Patrick shared an encounter that he had with a retreat group purporting to be a charismatic group, and the leader of which insinuated that to not pray “in the spirit” is to not pray at all. Naturally, Pat was offended. We went back and fourth discussing his piece, and I encouraged him to do his best to not lump all charismatics into the same group (which would be as unfair as the leader of the retreat was to those who were not charismatic). I think that Pat succeeded in pointing out the underlying issue: the universality of the church, and how it can encompass many forms of worship.
There were some amazing insights into the gifts of the spirit in this tiny volume, and I’d encourage anyone who wants a primer on the gifts of the spirit and the charismatic renewal — particularly from a Catholic perspective — to pick up a copy (there are a few for a penny on Amazon). I want to share one or two here, as a “counter-balance” of a sort.
Normative, But Not Formative
Clark’s central point early on in the book is that for the early church, the use of various gifts of the spirit was simply a given — so much so that some, like Simon Magus, sought to buy the power; others who witnessed thought those they saw to be possessed, or drunk. In other words, it was a normal, regular occurrence.
In fact, it was so normative within the church that Paul had to lay down guidelines to make sure that those who had this gift (not everyone did) used it well and not overbearingly. It would be easy for one with such a gift to become proud, or view their level of spirituality as “higher” than others who were not given such gifts, but Paul drives home the point that this is not necessarily so.
Clark does this too, in a passage regarding none other than C. S. Lewis. “Being baptized in the spirit is not a sign of holiness or spiritual maturity” says Clark, who then goes on to relate the following:
A year after I was prayed with to be baptized in the Spirit, I was reading C. S. Lewis’ book The Four Loves. It is a book which is filled, with spiritual wisdom and it shows that the author was a man of real spiritual maturity.
At the end of the book, however, he talks about loving God, and he describes a kind of ‘love of God which he says is the most important kind, but that he himself has not experienced and does not expect to experience until he gets to heaven. The kind of love he describes (what he calls an appreciative love of God) is exactly the love people experience when they have been baptized in the Spirit and can praise God in tongues or English. When I got to the end of the book, it was clear to me that C. S. Lewis had not been baptized in the Spirit when he wrote that book.
At the same time, I could see that C. S. Lewis was an excellent Christian. He was a better Christian than many people that I knew who had been baptized in the Spirit. He showed more spiritual wisdom, more faithfulness to God, and more fruit in his service than most who have been baptized in the Spirit.
Clearly, then, the gifts of the spirit are aimed at something more than formation.
What’s the Point?
So what is the point of the gifts of the Spirit, if they don’t impart spiritual maturity?
In essence, they offer an immediate introduction to life in the Spirit, given as a gift to at least some some (as all grace is a gift). They can help someone to begin to experience God in a way that they were unable to before. It can be given to someone brand new in the faith, or someone whose warmed a pew for decades.
However, it seems to be more common in the former, rather than the latter, and I suspect this has less to do with “maturity” per se, but rather a kind of inculturation that “sets in” after having experienced pew-life for so long. You don’t expect to see people speaking in tongues; you don’t know anyone who does; you’ve never experienced it; your fellow pew-sitters never have either. So one grows to view it as non-normative. Aberrant. Even illicit or phony. But Paul is clear that they’re not.
Clark finishes the story above like this:
Shortly after reading The Four Loves, I found myself talking to a college student who had had little if any faith a month previously and who had not lived a very spiritual life. When she was prayed with to be baptized in the Spirit, she had a deep experience of the Holy Spirit (one which gave her ah appreciative love of God right away), and she has gone on from that time to grow in the Christian life. But when she was baptized in the Spirit, she was not even close to the spiritual maturity that C. S. Lewis had when he wrote The Four Loves. She probably isn’t even now.
Spiritual growth takes time. Any process of maturing takes time. Relationships need to grow. Changes in our pattern of living have to develop. If we are going to have a deep relationship with God, and if we are going to be able to live a life that is like the one Christ taught us about, we have to expect it to take time. We need to grow into it.
The work of the Spirit in us, however, is a gift. A gift can be given right away, all at once. And because it is a gift and not something that we have to grow into, it can be given at the beginning of the process of spiritual maturity as well as any place along the way. It happens when a person knows that God is offering it to him and seeks it.