"The Church is Alive"

Those are the famous words of Pope Benedict XVI in his first homily as Pope on April 24, 2005, just three years ago, almost to the exact date (see link for text of homily). I recently accompanied a small group of pilgrims to a shrine to a Franciscan Capuchin holy man who was declared "Venerable" by Pope John Paul the Great. At this Franciscan shrine, a friar led all the pilgrims (there was a large number beyond the small group I came with) in prayers of thanksgiving and for spiritual and physical healing near the tomb of the Franciscan holy man. We were in the chapel in the real presence of the Eucharistic Lord in the tabernacle. The friar went among the pilgrims with a small microphone as many publicly thanked God for their blessings, for conversion, and for physical healings. The entire, large group of pilgrims then intoned "Thanks be to God." The friar then went again among the entire group of pilgrims, again with a small, discreet microphone, to allow individuals to publicly make their requests for healing known. Many took advantage of the opportunity. The entire group present then intoned that the Lord would hear each prayer. Earlier, there was reading from Scripture. There was also traditional liturgical prayer. Finally, each pilgrim who came forward was blessed with a Relic of the True Cross in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. It was a powerful spiritual experience because the Holy Spirit was indeed present among us. That same Holy Spirit bound all present in a communion, a communio, a koinonia (in biblical Greek), a fellowship as adopted children of the Father. Both the vertical and horizontal dimensions of life in the Spirit were palpably present in this intense gathering. The Church is indeed alive.

Here was a tangible expression of the essential, non-negotiable charismatic dimension of the Church because the charism of healing was being exercised through the intercession of a holy man who clearly had the charisms of healing and of counsel (known in 1 Corinthians 12:8 as the "utterance of knowledge," the ability to give a word of the Lord for the particular challenges and trials of an individual). The holy man was a genuine charismatic long before anyone ever heard of the modern and certainly appropriate label "Catholic Charismatic Renewal." So were all the great saints. In fact, the Catechism defines what we pilgrims experienced at this holy site. Read the following carefully and see how these are not mere abstract words but the living reality of the living Catholic Church:

Communion of charisms. Within the communion of the Church, the Holy Spirit "distributes special graces among the faithful of every rank" for the building up of the Church [quoting Vatican II's Lumen Gentium 12, § 2] . Now, "to each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" [quoting 1 Cor. 12:7].

Catechism of the Catholic Church ("CCC"), 951.

Yet, these charismatics are not only among those alive today on earth as the Church Militant; but also, most gloriously, includes those saints and holy people present with God as the Church Triumphant and still exercising their charisms for the Church on earth. Again, here is the Catechism:

Communion with the saints. . . . "Exactly as Christian communion among our fellow pilgrims brings us closer to Christ, so our communion with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues all grace, and the life of the People of God itself" [quoting Vatican II's Lumen Gentium 50 and also referencing Eph. 4:1-6].

CCC § 957 (quoted in part).

Notice that there is no contradiction between the vertical dimension (our union with God) and the horizontal dimension (our union with our fellow pilgrims in the Holy Spirit). Again, the Catholic way is a "both . . . and," not an "either . . . or" when it comes to elements that are authentically from the one Holy Spirit.

The gathering I attended reminded me of the gatherings and miraculous happenings of the fourth and fifth century Church as described by St. Augustine when he retracted the implication in his earlier writings that miracles of the biblical type had ceased by that time:

[W]hat I said is not to be so interpreted that no miracles are believed to be performed in the name of Christ at the present time. For, when I wrote that book, I myself had recently learned that a blind man had been restored to sight in Milan near the bodies of the martyrs in that very city, and I knew about some others, so numerous even in these times, that we cannot know about all of them nor enumerate those we know.

St. Augustine of Hippo, The Retractions, Ch. 12, § 7, trans. Sister M. Inez Bogan, R.S.M. (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 1968), p. 55.

In my opinion, here Augustine retracted the view of "cessationism," a view wrongly asserting that the miraculous happenings of the apostolic Church recorded in the New Testament had ceased. The Church is still alive!

Note: For those interested, I have previously written about this particular shrine at this link from May 28, 2005.