By DON FIER
The image of the Church which we have been examining for the past two weeks, the “Body of Christ,” is a beautiful expression of the mysterious and deep union that exists between our Lord and all those who are joined to His Church. So intimately are we united that we share His very life, as branches on a vine.
Pope Pius XII, in his 1943 encyclical Mystici Corporis Christi (MCC), sums up the wonder of this abiding union with the following words: “If we would define and describe this true Church of Jesus Christ — which is the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman Church — we shall find nothing more noble, more sublime, or more divine than the expression ‘the Mystical Body of Christ’ — an expression which springs from and is, as it were, the fair flowering of the repeated teaching of the Sacred Scriptures and the Holy Fathers” (n. 13).
But just as the human body has a head, so too does the Church. As revealed by the Holy Spirit in St. Paul’s Letter to the Colossians, Christ “is the head of the body, the church” (v. 1:18). The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church deepens this concept: “The Church lives from him, in him, and for him” (n. 157). Together, as articulated by St. Augustine, Christ and the members of His Church make up the “whole Christ” (Christus totus).
Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ, summarizes yet another captivating image used to describe this union: “Christ is the Spouse of the Church, who is His Bride. He loved her even to dying on the Cross to bring her into being, and loves her in that Mystical Marriage which is destined to continue into eternity” (The Faith, p. 88).
The Vatican II Fathers describe the Church as “the spotless spouse of the spotless Lamb, whom Christ ‘loved and for whom He delivered Himself up that He might sanctify her,’ whom He unites to Himself by an unbreakable covenant, and whom He unceasingly ‘nourishes and cherishes’” (Lumen Gentium, n. 6 § 3).
Having described the Church as the “People of God” and the “Body of Christ,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) now presents a third image: the “Temple of the Holy Spirit.” Why would the Church be thought of as a temple? Earlier in this series, we saw that many diverse images are used to symbolize the Church in Sacred Scripture, each in some way shedding light on an aspect of her great mystery.
Pope Francis observed in his general audience of June 26, 2013, that the word temple “makes us think of a building, of a construction. . . . The minds of many turn to the history of the People of Israel recounted in the Old Testament.” The original temple built in Jerusalem by Solomon in the tenth century B.C. was seen as “the place of God’s effective presence in the world” (German Bishops’ Conference, The Church’s Confession of Faith, p. 228), as “the dwelling place of God among men (cf. Rev. 21:3)” (LG, n. 6 § 2).
In the New Testament, the Church is also characterized as a temple. We, her members, as living stones of a spiritual edifice (cf. 1 Peter 2:5), “are no longer strangers and sojourners, but…fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom [we] also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Eph. 2:19-22).
The Catechism once again turns to St. Augustine for illumination: “What the soul is to the human body, the Holy Spirit is to the Body of Christ, which is the Church” (Sermo 267, 4; as cited in CCC, n. 797). In other words, the Holy Spirit is the soul of the Church, and in like manner, the Church is the “dwelling place,” or temple, of the Holy Spirit.
As Dr. Alan Schreck explains in The Essential Catholic Catechism, “It is impossible to separate the Holy Spirit from the church, because Jesus and the Father sent the Holy Spirit to the church to be her source of life” (p. 136).
Or, as Pope Pius XII proclaims, “[The Spirit of Christ] is entire in the Head, entire in the Body, and entire in each of the members. . . . It is He who, through His heavenly grace, is the principle of every supernatural act in all parts of the Body” (MCC, n. 7).
Likewise, St. Irenaeus, second-century bishop and martyr, affirms: “Where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church” (Against Heresies, 3, 24, 1).
The Holy Spirit “works in many ways to build up the whole Body in charity” (CCC, n. 798). The Church is built up by the Word of God, is formed and new members added through Baptism, experiences growth and healing among members through the sacraments, and is governed and ordered for the common good by many gifts and virtues, including “the grace of the apostles, which holds first place among his gifts” (LG, n. 7 § 2).
Among these gifts are special graces, called “charisms,” which enable the faithful to be “fit and ready to undertake the various tasks and offices which contribute toward the renewal and building up of the Church” (LG, n. 12 § 2).
What exactly are charisms? As defined by Fr. Hardon in his Modern Catholic Dictionary, they are “literally ‘gifts of grace’ (charismata), described by St. Paul as gratuitous blessings of an extraordinary and transitory nature conferred directly for the good of others. Indirectly they may also benefit the one who possesses the charisms, but their immediate purpose is for the spiritual welfare of the Christian community” (p. 94).
St. Teresa On Charisms
Important to note is the distinction that the primary purpose of charisms is for the common good of the Church, not for the direct benefit of the recipient. “They are at the service of charity which builds up the Church” (CCC, n. 2003), for as St. Paul says, “each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Cor. 12:7).
Fr. Hardon goes on to explain that charisms are variously numbered in Sacred Scripture with the single longest enumeration given by St. Paul in his First Letter to the Corinthians (see 1 Cor. 12:1-14, 40).
Moreover, they are often classified under five categories by spiritual writers (based on the Acts of the Apostles and various Pauline writings): charisms of instruction, administration, miracles, service, and prayer. What is of paramount importance, however, is that “charisms are to be accepted with gratitude by the person who receives them and by all members of the Church as well” (CCC, n. 800). For as St. Peter writes: “As each has received a gift, employ it for one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace” (1 Peter 4:10).
In a general audience given on June 24, 1992, Pope St. John Paul II spoke at length about the role of charisms in the Church’s life. An important principle is that “each of us receives from God many gifts which are appropriate for us personally and for our mission. Because of this diversity, no individual way of holiness or mission is ever identical to others. The Holy Spirit shows respect for each person and wants to foster in each one an original development of the spiritual life and the giving of witness. . . . Everyone makes a personal contribution that others do not. The spiritual community lives on the contribution of all.”
The Catechism goes on to emphasize that “discernment of charisms is always necessary. No charism is exempt from being referred and submitted to the Church’s shepherds” (CCC, n. 801). Diligent care must be exercised to validate that a charism is the work of the Holy Spirit, and not the work of an unholy spirit. This is especially true in the case of extraordinary gifts, which, according to the Vatican II Fathers and many great saints, “are not to be sought after” (LG, n. 12 § 2).
Carmelite mystic and Doctor of the Church St. Teresa of Avila cautions: “When you learn or hear that God grants these favors to souls you [must] never beseech Him or desire Him to lead you by this path” (Interior Castles, VI, 9, 14), for such a way is fraught with dangers.
St. John Paul, in the general audience cited above, provides wise and prudent criteria for discerning the authenticity of charismatic gifts: 1) agreement with the Church’s faith in Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Cor. 12:3); 2) the presence of the “fruit of the spirit: love, joy, peace” (Gal. 5:22); 3) conformity with the Church’s authority and acceptance of its directives; and 4) the use of charisms in the community should be subject to a simple rule: “Everything should be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26).
Above all, the Catechism instructs, genuine gifts of the Holy Spirit are to be used “in keeping with charity, the true measure of all charisms” (CCC, n. 800).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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