I. Charism - La Salle.org

II. CHARISM IN THE BIBLE 11
II. Charism in the Bible
The word charism is virtually a transliteration of the Greek charisma
which means “free gift” and is linked to the same root as charis “grace”.
In the New Testament the word does not always have a technical
sense. It can describe all the gifts of God which are never withdrawn
(Rom 11:23), in particular that “gift of grace” that comes to us
through Christ (Rom 5:15) and which blossoms into eternal life
(Rom 6:23). Indeed, in Christ, God has “freely bestowed grace” on us
(Eph 1:6 - charitos) and “he will grant us all kinds of gifts” (Rom 8:32
- charisetai).
But if in the New Testament we find, thanks to saint Paul, the outline
of a theology of charism in general, and of charisms in particular, it is
not the same in the Old Testament. There we do not find any theological
discourse on this topic. So we shall have to detect it in the heroic
deeds of our Fathers in the faith. It is indeed in what they did that
we catch a glimpse of the gifts they received from God. As in the New
Testament, these charisms are at the service of the community. The
most outstanding one is that of leadership but we also discover within
it the charism of universal openness, that of the ability to get started
or to start again, and the charism of prophecy. We shall conclude
this study with a reflection on the charisms of the Jewish people.
Christian charisms are admirably described by saint Paul in his epistles.
But before coming to that, we must first reflect on the gift of life
as the first charism offered to the first man.
1. Charism is a call to life
At the beginning of the Bible man does not in fact have any charism,
he is charism because he is gift of life in the world and for the world.