Vatican City, 2014 (VIS) – The
charisms that build the Church and make her fruitful constituted the
subject of Pope Francis' catechesis during today's general audience
in St. Peter's Square, attended by over 35,000 people.
“Ever since the beginning, the Lord
has filled his Church with the gifts of His Spirit, making her
forever alive ... and among these gifts, we find some that are
particularly valuable for the edification and the progress of the
Christian community: these are charisms”, said the bishop of Rome,
explaining that in everyday language we often refer to “charisma”
in relation to a talent or natural ability. However, from a Christian
point of view, a charism is far more than a personal quality, a
predisposition or a gift: it is a grace, a gift from God the Father,
by the action of the Holy Spirit … so that with the same gratuitous
love it may be placed at the service of the entire community, for the
good of all”.
On the other hand, Pope Francis
emphasised that alone it is impossible to understand whether or not
one has received a charism or what form it takes, as it is within a
community that we learn to recognise them as a sign of the Father's
love for all of His sons and daughters. It is therefore good for us
to ask ourselves, 'Has the Lord made a charism issue forth in me, in
the grace of His Spirit, that my brothers in the Christian community
have recognised and encouraged? And how do I act, in relation to this
gift: do I experience it with generosity, placing it at the service
of all, or do I neglect it and end up forgetting about it? Or does it
perhaps become a pretext for pride, so that I expect the community to
do things my way?”.
“The most beautiful experience,
however, is discovering how many different charisms there are, and
with how many gifts of the Spirit the Father fills His Church. This
must not be regarded as a cause for confusion or unease: they are all
gifts that God gives to the Christian community, so that it might
grow harmoniously, in faith and in His love, like one body, the body
of Christ. The same Spirit that grants this diversity of charisms
also constructs the unity of the Church”. He warned, “Beware,
lest these gifts become a cause for envy, division or jealousy! As
the apostle Paul recalls in his First Letter to the Corinthians, all
charisms are important in the eyes of God, and at the same time,
no-one is indispensable. This means that in the Christian community
everyone needs the other, and every gift received is fully realised
when it is shared with brothers, for the good of all. This is the
Church! And when the Church, in the variety of her charisms, is
expressed in communion, she cannot err: it is the beauty and the
strength of the sensus fidei, of that supernatural sense of faith,
that is given by the Holy Spirit so that together we can enter into
the heart of the Gospel and learn to follow Jesus in our life”.
Pope Francis went on to recall that
today the Church commemorates St. Therese of Lisieux, who died at the
age of 24 and “loved the Church so much that she wanted to be a
missionary; she wanted to have every sort of charism. And in prayer
she realised that her charism was love. She said, 'In the heart of
the Church, I will be love', a beautiful phrase. And we all have this
charism: the capacity to love. Today let us ask St. Therese of the
Child Jesus for this capacity to love the Church, to love her dearly,
and to accept all these charisms with this filial love for the
Church, for our hierarchical holy mother Church”.
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