I. Charism - La Salle.org

II. CHARISM IN THE BIBLE 15
So he is a familiar God, and not a far-off, Olympian God. It is only
in Ex 34:5 that Moses will be able to call God “Yahweh”. He is a
God who shares his story and therefore the story of his oppressed
people in Egypt. He is a God torn apart by the sufferings of Moses’
people whom he looks upon as “his own”. In spite of everything
Moses is a man with contacts, half Hebrew, half Egyptian, and it is
in that capacity that God intervenes and gives him his charism; he
wants nothing but the life of a people, and his charisms of witness
are lost in the oppression.
Thus Moses received the charism of curiosity to draw near to God
and receive other charisms. If he had not been curious to draw near
the burning bush he would not have had any dialogue with God
nor any enlightenment. The first charism of the Exodus is, then,
that of curiosity - leaving behind one’s self, one’s certainties for the
unfamiliar that God is suggesting to us - then comes an openness
to go further. It is the charism that gives the strength for the initial
detachment, that from his sandals… People do not walk in the
burning desert full of snakes without sandals.
For Moses the charism of the Exodus is that of strength which combats
his personal shortcomings which hinder him from devoting
himself to his mission. Moses is a stammerer and wants to remain
such so as not to change his vocation into a dangerous mission. Let
Yahweh send someone else! (Nb 11:11; Ex 3:11; 4:1). And Yahweh
answers him in a practical way: “If you have little faith in my
charism, rely on the persuasive tongue of your brother”. Moses has
yet to grasp that God listens, sees and remembers, verbs about God
which frame the third chapter of Exodus. When he does grasp it,
his charism enables him to respond by means of a liberating mission
and it is, in fact, the charism of leadership that he receives.
Moses goes on his way and returns to Jethro, his father-in-law. He
says: Let me go back to my kinsmen in Egypt and see whether they