I. Charism - La Salle.org

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III. CHARISM IN THE CHURCH
anticipation of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the heavenly
bliss to follow. While experiencing powerful, immediate signs of
the Spirit’s work in building up the Church, early believers search
for language to describe the Father, the Son, the Spirit, the gifts, the
graces, the mysteries, and the charisms.
The Fathers and the Doctors of the Church speak often of the Holy
Spirit, of the gifts and the counsels, of the powers and the prerogatives
of ordained ministers, of the marvels of grace, of the interpretation
of the Scriptures, and, above all, of the unfathomable but fascinating
mysteries of the Triune God. The terms Spirit, grace, and
gift appear repeatedly, but the word charism is far less frequent.
The experience of charisms seems relatively universal in the early
Church. Whether charisms are rare or universal among believers is
a question throughout Church history, but believers never doubt
the link between charisms and the Spirit. The tendency to rank
charisms according to some system of priority or superiority is also
constant in the Church.
In his translation of the Bible, Saint Jerome uses a Latin form of
charism (charismata-Saint Paul’s “the greater gifts” 3 ) only once. He
describes virginity and marriage as gifts in the context of Paul’s
expression, “diversities of gifts.” Church documents in the twentieth
century will apply the word charism to all the states of life,
including the single state, the married state, Holy Orders, and the
consecrated life.
Discernment is another aspect of charism that dates from the earliest
period of the Church, for example, the need to distinguish
authentic prophets from soothsayers. Discernment and the authority
to discern remain priorities since the Church’s first experiences
with charisms.
3
1 Cor 12:31.