A Pentecostal and Pneumatic Church

"Holy Church is the body of Christ vivified by the one Spirit, united by one faith and sanctified.  All of the faithful exists individually as members of this body, all one body on account of one Spirit and one faith.  Now just as in the human body all members individually have their own proper and separate offices and yet each one does not do what it alone does, for itself alone, so that in the body of Holy Church the gifts of graces have been distributed, and yet each one does not have for himself alone even that which he alone has.  For the eyes alone see, and yet they do not see for themselves alone but for the whole body.  now the ears alone hear and yet they do not hear for themselves alone but for the whole body.  The feet alone walk, and yet they do not walk for themselves alone but for the whole body.  And in this way whatever everything has alone in itself, it does not have only account of itself, since according to the disposition of the best dispenser and most wise distributor they individually belong to all and all belong to the individuals.  Whoever, therefore, has merited to receive the gift of the grace of God, let him know that what he has does not belong to him alone.

"Thus by this likeness Holy Church, that is, the aggregate of the faithful, is called the body of Christ on account of the Spirit of Christ which it received, and man's sharing in it is designated when he is called Christian from Christ.  Thus this name designates the members of Christ sharing in the Spirit of Christ, so that each is anointed by the Anointed, who is called Christian from Christ.  Christ indeed is interpreted as the Anointed, that is, with all that oil of joy which before all His sharers He received according to fullness and transfused to all His sharers as the head to the members according to the sharing.  'Like the ointment on the head, that rand down from the head upon the beard and then even to the skirt,' (Ps 132:2), that is, it flowed down to the extremity of the vestment so that it flowed forth upon the whole and vivified the whole.  When, therefore, you are made a Christian, you are made a member of Christ, a member of the body of Christ sharing in the Spirit of Christ.  What then is the Church, but the multitude of the faithful, the aggregate of Christians?"

Hugh of Saint-Victor,
de Sacramentiis, II.2.2

M. Schmaus on Believing in Jesus

"Although the original substance of the words and actions of Jesus can thus be attained through the apostolic formulations, it is faith alone that opens up the understanding of Christ.  If the New Testament witness to Christ consists in accounts that are not so much historical as kerygmatic, and hence witnesses of faith, then the appropriate response to them is our own faith in return.  This likewise follows from the content itself which is proclaimed, since it is nothing other than the risen Christ, living and present.  But Christ cannot be affirmed as an object: he always remains subject.  Hence proclamation can aim only at personal encounter with Jesus Christ.  This takes place in faith; faith is the surrender of the believing I to the Thou of Jesus Christ.  If even ordinary encounter between persons requires faith as a preliminary, this is true of the encounter with the glorified Lord in a special and unique way.  For in the resurrection he has entered into the mystery of God, and so, in being proclaimed, he speaks out of the mystery of God.  The one who hears through this proclamation is called into the mystery of God.  The way of rational knowledge does not lead to this encounter, but only the way of decision, in which man submits himself to the divine mystery.  Because the historical words and actions of Jesus are most intimately related to the life of the Risen One, their true sense can be grasped only in faith; indeed they are in their totality nothing other than forms of expression of the one Jesus Christ.  Faith, in the form of a personal encounter,  naturally includes the acceptance of Jesus' words and teachings (assent to revealed truth); this, however, is only one element within the total event of faith.  

"In the last analysis, man is capable of decision for Jesus only when he is empowered to make it by Jesus himself. In the call, of which man becomes aware through the gospel proclamation, Christ so acts upon the genuine hearer that his hearing of the call through the words of men becomes at the same time a  following of it; that is, faith is at once both grace and a human decision."

Michael Schmaus, Dogma 3:  God and His Christ

Cardinal Suenens on the Charismatic Giftsin the Renewal of the Church's Life

The following is the text of an Intervention regarding the schemata on the Church during the Second Vatican Council.  The Council Father would later be appointed Cardinal-Protector of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

The remarks made about the charism of the Christian people are so few that one could get the impression that charismata are nothing more than a peripheral and unessential phenomenon in the life of the Church.  Now, the vital importance of these charismata for building up the Mystical Body must be presented with greater clarity and consequently at greater length.  What is to be completely avoided is the impression that the hierarchical structure of the Church appear as an administrative apparatus with no intimate connection with the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit which are spread throughout the life of the Church.

The time of the Church, which is on pilgrimage through the centuries until the parousia of the Lord is the time of the Holy Spirit.  For it is through the Holy Spirit that the glorified Christ unifies the eschatological People of God, purifies them, fills them with life and leads them to all truth, and this in spite of the weaknesses and sin of this people.  The Holy Spirit is thus the first fruits [Rom 8:23], the installment of the Church [2 Cor 1:22; 5:5], in this world.  Therefore the Church is called the dwelling of God in the Spirit [Eph 2:22].

It follows from this that the Holy Spirit is not given to pastors only but to each and every Christian.  "Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and that the Holy Spirit dwells within you?" says St Paul to the Corinthians [1 Cor 3:16].  

In baptism, the sacrament of faith, all Christians receive the Holy Spirit.  All Christians, "living stones" as they are called, are to be built into a "spiritual dwelling," oikos pneumatikos [1 Pt 2:5].  Therefore the whole Church is essentially a truly "pneumatic" or spiritual reality, built on the foundation not only of the apostles, but--as Ephesians 2:20 says--also of the prophets.  In the Church of the New Testament God "gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some pastors and teachers" [Eph 4:11; see 3:5].

The Holy Spirit shows himself in the Church in the great number and richness of his spiritual gifts, gifts which the Scripture calls pneumatika [1 Cor 12:1; 14:1] or charismata [Rom 12:6; 1 Cor 12:4, 9, 28, 30ff; 1 Tim 4:14; 2 Tim 1:6; 1 Pt 4:10].  Certainly in teh time of St Paul even very extraordinary and marvellous charismata such as "ecstatic utterance" [1 Cor 12:10, 28, 30; 14:18, 26; Acts 19:6] or charisms of healing [1 Cor 12:9, 28, 30; see 1 Cor  12:10, 12, 28ff; Gal 3:5] were shown in the Church.  But we should not think that the charisms of the Spirit consist exclusively or even principally in these phenomena, which are more extraordinary and marvellous.  St Paul speaks, for example, of the charism of wise speech and knowledge [1 Cor 12:8], of the charism of faith [1 Cor 12:9], of the charism of teaching [Rom 12:7; 1 Cor  12:28f, 14f, v. 26] of stirring or comforting speech [Rom 12:8], and administration [Rom  12:7], of the charism of distinguishing true spirits from false [1 Cor 12:10], of the charism of helping others and guiding them [1 Cor 12:28], and so on.

Thus to St Paul the Church of the living Christ does not appear as some of administrative organization, but as a living web of gifts, of charisms, of ministries.  The Spirit is given to every individual Christian, the Spirit who gives his gifts, his charisms, to each and every one "different as they are allotted to us by God's grace" [Rom 12:6].  "In each one us the Spirit is manifested in one particular way, for some useful purpose" [1 Cor 12:7]; for example, "to build up the Church" [1 Cor 14:12].  Each and every Christian, whether lettered or unlettered, has his charism in his daily life, but--as St Paul says--"All of these mus aim at one thing, to build up the Church" [1 Cor 14:26, see 14:3-5].

Listen again to the Apostle who says, "Within the Church God has appointed, in the first place apostles, in the second place prophets, thirdly teachers...  Are all apostles?  Are all prophets?  Are all teachers? [1 Cor 12:28f].

A statement about the Church, then, which would speak only of the Apostles and their successors, and fail to speak also about prophets and teachers, would be defective in a matter of the highest importance.

What would the Church be without the charism of teachers or theologians?  And what would our Church be like without the charism of prophets, that is, people speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who, speaking out insistently "on all occasions, convenient and inconvenient," woke up the Church at times when she was asleep, to prevent the practice of the Gospel of Christ from being neglected?

It was not in past ages alone, not only in the time of St Thomas Aquinas or St Francis of Assisi, that the Church was in need of the charisms of teachers and prophets and other ministries; she needs them today as well and needs them in her everyday life.

So let us pass over the more outstanding charisms and come to the more commonplace charisms.  Do we not all know laymen and laywomen in each of our own diocese who we might say are in a way called by the Lord and endowed with various charisms of the Spirit?  Whether in catechetical work, in spreading the Gospel, in every area of Catholic activity in social and charitable works?  Do we not know and see in our daily experience that the action of the Holy Spirit has not died out in the Church?

Charisms in the Church without the ministry of pastors would certainly be disorderly, but vice versa, ecclesiastical ministry without the charisms would be poor and sterile.

It is the duty of pastors, both those in charge of local and individual Churches and those in charge of the universal Church, through a kind of spiritual instinct to discover the charisms of the Spirit in the Church, to foster them and to help them grow.  It is the duty of pastors to listen carefully and with an open heart to the laity, and repeatedly to engage in a living dialogue with them.  For each and every layperson has been given their own gifts and charisms, and more often than not has greater experience than the clergy in daily life in the world.

Finally, it is the duty of pastors themselves to aim at the higher charisms [1 Cor 12:31].  It is clear that all the faithful, even those endowed with the greatest gifts, give reverence and obedience to their pastors.  But it is also true from the other side that similar attention and reverence is due to those charisms and impulses of the Holy Spirit, who very frequently breathes through Christian laymen and laywomen who have no position of authority.  Consequently St Paul warns all Christians, pastors included, "Do not quench the Spirit, and do not despise prophetic utterances, but bring them all to the test and then keep what is good" [1 Thess 5:19-20].  This complex of gifts, charisms, and ministries can be brought into play an deserve to build up the Church only through that freedom of the children of God which, following, St Paul's example, all pastors must protect and foster...

Intervention by H.Em. Leon-Joseph Cardinal Suenens,
Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels and Primate of Belgium,
at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council

Taken from Y. Congar, H. Kung, D. O'Hanlan, Council Speeches of Vatican II
(London:  Sheed and Ward, 1964), 18-21, with slight editorial emendations.

Easter Makes a Church, Not a Non-Governmental Organisation

The following is the text of my homily preached at the Convetual Mass this evening:

 Le fait que « le Christ est ressuscité! » est précisément ce qui sauve l'Église de sa transformation en une "organisation non-gouvernementale" si vigoureusement fustigée par le pape François, et pourtant si facilement ignorée par ses admirateurs potentiels.

Ce que l’Église - ou plutôt, nous - proclamons se trouve dans le nom prononcé par Pierre :  « Jésus-Christ de Nazareth » [Ac 3, 6].  

« Nazareth », parce que le Ressuscité existe en tant que figure historique concrète ;

« Christ », parce qu'il ne peut être compris en dehors de sa mission salvifique ; 

« Jésus », parce qu'il est un Sujet personnel qui veut entrer en amitié avec nous.  

C'est pourquoi l'Église propose au monde, non pas une subsistance fournie par « l'or et l'argent », mais la Vie elle-même qui a vaincu victorieusement tout ce qui lui était hostile, en ce matin de Pâques qui n'est pas seulement du passé mais surtout contemporain.  

En Jésus se trouve la réalisation de tous les efforts humains.  Pour cette raison, l'Église n'en est pas moins humanitaire dans son orientation.  C'est ainsi que le Deuxième Concile du Vatican a pu déclarer :   

« L’activité missionnaire possède un lien intime avec
la nature humaine elle-même et ses aspirations.
Car en manifestant le Christ,
L’Église révèle aux hommes par le fait même la vérité authentique
de leur condition et de leur vocation intégrale,
le Christ étant le principe et le modèle
de cette humanité rénovée» [Ad gentes, §8].

In English:

That “Christ is risen!” is precisely what rescues the Church from devolving into a ‘non-governmental organization’ so forcefully castigated by Pope Francis, and yet so easily ignored by his would-be admirers.  

What the Church—or, rather, we—proclaim is found in Name spoken by Peter:  “Jesus Christ of Nazareth” [Acts 3:6].  

“Nazareth,” because the Risen One exists as a concrete historical figure; 

“Christ,” because He cannot be understood apart from His salvific mission; 

“Jesus,” because He is a Personal Subject who wills to enter into friendship with us.  

Hence the Church proposes to the world not just a livelihood provided by “gold and silver,” but rather the very Life itself which has victoriously conquered all things inimical to it, on that Easter morning which is not only past but—especially—contemporaneous.  

In Jesus is the realisation of all human endeavours and, for that reason, the Church is nonetheless humanitarian in her orientation.  It is thus that the Second Vatican Council was able to declare:

Missionary activity is closely bound up even with
human nature itself and its aspirations.
For by manifesting Christ
the Church reveals to men the real truth about their condition
and their whole calling,
since Christ is the source and model
of that redeemed humanity [Ad gentes, §8].

Wednesday, 7 April 021
Wednesday of the Easter Octave