The Charismatic Dimension of Christian Experience
“A charism is like a window through which one sees the entire open space of Christian reality. The proof of an authentic charism is that it opens onto the whole and does not confine itself to partial experiences.”
Fr. Alberto Cozzi - On the Tenth Anniversary of Iuvenescit Ecclesia
The editorial prompt comes from words Pope Leo XIV addressed to the leaders of movements, associations, and new communities on June 6 of last year:
“Everything in the Church is understood in reference to grace: the institution exists so that grace may always be offered, charisms are stirred up so that this grace may be received and bear fruit.
Without charisms, there is a risk that the grace of Christ, offered in abundance, will not find fertile ground to receive it! This is why God stirs up charisms—so that they may awaken in hearts the desire for an encounter with Christ, the thirst for the divine life that He offers us: in a word, grace.”
Something new is happening in theological reflection on charisms. It is new by comparison with a long tradition that either forgot or underestimated the presence of charisms in the lives of the baptized. But it is new also in relation to the already significant guidelines of the Second Vatican Council (Lumen Gentium 4, 7, 12, 30, 50; Ad Gentes 4, 23, 28; Presbyterorum Ordinis 4, 9). What makes it new is the decision to take as the reference point for charism’s presence and action those realities that Iuvenescit Ecclesia describes as “gatherings of the faithful, ecclesial movements, and new communities” (no. 2).
These are not simply associations of people drawn together by a common social or religious aim. They are true ecclesial movements—dynamic in character, capable of awakening a particular attraction to the Gospel, and of proposing a Christian life that tends toward the comprehensive, touching every dimension of human existence (ibid.). It is precisely this intense sharing of life, ordered toward the deepening of faith, hope, and charity, that realizes and expresses the ecclesial dynamic of communion-for-mission proper to the mystery of the Church.
Put another way: the charismatic action of the Spirit consists in the appropriation by faith of the new life given by Christ. The Spirit sustains and makes compelling the reception of God’s gift in Jesus Christ. He reveals its existential implications, its credibility—its beauty, its urgency—even in the most thoroughly secularized contexts. Thus the Spirit brings about a continuous renewal of the Church, beginning precisely with the act of faith and the experience that belongs to it.
I. The Charismatic Contribution of Movements and New Communities: The Anthropological Level of Faith
We can say that charism operates above all at the level of the human response to the revelation of Christ. It introduces The I into the whole truth, generating concrete experiences of a full life and new relationships—experiences that make the Gospel attractive once again, perceived anew as a precious gift for men and women of the twenty-first century.
We are at the anthropological level of the rediscovery of charisms. At this level, it is essential not to overlook how the encounter with truth in Christ actually works. In the sign of Jesus Christ, faith comes to know the whole truth in the form of anticipation and promise. This challenges human freedom and asks to be taken up into the historical journey in which each person becomes themselves. Truth, then, has a unique history within humanity—and for it. There is a kind of inclusion of freedom within revealed truth.
Man, created in Christ, is a historical being whose foundation and beginning lie in God—in the Trinity—and who can therefore find his fulfillment only there. But that root and that end play out within the singular, concrete history in which every person is engaged in becoming who they are. Every disciple, then, is called to appropriate the truth of the Gospel of Jesus within their own history and time, in a way that is personal and concrete.
Yet this charismatic experience of truth—unfolding within one’s own identity and history—is all the more fruitful the more it is shared, to the point of becoming a “spiritual family.” Such a family finds in the meaning of Christ’s truth for its own life a genuine resource for living fully in its own time. Iuvenescit Ecclesia makes this explicit:
“Charismatic gifts ‘are given to the individual, but they can also be shared by others and in this way are continued over time as a precious and living heritage, which generates a particular spiritual affinity among people.’ The relationship between the personal character of the charism and the possibility of participating in it expresses a decisive element of its dynamic, insofar as it concerns the relationship that, in ecclesial communion, always binds the person and the community. In practice, charismatic gifts can generate spiritual affinities, closeness, and kinships through which the charismatic heritage, beginning with the person of the founder, is shared and deepened, giving rise to true spiritual families.” (no. 16)
The personal appropriation of faith in concrete experience fosters communion and sharing in Christ. This is how the Church grows.
But to this communal character must be added another: the reappropriation of the Gospel in its totality and radicality. Here it is useful to recall, with both Giussani and Ratzinger, that a charism is like a window through which one sees the entire open space of Christian reality. The proof of an authentic charism is that it opens onto the whole and does not confine itself to partial experiences. It is a particular that enables totality, precisely because it exists to generate a Catholic people—that is, a people that is all-encompassing and whole.
Concretely: the charism functions as evidence that An Event is present today, still capable of moving us, of setting us in motion. From this it follows that it is precisely in living the charism that the objective content of the doctrine of faith—of dogma—is illuminated. Doctrine does not have an existential impact on life merely by being studied in the abstract. The truth of faith must be learned and lived in the encounter with and following of the life of the Church, according to the persuasive and existentially captivating emphasis of the charism.
The charism, then, is the way in which the Spirit makes the perception of revealed truth—the perception of the total content of An Event—more conscious and more fruitful. We can already glimpse the contribution of charismatic gifts in contrast to hierarchical ones, which preserve and transmit doctrine and discipline according to Tradition. The reaffirmation of doctrine is necessary but not sufficient for the fulfillment of the Church’s mission. What is required is a careful articulation of charism and institution in the concrete, historical life of the Church.
II. The Co-essentiality of Hierarchical and Charismatic Gifts: The Ecclesiological Level
At a second level—more properly ecclesiological—the rediscovery of the charismatic element takes the form of a clearer awareness of the charismatic dimension of the Church’s life. This allows us to restore the proper perspective on the charismatic value of consecrated life, and on the precious contribution that has flowed from it through the centuries of Church history in the form of missionary, educational, and charitable works.
At this level, the relationship with hierarchical gifts comes into play. Iuvenescit Ecclesia clarifies it with a strong affirmation of the co-essentiality between hierarchical and charismatic gifts—a theme already present in John Paul II’s 1998 Message to the World Congress of Ecclesial Movements, and reaffirmed twice in the document (nos. 10 and 13):
“The relationship between charismatic gifts and the sacramental structure of the Church confirms the co-essentiality between hierarchical gifts—which are in themselves stable, permanent, and irrevocable—and charismatic gifts. Although the latter, in their historical forms, are never guaranteed forever, the charismatic dimension can never be absent from the life and mission of the Church.” (no. 13)
Within these lines, one can discern the articulation between the essential—and therefore permanent—elements and the historical elements of the Church’s life. The historical element, being incarnate and thus changeable, in process, can never be absent from the mystery of the Church.
The doctrinal and sacramental element of the Church—which sanctifies the baptized in truth—cannot exist as an abstract, immutable reality unto itself. It is always realized in concrete historical experience, sustained by the action of the Spirit who enables and accompanies the appropriation of divine gifts within the ever-changing circumstances of cultures and history. This is what characterizes charismatic gifts at their core. Iuvenescit Ecclesia puts it plainly:
“While the exercise of hierarchical gifts ensures, throughout history, the offering of Christ’s grace to the entire People of God, all the faithful are called to receive it and to respond to it personally in the concrete circumstances of their own lives. Charismatic gifts, therefore, are freely distributed by the Holy Spirit so that sacramental grace may bear fruit in Christian life in diverse ways and at all its levels.” (no. 15)
The response of faith is a constitutive element of revealed truth, to which that response is destined and which it grounds and renews in every new cultural context. One does not appropriate the truth—not even the truth of the Gospel—without having to articulate its meaning for the humanity that receives it at a specific time and in a specific place.
It is precisely in this effort to re-signify the meaning for us today of the truth always brought by Christ that we experience a charismatic gift: one that sustains the response of faith of many and makes perceptible still the beauty of a humanity that has found its truth in Christ (Gaudium et Spes, no. 22).
With this in view, the alternatives that tend to set an institutional Church against a spiritual and charismatic Church dissolve. These are not two opposing realizations of the Church. They are two dimensions at the service of the same unfolding: the transmission of the truth of Christ’s Gospel to the present day.
But it is precisely this experience of faith—faith as an experience of good life in the present time—that qualifies one for a role in the Church’s mission. As Iuvenescit Ecclesia notes, the Spirit “bestows special graces upon the faithful of every rank, by which he makes them suitable and ready to take on various tasks and offices useful for the renewal and greater expansion of the Church” (no. 9).
What is required, then, is the recognition of a distinct and valuable competence—and thus the authorization of the effective action of those animated by the power of these charisms within the Church’s pastoral life.
Questions about canonical frameworks for laypeople in the dicasteries and offices of the Curia are genuinely strategic, but they must not monopolize the conversation. The real challenge is simpler and more demanding: to recognize the competence of charisms that succeed in giving meaning for today to the timeless truth of the Gospel, and to share that experience with substantial portions of the People of God.
It is this competence—in articulating the still culturally and anthropologically attractive meaning of Christian reality—that can make a serious contribution to the governance of the Church. It exercises a form of pastoral and missionary action that springs from the compelling experience some baptized persons have of their faith within their own culture and time. This is a form of witness that carries real authority: the authority that comes from the ability to integrate the various dimensions of reality into the encounter with Christ, by virtue of the illuminating and comforting action of his Spirit.
III. The Living and Present Action of the Spirit: The Trinitarian Dimension of Charismatic Gifts
There is a third dimension that has been rediscovered: the properly Trinitarian dimension of the Church’s charismatic experience. Iuvenescit Ecclesia states it directly: “The free action of the Most Holy Trinity in history reaches believers with the gift of salvation and at the same time inspires them to respond freely and fully to it with the commitment of their own lives” (no. 12). God’s action is present both in the gift of salvation and in humanity’s free response—enabling people to recognize the beauty and goodness of Christ’s gift across different times and cultures.
Within this horizon, the great forgotten member of the Trinity—the Holy Spirit—reappears in the faith experience of Christians as the true protagonist of the Church’s life and mission.
He reappears above all in his role as the one who introduces us to the integral truth of Christ—to the humanity that is in and of Christ. This Spirit rediscovers his role as the Inner Teacher, who enables us to savor the beauty and credibility of God’s truth revealed by the Son. Thus is renewed the miracle of faith: the miracle of hearing the Word of God as a positive proclamation, as an urgent and desirable call. Augustine testified to this already:
“There is a great mystery here that we must reflect upon, brothers. The sound of our words strikes the ears, but the true teacher is within. Do not think you can learn anything from a man. We can exhort with the clamour of our voice, but if there is no one teaching within, our clamour becomes useless… He who teaches the hearts has his chair in heaven… Let him, then, speak within you, for there can be no human teacher there. Let no one be there but Christ; let his anointing remain, so that your thirsty heart may not remain alone and lack the springs necessary to irrigate it.” (Augustine, Homilies on the First Letter of John, III.13)
In this inner work—the expanding of the heart’s desire so that it may open to the immeasurable measure of divine revelation—we see all the newness proper to the Spirit’s action. It is a true renewal of the Church, though not a continuous reinvention of her faith. It is an ever-new and regenerating reappropriation. The Spirit re-actualizes the newness of the Risen One precisely by introducing us into his full truth.
This work of the Spirit is not reducible to the role of “actualizer” of Christ’s graces in the Church. He is the subject of the Church’s renewal—the one who makes present the space of God’s new encounter with humanity, according to the Christological form.
Understood this way, the Church becomes the Body upon which to read the narrative identity of the Spirit. Vatican II called us to move beyond an instrumental pneumatology, in which “the ecclesial role of the Spirit risks being reduced to ensuring the perfect presence of Christ’s graces in the Church and the functions of the hierarchy, guaranteeing a unity in the mystical body that abstracts from the concrete life of the entire ecclesial community” (V. Maraldi).
The Spirit makes available once again, within a specific historical movement, the new personal contact with the Father made possible by the Paschal Mystery of the Son. In constantly renewing this contact, the Spirit takes the form of a gift that opens the space of the other and makes the Church a welcoming place. From this arises the capacity for dialogue with every human experience, religious or cultural.
We might evoke here the idea that the Spirit enacts a kind of Raum geben—a “giving of space” to the other in their difference. This is conceivable if we accept that in dialogue with the other—the dialogue promoted by Vatican II in the light of Paul VI’s Ecclesiam Suam—the Spirit is at work, generating the capacity to share with the other the demand for truth that the Christian carries in the act of faith.
This is not a matter of imposing one’s doctrine or creed on the other as an indisputable given. It is a matter of sharing the demand for truth that calls us in faith and guides us in dialogue with reality and with others. This sharing of the need for truth to which we respond in faith allows us to listen, without prejudice, to the response that others are giving to the same need for truth and justice that every person carries in their heart.
Ratzinger touched on this in his reflections on faith and culture, where he emphasized that the encounter of cultures is made possible by the fact that man, despite all the differences in his history and communal creations, is that unique being who, in the depths of his existence, is touched by truth itself—a truth that opens him beyond himself in an exodic dynamism (Faith, Truth, Tolerance, Cantagalli, 2003). From this derives the fundamental openness of all toward others, and the essential convergences that exist even among the most distant cultures. The diversity that closes, on the other hand, derives from the finitude of the human spirit: no one embraces the whole; to grasp the whole, we need everyone.
One might speak, then, of the action of the Spirit as continuity in excess: I am able to grasp what is at stake in the transmission of Christ’s Gospel throughout the centuries precisely because I read it with an openness to the excess of life of the Risen Son—a novelty never available to history through its intra-worldly laws alone. To sustain this excess-tension, one must enter into the freedom of the Son, into that demand for truth to which Jesus sought to respond in his own life.
Here emerges the deepest idea: the Spirit is the power of Christ’s eschatological newness. His action consists in continually re-presenting Christ in his newness as the Glorified One. The prophetic and charismatic dimension of the Spirit must be highlighted precisely to show how it actualizes the newness Christ brought—not in an enslaving, legalistic, or rigid way, but in the living way of prophecy. In the Spirit, the future, the new man, and the new creation are made manifest. In Christianity, there is not just any opening onto the future: it is the future of Jesus Christ.
The abundance that captures continuity in the resumption of all dimensions of the original—from beginning to fulfillment—is what the Spirit of the Risen One works and guarantees. Continuity is not simply a fact of human history and its dynamics. It is what the Spirit gives, in newness and in excess. The Spirit actualizes the uncontainable newness of the Risen One, and it is precisely in the charismatic action of the Spirit that the Church iuvenescit—grows young.
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