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Charisms in an age of upheaval
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In the late sixth century, warring barbarian tribes fought with the armies of the eastern empire for the control of Rome. For over a hundred years before that, Rome and all Italy had been in the grip of warfare and upheaval. The city of Rome itself, which passed from one side to the other several times, was only a shadow of its former glory; the city that once numbered over a million inhabitants now numbered less than 40,000. One inhabitant at the time said, “We see before our eyes this very city, the walls, shaken by storms, houses ruined, churches overthrown, and buildings rotten with old age collapsing.” Vast areas of the Roman Empire – such as Britain and Gaul – that had once been Christian were now in the hands of pagan tribes. The Dark Ages This was the beginning of the period many historians call the dark ages. While it may be considered dark, in the sense that the social and political structures of a mighty empire collapsed, it can hardly be considered a dark period for the Christian faith. In the midst of this disorder we have many examples of the Lord moving powerfully among his people, leading them to missionary activity, helping them form strong loving Christian communities, and encouraging and guiding them with signs and wonders. During this era, missionaries began to walk boldly into areas which had been taken over by pagan tribes and brought them back to the Lord. They converted tens of thousands to Christ in North Germany, Scandinavia and Poland where the Gospel had never been preached before. This is the Rome of Pope Gregory the Great, and it is also the era of some remarkable charismatic activity which he recorded. Gregory himself had not wanted to be Pope. Most of all he wanted to be a man of continual prayer; he wanted to follow, as he called it, “the way of the angels”. But because of his popularity and reputed holiness, the people and the clergy of Rome elected him Pope. One early tradition says that he had to be dragged from the monastic community where he was abbot to be consecrated bishop.
He was evidently not a weak man or easily cowed by the circumstances of his day. In the midst of social and political upheavals, he planned and launched missionary ventures that reconverted the northern parts of the Empire. At home he built Christian guesthouses where victims of the famine and warfare in the countryside could come for refuge. His writings tell us a lot about how the charismatic gifts operated during that era. In one of his major works, the Dialogues, and in his sermons, we can find scores of accounts of prophecies, healings and visions that people were experiencing in his own day and as early as 70 years before that. Gregory believed that healings, miracles and the prophetic gifts were important to the Church, and that they should be integrated into the whole context of the Christian life. Scores of healings and visions One of the accounts tells of a mother whose little boy had died. She was walking down the road carrying him in her arms when she met Libertinus, a monk, who was noted for his deep prayer life. She implored him, “You shall not pass until you have brought my son back to life!” Libertinus was frightened by the request, but, as Gregory put it, he “came face to face with the devotedness of a mother”. Libertinus dismounted his horse, “knelt down and raised his hands to heaven.” Then, “the boy came back to life! Libertinus took him by the hand and gave him back to his weeping mother.” Gregory went on to say that it was the faith of both the mother and Libertinus that enabled “such a striking miracle” to happen. He then proceeded to tell how the gentleness and humility of Libertinus melted the heart of a harsh abbot and changed the abbot into a gentle person. For Gregory, stories of charismatic activity were by no means wonders to be gawked at for themselves alone. For him they illustrated some aspect of the Christian life or the kingdom of God. Another miracle account is about Boniface, a young boy who had grown in prayer and charity at an early age. “While he was still at home with his mother, he would sometimes leave the house and later return without his coat or even without his shirt, for, as soon as he saw anyone in need of clothes, he would give up his own… Going to the granary one day, the mother found that her son had distributed to the poor almost all the wheat she had stored up that year for the family. The thought of having lost a whole year’s food supply nearly drove her frantic. Boniface, seeing her in such distress, tried to console her as well as he knew how. But she would not listen to him. So he begged her to leave the granary. Meanwhile, he knelt down beside the small pile of what still remained and prayed fervently. Then he invited his mother to come back again into the granary. It was now filled to the top with a supply of grain much greater than before. Moved to repentance by this miracle, the mother thereafter urged her son to continue giving freely, since his prayers were so quickly and abundantly answered.” Winning the English nation to the Lord by miracles and preaching The missionaries to the north were also experiencing God’s power in healing and other miracles. We know the details in part because of Gregory’s own letters to them, and theirs to him. One such team were the missionaries to Britain under Augustine of Canterbury who went to convert the pagan king. Their missionary message to these tribes was “how merciful Jesus, by his own agony, has redeemed the sinful world and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers.” They were winning the English nation to the Lord “by miracles and preaching”, as the sixth century historian Bede put it. Gregory was jubilant about the way the Lord was working through Augustine and his missionary team. He had this to say about it. “By the shining miracles of his preachers God has brought the faith even to the extremities of the earth. The tongue of Britain, which before could only utter barbarous sounds, has lately learned to make the alleluia resound in praise to God.” To his friend Eulogius he wrote that Augustine and his companions “seemed to be imitating the powers of the apostles in the signs which they displayed.” Prophetic gifts are mentioned numerous times in the Dialogues. He stated that the Spirit of Prophecy “does not always illuminate the minds of the prophets.” The Lord “gives the Spirit of prophecy at some times and at other times he withdraws it. he both lifts the prophet’s mind on high and yet preserves him in humility. Thus, by the gift of the Spirit, they may know what they are by God’s grace, and at other times, destitute of the same Spirit, they may understand what they are of themselves.” Jesus Christ was here! As we have seen, Gregory placed importance on miracles. He believed, as he said in one of his sermons, “if the work of the Lord could be comprehended by reason, it would be no longer wonderful.” For him, the work of miracles and the charismatic phenomena were a participation in and an imitation of, the work of Christ. In the Dialogues he stated that “every act of our Redeemer, performed through his human nature, was meant to be a pattern for our actions.” Another statement from the Dialogue makes a worthy conclusion to this glimpse at God’s work in the late sixth century. After glimpsing a healing, Gregory states, “If any would ask you how this happened, tell him simply that the Lord Jesus Christ was here doing his work.” Reprinted from New Covenant magazine.
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