this article, I want to draw attention to the mystical characteristics of the charisms mentioned in 1 Cor 12:8-10. Wisdom and Knowledge – fruit of contemplation We begin with the gift of the utterance of wisdom and knowledge in 1 Cor 12:8. Needless to say these charisms are rooted in the gifts of wisdom and knowledge mentioned in Is. 11:2. Writing about these gifts St Augustine said: “the knowledge of divine things is properly called wisdom, and that of human things is properly called knowledge.” St Ignatius of Loyola once observed that “it is not much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul, but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.” In other words, the kind of wisdom and knowledge that leads to anointed preaching and teaching is the fruit of contemplation rather than academic effort. I must confess that there have been blessed occasions while preparing or delivering homilies when I have felt that I was being actively inspired by the Spirit. As Jesus promised in Jn. 14:25, “The Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, whom my Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.” Charisms of Power – experiential manifestation of the glory of God Paul goes on in 1 Cor 12:9-10 to list the charisms of healings and miracle working which depend upon the charism of faith. I suspect that this latter gift is rooted in the charisms of wisdom and knowledge. It enables a person to go beyond a notional belief that God might perform a healing or miracle, to have a here-and-now conviction that God is already beginning to do so. Those who have been granted this supernatural surge of expectant faith know that it is a mystical type of awareness, one that puts the person in direct union with the mind and will of God. More often than not, it leads either to a confident prayer of intercession or to an expectant prayer of command. Sometimes, such a prayer may be accompanied by a physical feeling of energy trickling down one’s arm, accompanied, perhaps, by heat in one’s hands. I can remember one such occasion when I was praying for a sick woman. I was overwhelmed by a sense of the awesome presence of God. It evoked mixed feelings in me. I was so palpably aware of the holiness of the Lord that I felt unworthy to be in the divine presence. At the same time, I found the Lord so fascinating, that I desired to draw even closer to him. When people either experience a healing miracle, or witness one, it is an epiphany, an experiential manifestation of the glory of the Lord. Last year, I was present when Damian Stayne prayed for a disabled woman. When she got up from her wheelchair and walked, there was an audible gasp of amazement in the hall, and we spontaneously thought to ourselves, “surely, God is among us here!” (Cf. 1 Cor 14:25). Prophecy – result of Divine Revelation In 1 Cor 12:10 St Paul writes about the gift of prophecy. Arguably, it is the most important charism because of its ability to build up the Christian community. Pope Benedict XIV observed in the 18th century: “Prophecy is a grace whereby a person can certainly know and make known those things which otherwise could not be known without an actual revelation of God, whether it is about the future or past, distant or hidden things, the secrets of hearts or inward thoughts.” A prophecy is the result of divine revelation rather then the action of the human mind. It can come in at least three different ways. Firstly, there is foreknowledge of future events e.g. Smith Wigglesworth telling David du Plessis in 1937, that God would use him to spread the doctrine of Baptism in the Spirit in the mainline churches. Secondly, there is the prophetic word of knowledge, a gift whereby a person is granted a supernatural revelation of facts about a person or situation, which could not be learned by the efforts of the natural mind. Kathryn Kuhlman was famous for her ability to know who was being healed, of what ailment during her healing services. Finally, prophecy, can take the form of reading of hearts. Both the Cur? of Ars and Padre Pio exercised this gift. Among other things, they could tell people about their secret un-confessed sins. Having had occasional experiences of the three forms of prophecy, I know that they are particularly mystical. One has a feeling of being intimately united to God. Through the action of the Spirit, who searches everything, including the depths of God, one has a feeling of sharing in the mind and heart of Christ (Cf. 1 Cor 2:16). I may say in passing that the gift of discernment of spirits, mentioned in 1 Cor 12:10, is a practical ability, rooted in the gifts of wisdom and knowledge, which enables a person to ascertain whether a prophecy is truly from God or not. In my experience, it is the least mystical of all the charisms. Tongues – pre-rational prayer Finally, in 1 Cor 12:10 Paul mentions the charisms of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. In my book, He Has Anointed Me, I pointed out that the charism of praying in tongues, whether in the form of praise, quiet adoration or anguished intercession can have a contemplative, quasi-mystical quality. I say this because it enables the loving will to focus on the mystery of the One who surpasses understanding, without the assistance of thoughts or images. Praying in tongues has a lot in common with the kind of centering prayer, of a contemplative kind, described by the Fathers of the Church e.g. John Cassian. This pre-rational form of prayer prepares the soul to receive revelation from the Lord e.g. in the form of dreams, visions, inner promptings, revelations and the like. Sometimes a prophecy will be uttered in tongues. In such cases it needs to be interpreted (cf. 1 Cor 14:13). Usually, the interpretation comes in the form of an image, scripture text, or prophecy. In so far as such interpretations are inspired by the Spirit they can have a mystical aura. “Mystical dimension needed in the Church“ While I’m well aware that a person can exercise the charisms without being in the state of grace, nevertheless, I’m convinced that those who exercise them, often find that they unite them closely to the Lord. I could honestly say that some of my most mystical moments have occurred while ministering to others by means of the gifts of the Spirit. Nowadays this mystical dimension is much needed in the mainline churches, many of which are losing their members because of arid rationalism. When contemporary Christians are baptized in the Spirit and exercise the gifts of the Spirit, they are enabled to have a mystical sense of God’s loving presence. As Karl Rahner wrote: “The spirituality of the future….will have to live much more clearly than hitherto out of a solitary, immediate experience of God and his Spirit in the individual.”
“He Has Anointed Me” by Pat Collins CM
published by New Life Publishing is available from Good News Books,
15 Barking Close, Luton, Beds LU4 1EL
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Fr.
Karl Rahner S.J. was probably the best known Catholic theologian of the
20th century. About 30 years ago he wrote: “The Christian of the
future will be a mystic or he or she will not exist at all, if by mysticism
we mean…a genuine experience of God emerging from the very heart
of our existence”. This statement is very true and its truth and
importance will become still clearer in the spirituality of the future.
The passing years have shown just how prescient he was. Not only has sociological
research indicated that, in modern Catholicism, the centre of gravity
is shifting from the experience of religious authority to the authority
of religious experience, Pope John Paul II acknowledged this trend when
he wrote: “People today put more trust in…. experience than
in dogma.”