Word of the Week

2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Gifts: charisma (Gk.): meaning, “gift”, or “a favor with which one receives without any merit of his own”. Linguistically tied to the term grace, this term can also translate as the extraordinary grace at work in the gifts of Holy Spirit that enable Christians to serve the Church.

Charismatic gifts are graces bestowed upon individual believers from the Holy Spirit to build the body of Christ in truth and love (CCC, 799-800, 951).  Faithfully observing these gifts in the disposition of spiritual poverty, the people of God are to proclaim and establish the Church as the seedbed of Christ’s Kingdom (CCC, 768, 800). All charismatic gifts are to be tested by the shepherds of the Church to assure their authenticity and that they “work together for the common good” (CCC, 801). In addition to these charismatic gifts, are the works of grace that inspire the more ordinary gifts of charity in service (CCC, 2003-2004).

Charisma can be found seventeen times in the New Testament. With the exception of one usage from Peter, the term is predominant in Paul’s epistles to Rome and Corinth. It is in each of these epistles that Paul sets out to explain both the charismatic gifts of extraordinary power (in the truest sense of extra-ordinary) of healing, insight and discernment (1 Cor.12:1-11), as well as the more practical gifts of service, teaching, aid, and acts of mercy (Rom.12:6-8) (Hahn and Minch, 34). In Peter’s lone use of the word charisma, he exhorts the faithful to be stewards of the gifts they have received by ministering to the people of God (1 Peter 4:10).

These varied sorts of gifts that come to us by way of the Holy Spirit are in place to bring individual believers into a more personal relationship with Christ, and consequently, build up the body of Christ. I pause to reflect upon this point, because it would be theologically incorrect (if not all entirely confusing) to talk about the building up of the faithful and not talk about the building up of Christ and his Church. Consequently, any talk of the more extraordinary gifts of God must have with it an abiding fidelity to Christ and his Church to who the gifts are to serve. In fact, Paul, after treating the gifts of the Holy Spirit, goes on to explicate on the roles of the individuals based upon the kinds of gifts they have received to serve the Church as one body (1 Cor.12:12:31). 
 
In closing, my thoughts are drawn to the nature and purpose of a gift. What is a gift if it is used exclusively for personal and selfish gain? A gift is given to be shared with those who we are in relationship with in our families and communities. God grants humanity with a surplus of gifts not to hoard over for ourselves, but to share with the world. Consequently, when we share the gifts we have received from God, whether natural or supernatural, we are glorifying the giver of the gift—God!

“At the heart imbued with the world with a rationalistic skepticism, a new experience of the Holy Spirit suddenly bursts forth. And, since then, that experience has assumed a breadth of worldwide Renewal movement. What the New Testament tells us about charisms-which were seen as visible signs of the coming of the Spirit-is not just ancient history, over and done with, for it is once again becoming extremely topical.”

--Pope Benedict XVI

Primary Texts Consulted

•  Catholic Bible. Suggested trans. Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition.
•  Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Edition, 1997.
• Hahn, Scott and Minch, Curtis. Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: Paul’s First and Second Letter to the Corinthians, RSV, 2nd ed. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002.

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