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A Temptation Facing Charismatic Renewal
Fr Raniero Cantalamessa OFMcap.,
preacher to the papal household, delivered a challenging warning at
the Rimini Conference in the early 80s. We published an edited transcript
of his talk in the Millenium edition of Goodnews. It is reprinted
here as it remains an apt reminder for us today.
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 One of the temptations facing the Renewal today, is to want it to be something in itself, to watch each other, to count our numbers, to move our gaze, little by little, from the sun to the shadow. Saint Paul wrote:“And God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing, those who are something” (Corinthians 1:28). It is a matter of choosing and of knowing whether the Renewal wants to be that thing that “is not”, that thing humanly “base”, which can be used by God to confound the things that “are”: - that count, that make themselves heard, that have organisational and numerical strength, relevant from a sociological point of view - but which will be reduced inexorably to nothing by God. Flesh and Spirit Unfortunately we must say that there is something unavoidable in all this. The work of God - any work of God - once it has an historical reality and is put in the hands of men, tends to become more and more a human work; prophecy tends to become instruction. It happened so in the church of the Galatians. But this did not stop the Apostle and does not stop us from crying with equally great sadness: so early? You have already got tired of walking on the waters of pure faith and you are all again involved in works? Your works! “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you.... Are you so foolish that having begun in the Spirit you are now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain?” (Galatians 3,Iff). Quite frankly, I do not know what it means, actually, “to end up in the flesh” (we must discover it together); however I know that this risk exists, that it is happening all over the Renewal and not only in Italy; therefore like a watchman I sound the alarm so that the fatal day be at least delayed and that God would stay among us, as long as possible, the only Lord, the only sovereign, so that the Lord and “He alone” be exalted! Signs and Wonders Sometimes I have wondered what it is that Jesus likes so much in some of our prayer groups and in some of our new communities that are popping up here and there in the Renewal that so much power and so many wonders are manifested in them. And it seemed to me that the secret that makes them so dear to God is their absolute poverty; the fact that they have no past and not even a future. They are almost a “nothing” like some forms of life that are formed in the morning and disappear in the evening, taken back into the great bosom of life, like a little cloud that disappears in the sky, after it has poured all its water on the earth. Traditional religious orders have a past which is often glorious -; the recent ones (secular institutes, church movements) have a future - and sometimes they know they have. God is looking, among so many great and solid things (that He also likes, and finds useful), for a small thing, a thing that He can take as it is, which doesn’t worry about its past or its future. He looks for something that He can use for an instant; something which is without cost, that does not want to be anything and does not ask for anything in exchange for making God happy and making His power and His fantasy resplendent in the world. Does the Renewal in the Spirit want to be this thing, so small, but so dear to God? This instrument of “nothingness” in His own Omnipotent hand? Then let us not worry about “settling down in our home”, let us not worry about assuring a future for the Renewal among the church movements of today; let us not worry so much about figures. The future of the Church, is already assured and is sufficient for all. The Church as an institution must be sufficient for us; from our side, let us try if we can, even to a small extent, to remain “prophetic” to the Church. Let us continue to take directly from the Church - and specially from the local Church - all that we need to live the life in the Spirit, the sacraments, the authorities, the ministries, the doctrine, and let us continue to pour out all that we are, small things as we are, directly into the great bosom of life that is the Church. Silently, or even openly, if possible and if requested, let us try to be that small cloud willing to disappear, after it has poured all its water over the Church. Spend all for the Church I see what happens in the institutes and religious orders that have a past to carry forward; many of the energies (sometimes almost all) must be applied to their own maintenance and replacement (Houses and works to manage, new recruits to be formed...), without too much left to be poured out immediately into the common treasury of the Church. We are not requested to capitalize, we must spend all and immediately for the Church. When I first encountered the Renewal, I was struck by some thoughts one day while I was praying; it seemed to me that I could perceive what new thing the Lord was doing in the Church through the Renewal. I took a piece of paper and a pen and wrote down some ideas, of which I myself was surprised because they were so little thought of. They said: “The Father wants to glorify His Son Jesus Christ on earth in a new way, with a new invention. The Holy Spirit has been charged with this glorification, because it is written: He will glorify me and will take what is mine”. A Christian life totally dedicated to God, without a founder, nor rules, nor new congregations. Founder: Jesus Christ; Do not worry about tomorrow, do not desire to put up recognised organisations that will continue through their successors... Jesus is the Founder who never dies, therefore He needs no successor. We must let time do always-new things, even tomorrow. The Holy Spirit will be in the Church also tomorrow!” Not to end up in the flesh I said before that I do not know exactly what “to end up in the flesh” exactly means for us; however we may point out some of the dangers. The general danger is the one of taming the Renewal and the Spirit himself. The Renewal made all of us, some more, some less, go through the experience of the holiness of God as a “ devouring fire”. Actually we may say that the Charismatic Renewal in the Catholic Church started from a similar experience. One of the participants at the famous weekend in Duquesne described later the experience which the group had when they were gathered in the chapel: “The fear of God started to flow among us; a kind of holy terror stopped us from raising our eyes. He was there, personally present, and we were afraid we could not cope with so much love. We worshipped Him, and we discovered for the first time what worship means. We had a burning experience of the terrible reality and presence of the Lord. From that moment we understood with a new clarity the images of Yahweh who, on Mount Sinai, thunders and explodes with the fire of His own Being, the experience had by Isaiah and the sentence in which he says: “Our God is a devouring fire”. This holy terror was, somehow, the same thing as love, or at least this is what it seemed to us. It was something utterly loveable and beautiful, even if none of us saw any perceivable image. It was as though the personal reality of God, resplendent and blinding, was in the room filling it and us at the same time.” (from The Spirit and the Church, by R Martin, New York 1976 p.16). But man does not last too long in this climate and this presence that judges and brings everything to the light. He tends to proclaim with the words of Isaiah: “Who among us can dwell near a devouring fire? Who among us can dwell in the midst of eternal fires?” (Isaiah 33:14). Since he cannot bear this devouring fire, what does sinful man do? He tames it, he puts a shield around it, he keeps it at a distance. He turns back closer to his dimension. The fire is put under a bushel and the bushel is the multitude of human words and initiatives. Man little by little takes back control with his hectic business.
There the phase of ideology comes to the surface: instead of things, we deal now with the “ideas” of things. It is significant that, at the beginning of the Renewal, as soon as two or three persons gathered together, most of the time they would pray; now as soon as two or three gather together they talk about the importance of prayer! It looks like a small difference but it is enormous, this difference is actually the essence of Renewal. In this phase a certain ritualism comes to the surface: we do the same things as in the past, but without the power of past times, because inside there is no Spirit and no life. We are therefore here with a precise purpose; underlined by those words of St Paul: to fight not to end up in the flesh; to fight to give back to God his power. Any infiltration of the flesh, that we notice, is not a defeat, but a victory because to discover the enemy is having already won. It is a work of liberation that the word of God is doing among us.... Excessively concerned for external image A particular way of ending up in the flesh is called “exteriority”. But by using “exteriority” I do not mean at all to raise or clap one’s hands or the other gestures that accompany our prayer; on the contrary I mean to be excessively concerned about our external image, about what is said or thought of us. Likewise, to share immediately in public all that the Lord is working for good in the heart of the individual or within the groups, even when it would be better to keep them hidden because they are “ the secrets of the king”. Sometimes we should remember certain words of Jesus, like the one that says: “Do not blow the trumpet in front of yourself...” or the other one: “Your left hand should not know what your right hand is doing”. To share everything in public (except things that we may and must witness to because they are useful for mutual edification) makes the things of the Spirit liable to the same destiny as the seed which fell on the path, the birds arrived and took it away and we know who these birds are.... Pleasing men instead of God Very often this is prompted, perhaps, by a good intention: the one of making the Church aware of us, witnessing to the wonders of the Lord. But it is like walking on the edge of a razor. The appreciation and approval of the Church, Pope and bishops is a good thing, a gift from God; actually one cannot do without it to work in full communion in the Church and to be sure that one is walking on the right path. But to desire and to be too concerned about this appreciation and approval, might not be any longer a good thing, but it may have a hint of that “to try to please men instead of God” that the Apostle reproaches the Galatians (Galatians 1:10). The same Apostle wrote to the Romans: “Do you want not to fear authority? Do good and you will receive praise” (Romans 13:3) “Do good”: This is all that concerns us; to receive or not to receive praise comes afterwards and it does not depend on our searching for it but on our “goodness”, namely on our orthodoxy, obedience, discipline, humility. We should not want to see the smoke before the fire that makes it, we are called to be concerned with the Fire of the Church, not with the smoke; with the glory of God, not with our fame! We should remember and make ours the words of Jesus “I do not seek my glory; there is one who takes care of that and judges it”(John 8:50), the Father. Temptation and pride Another way to end up in the flesh that threatens us is the temptation to want to do everything, to be a church force that embraces all the fields, that is present in all sectors. There are brothers who, in great good faith, would like the Renewal to be involved in social, cultural, volunteer, school, youth, drug addicts, work ... The past experience of the Church shows that this, usually, is the best way to flatten down all the religious orders, and make them lose their particular charisma and therefore their original strength. At the end - as, in part, it happens today - all do the same things and one can hardly distinguish contemplative orders from others. This is also a temptation of pride, to want to do and to be everything! No point in starting competition One day, when Saint Francis of Assisi was still alive, some “ ministers”, namely superiors, with the escort of a cardinal, went to see the Saint to urge him to introduce in his order of the Friars Minor some regulations taken from the rule of St Benedict, in order to make the life of the friars more “orderly” and their studies more serious. The Poor one took the cardinal by the hand, led him out to the assembly of the friars gathered in a general chapter and said: “Brothers, my brothers, listen: God called me to walk on the path of simplicity. He revealed to me that I must be like a new mad man in the world! He will confound you through your science.... And then you will go back with great shame to your vocation” (Franciscan sources n.1673). Saint Francis had regard for the other religious orders; he regarded them so much that he thought that for certain important matters of the Church they were already there and there was no point in starting a sort of competition. What is our charism? Maybe God will call us in the Renewal too, to be like “new mad men” in the world, of the kind of special madness mentioned by Paul when he told the Corinthians: “We are fools because of Christ...” (1 Corinthians 4:20). Therefore let us ask ourselves: “What is our charism, what is the task for which God raised the Renewal? No one, I believe, doubts that in the Renewal we started with the Spirit; not to end up in the flesh, we must go back to essential things, to go back to the not too far distant days of our youth. Our vocation is to proclaim the present, living Lordship of Jesus, through His Spirit in the Church; it is to give the power back to God, or to give credit to God with his power” (Cf Psalm 68:35); to state that God is God and this is enough. To do these things children and poor people are sufficient, like those who welcomed Jesus when he entered Jerusalem. But if no one will shout aloud these things Jesus will be compelled to let the stones cry out. The Baptism in the Holy Spirit There are gestures and moments in which this power of God is proclaimed with greater purity. The effusion, or baptism of the Spirit! What have we done with the Baptism in the Spirit? In it the grace unique to the Renewal is kept. There Jesus appears as the one who “is”, there He shows himself as the Lord who gives the gift of the Spirit. There man is nothing and God is everything. We could gather the experiences of so many brothers, especially those who came first, and one will discover how many lives that gesture has renewed, how many vocations it has raised. Now the baptism in the Spirit has passed to the second place; there are groups in which few have received it and in which people believe that it is not so important for life in the Renewal. We keep saying: “But we already have received baptism and in it the Spirit was given to us....” Jesus too was full of the Holy Spirit since his conception in the womb of Mary, and yet he wanted to receive the baptism in the Jordan and the fullness of the Spirit fell again on him. Because for each new mission and vocation there is a new baptism in the Spirit, even though for us only the first one is sacramental and all the others are nothing but a renewal of the first one, namely the baptismal grace. Awakens christian lives It is from this weariness, I am convinced, that the flattening of Renewal starts; for the rest in fact, it is not too much different from other contemporary church movements. One is moved to repeat the words of Paul to the Galatians: “Did you experience so many things in vain?” (Galatians 3:4) We must begin again to use this gift better, to run good seminars with effective baptism in the Spirit. We must awaken Christian lives which are dormant or spent. Having done so, everything will be possible at a personal level, according to the dispositions of each one:- social commitment, evangelisation, religious vocations.... Then these things will be expressions of the dynamism of the Spirit and not forms of human activism. In the same circumstances, Saint Francis, answering those who pushed him to obtain from the Pope privileges to be able to preach and hear confessions in various churches (because often priests denied him the permission to do it), said: “Do not worry: those who are converted find confessors without difficulty!” (FF 1674). We too must be concerned above all to convert, to wake people up to the faith, sure that they will eventually find in the Church all that they need to feed the newly found life. Jesus alone exalted We must have a great desire in our hearts: that the renewal be, or be again, that place where the Risen one may proclaim His unchallenged “I Am”! That he may look upon us, embrace us, with the eyes and His arm of Pantocrator (like the Christ in the romantic cathedral of Montreal) and say with joy: “Here, I alone Am and no one else is!” That He may see the smoking wicks of an “I put out”, waiting for Him who is the Radiant Morning Star”, the Sun of Righteousness returned alive from Hades. That the word we heard at the beginning to be a reality among us: “In that day the Lord will be exalted: He alone”. Oh Lord Jesus, King of glory, radiant bridegroom of the Church, we really lifted you up on the cross and we now know that You Are. Be Lord Jesus, be! Be in me, in my group, in the Renewal, in the Church! Let us rejoice because the Father gave you the name and at your name we bend our knees in adoration.
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