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St Thomas Aquinas the Charismatic Gifts and the New Evangelization
Pat Collins C.M. who is currently on sabbatical in the United States studying the New Evangelisation, shares some of the insights of one of the greatest theologians of the Catholic Church about the charismatic gifts.
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Sanctifying grace and charismatic gifts St Thomas made a distinction between different kinds of grace. Firstly, there are sanctifying graces i.e. graces which make people pleasing in the sight of God. Then there are charismatic graces. Rather than making a person pleasing in the sight of God, they are graces freely given in order to help others to grow in sanctifying grace. Indeed, St Thomas went so far as to say that it was conceivable that people in the state of mortal sin could be given gifts, such as healing and miracle working, for the evangelization of others (Cf. Mt 7:21-23). Thomas’s classification of the gifts Scripture scholars have asked whether St Paul’s list of nine gifts in 1 Cor 12:8-10 can be classified in any way. Although the apostle probably hadn’t any conscious classification in mind, St Thomas thought, for theological reasons, that they can be divided into three groups: “some of them pertain to knowledge (revelation), some to speech (proclamation), and some to operation (demonstration).” A) Gifts of revelation - St Thomas said that revelation was “an inner light of the mind.” All the revelatory gifts are rooted in the charism of prophecy which is “a kind of knowledge impressed under the form of teaching on the prophet’s intellect, by Divine revelation.” Having stated that this knowledge goes beyond the natural powers of the mind, he went on to describe the various ways in which it can be imparted by God, such as images, dreams, visions, and intellectual illumination. While these are prompted by the Spirit they are mediated by the angels. He said that, often prophecy has to do with future events. One of the ways in which it is exercised is through, what Charismatics refer to as, the word of knowledge. Thomas says that rather than being an aspect of the “utterance of knowledge” mentioned in 1 Cor 12:8, the word of knowledge is a form of the prophetic gift mentioned in 1 Cor 12:10.
Rapture is the second revelatory gift (Cf. 2 Cor 12:2-4). Strictly, speaking it is not one mentioned by Paul in 1 Cor 12:8-10. Nevertheless, Thomas says that rapture is a grace whereby “a person is lifted up by the Spirit of God to supernatural things, and withdraws from his senses, as Ezechiel 8:3 says, “the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem.” What Thomas says about rapture is reminiscent of what we know about higher states of contemplation. It raises the question, is the contemporary experience, which is variously referred to as “slaying in the Spirit,” or “resting in the Spirit,” sometimes a rapture state during which a revelation is received? Discernment of spirits is the third revelatory gift. Writing about it Thomas said: “To another is given the ability to distinguish between spirits, namely, in order that a man be able to discern by what spirit someone is moved to speak or work; for example, whether by the spirit of charity or by the spirit of envy.” It would seem from this quotation, that St Thomas did not restrict the charism of distinguishing of spirits to prophecy, but widened it to include the testing of any kind of inspiration or prompting. B) Gifts of Proclamation - Clearly, Thomas believed that the Lord gives people revealed knowledge not only to enlighten them personally, but in order that they might enlighten others by means of verbal evangelization. He wrote: “Now because those who receive a revelation from God ought in the order of divine enactment to instruct others, there needed to be further communicated the grace of speech.” Consistent with his didactic understanding of the gifts, Thomas clearly interpreted the charism of tongues as xenoglossi i.e. an ability that the Apostles received from God of speaking the foreign languages used by their listeners. Thomas knew that for four days St Domnic, the founder of his Dominican Order, had been enabled to speak German to people he had met on a pilgrimage. Thomas said very little about “tongues” as glossolalia, which according to Paul in 1 Cor 14:14, was a gift of private prayer. He gave a curious explanation of the charism of the interpretation of tongues. He said that it is a Spirit given ability to explain difficult scripture verses. He quoted two texts in Dan 5:16 and Gen 40:8 to support his view. Writing about the gifts of wisdom and knowledge (Cf. Is 11:2), with which he was richly endowed himself, St Thomas said succinctly, “Knowledge of divine things is called wisdom, and all knowledge of human beings shares the more general term of knowledge.” Then he added: “It is significant that the Apostle places in the charismatic graces not wisdom and knowledge, but the utterance of wisdom and knowledge, which are to do with the ability of persuading others by speech about matters pertaining to wisdom and knowledge.” Thomas said that the two gifts of utterance become effective by instructing the intellect, moving the listener emotionally, and swaying him or her to love that which has been spoken about in words. Speaking of women he said, in a way that would be questioned nowadays, that they can exercise the gifts of the utterance of wisdom and knowledge in private, domestic situations, but not in public. C) Gifts of Demonstration - Through the prophetic gifts of revelation, a person gets to know the truths of faith. Through the gifts of proclamation, such as the ability of speaking foreign languages, and to communicate wisdom and knowledge, revelation is imparted to others. But, St Thomas, says that the trans-rational truth of what is proclaimed needs to be confirmed by the working of deeds of power. “Any proclamation,” he said, “requires confirmation before it can be received…The means, therefore, to show that the proclamation of these preachers comes from God was the evidence of works done by them such as none other than God could do, healing the sick, and other miracles.” Thomas appreciated that the charism of faith was the key, not only to effective proclamation, but to healing and miracle working. Writing about the link between charismatic faith and proclamation he observed: “It is not as a virtue justifying man himself, but it implies a super-eminent certitude of faith, whereby a person is fitted for instructing others concerning such things as belong to the faith.” Speaking about faith and demonstration by means of deeds of power he added: “The working of miracles is ascribed to faith for two reasons. First, because it is directed to the confirmation of faith; secondly, because it proceeds from God’s almighty power on which faith relies. Nevertheless, just as besides the grace of faith, the grace of the word is necessary that people may be instructed in the faith, so too is the grace of miracles necessary that people may be confirmed in their faith.” Conclusion Given the fact that St Thomas lived in an age when the charisms were not widely exercised, his description of the gifts of the Spirit is not only surprising in its detail, it is a tour de force as far as its theological depth and coherence are concerned. I may say in passing that in the 18th century, Pope Benedict XIV wrote a long, but much neglected, treatise on the charisms which was deeply influenced by St Thomas’s writings. It seems to me that Thomas’s evangelistic interpretation of the gifts in 1 Cor 12:8-10 is tailor- made for a charismatic understanding of the New Evangelization called for by the Church. Yes, his views need some modification in the light of contemporary scripture scholarship and charismatic experience, but overall his interpretation provides us with a well thought out theology that shows that the proclamation and demonstration of the Good News needs to be rooted in revelation, especially the gift of prophecy.
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It
may surprise you to know that St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), the greatest
theologian the Catholic Church has ever produced, wrote a great deal
about the charisms in 1 Cor 12:8-10. He did so in three main places,
the relevant sections of his verse by verse commentary on first Corinthians;
in the Summa Contra Gentiles; and in a 32,000 word treatise on the gifts
in his Summa Theologica. Although Thomas produced a detailed theology
of the gifts, it is surprising how seldom Catholic Charismatics refer
to it either in word or in print. In this article, I want to provide
a brief summary of his main points. 