The Challenge of the New Millennium

by Charles Whitehead

The Charismatic Renewal is by its very nature prophetic. We are people who claim to have a special understanding of the person and power of the Holy Spirit because we have experienced his touch and know his freedom. But we cannot and must not attempt to control the Spirit, because as Jesus said to Nicodemus "The wind blows wherever it pleases, you hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. That is how it is with all who are born of the Spirit" (John 3:8). The nature of the Spirit of God is to be good and positive, but unpredictable - sometimes a gentle breeze, sometimes a mighty wind. One day he's stirring up dramatic signs and wonders in our midst, another day he's working deep within us in unseen but life-changing ways. To follow the Holy Spirit is always a challenge and not an easy journey - if it were otherwise many more people would be willing to join us. So we should never allow ourselves to become comfortable, to settle down and decide not to continue to journey, or to step back into the way things were before we knew the liberating power of the Spirit. To do so is to turn from life to death.

The Galatian Christians tried to do this, and incurred the scorn and anger of the Apostle Paul: "Are you people in Galatia mad? Was it because you practised the Law that you received the Spirit, or because you believed what was preached to you? Are you foolish enough to end in outward observances what you began in the Spirit?" (Galatians 3:1-5). As we enter the Year of Jubilee and the new millennium this is the challenge facing the Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Are we tempted to go back to the safety of the former things, and turn away from the risks and challenges of life in the Spirit? Or are we encouraged by all that we have experienced and seen, and inspired by the Pentecost 1998 words of Pope John Paul II "There is a great need today for mature Christian personalities, conscious of their baptismal identity, of their vocation and mission in the Church and in the world! There is a great need for living Christian communities! Here then are the movements and the new ecclesial communities; they are the response, stirred up by the Holy Spirit, to answer this critical challenge at the end of the millennium. You are this providential response". What this means is that the Church has recognized the importance of the Charismatic Renewal and the new movements and communities. She understands that the charismatic and hierarchical dimensions are co-essential to her life, and that these new works of the Holy Spirit are powerful currents running strongly in the great river of her life. But there is also a danger against which we must always be vigilant - that of losing our prophetic edge in our desire to be accepted.

The preamble to the ICCRS statutes reminds us very clearly of one of the most significant things about the Catholic Charismatic Renewal - something which makes us different from any other movement in the Church today. "The Catholic Charismatic Renewal is not a single, unified worldwide movement. It does not have a single founder or group of founders as many other movements do. It has no membership lists. It is a highly diverse collection of individuals, groups and activities, often quite independent of one another, in different stages and modes of development and with differing emphases, that nevertheless share the same fundamental experience and espouse the same general goals. This pattern of loose-knit relationships is found at the diocesan and national levels as well as on the international level. These relationships are often characterised by free association, dialogue and collaboration rather than by intergration into an ordered structure. Leadership is characterised more by offering service to those who want it rather than by governance". This explanation clearly shows us why the Charismatic Renewal is different, and what it is that we must protect and maintain. There have been attempts at local, national, and at international level to fit the Charismatic Renewal into a predetermined structure, with membership lists and criteria, formation programmes, and a strong central authority. The leadership must always resist such attempts to change the nature of the Renewal, because if they ever succeed, they will destroy its life. When the structures become dominant, the charisms die and the prophetic challenge is silenced.

Now I'm not suggesting for a moment that the leadership in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal should resist the proper authorities, but I am saying that we must be on our guard against those who do not understand the nature of the Renewal, and try to make it into something it can never be. At the heart of this great move of God is the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, a life-changing experience that turns us from works to faith, from law to freedom, and from self to God. This is the gift of the Charismatic Renewal to the Church and to the world, and it's a grace we desperately need if we are to face the challenges of the new millennium. So as we give thanks to the Lord for all that he's done, let's face the future secure in who we are, thankful for all that has happened, and determined to remain charismatic and prophetic no matter what others may think, say, or try to do. The wind of the Spirit must be allowed to continue to blow wherever it pleases.

The Challenge of the New Millennium

by Charles Whitehead

Nov-Dec 1999