Mary full of Charismatic Gifts

Song:

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me (2x)

Touch me, fill me, mould me and use me

Spirit of the living God fall afresh on me
 

The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you." (Luke 1:28).

1 On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, 2and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. (John 2:1-2).

The Virgin Mary, whom certain Catholicism seems to have put to one side, now “returns” through the ecclesial Movements and new Communities. This was a re-discovery also for the Catholic Charismatic Renewal, a current of grace which spread widely among more than a hundred and twenty million Roman Catholics. The Charismatic Renewal generally manifests itself in the Church and in the world through its prayer groups which focus on Jesus as Lord and Saviour of believers, on praising God, and on the spontaneous use of charisms of the Holy Spirit, such as the speaking in tongues and the spiritual exhortation expressed in prophesying.

Through these charismatic manifestations God re-awakens, in a secularised and dormant world, a new spirit of adoration of his name, which is capable of carrying out new works of salvation for men and women and of preparing his Bride, the Church, for her final encounter with him.

Mary has an essential role in the Charismatic Renewal. Since its inception, the charismatic experience in the Catholic Church has revealed the profoundly “Marian” soul of the Charismatic Renewal. Our relationship with Mary is direct and we experience her spiritual maternity during our Charismatic prayer meetings. Hers is an evident presence. The invocations to her are simple, at times, even bare, but not void of theological and spiritual depth.

However, Mary is not simply the object of veneration and invocation on the part of Charismatics. Mary is our model in the following aspects:

First of all, she is the prototype of the Church owing to her receptivity to the Holy Spirit who forms Christ in the People of God. This doctrine, highlighted by Vatican II, revealed Mary as the mirror of the Church, in relation to her presence at the first outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Jerusalem.

Secondly, Mary is the model of an everlasting Pentecost in the Church.

The experience of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit over Mary in Jerusalem was neither the first nor the only one. St. Luke presents the Annunciation as a proto-Pentecost of Mary. Actually, the terms he uses for the two events are identical: at the Annunciation he says: "The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Luke 1:35), and at Pentecost: the Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Acts 1:8).

The similarity then is not a superficial one. Undoubtedly, the Mother of the Lord lived many other Pentecostal experiences during her earthly life, like that related to us by Luke, when she was in the house of her cousin Elizabeth, where a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit was manifested in such obviously charismatic expressions (Luke 1:39). Mary is the object, par excellence, of God’s favour (Luke 1:28), the first to experience the action of the Spirit (Luke 1:35), the model of all those who long to be “baptized in the Spirit and in fire”, as promised by Jesus (Luke 3:16; Acts 2:3). Mary is the prototype of a continual and never-ending Pentecost in the Church and of the missionary announcement of the Church to the very ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

Thirdly, Mary is also the model of charismatic life. Actually, the early Christian community is presented as a charismatic community. It was through the expansion of those gifts, which the letters of Paul call charisms:

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up (Ephesians 4:11-12).

That the coming of the Holy Spirit, the foundation of the Church and the spread of the Gospel were manifested. In all the narratives linked to the descent of the Holy Spirit over Mary, we see, first of all, an extraordinary outburst of praise and adoration of God, as in the Magnificat:

Mary's Song

  46And Mary said:
   "My soul glorifies the Lord
     47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
  48for he has been mindful
      of the humble state of his servant.
   From now on all generations will call me blessed,
     49for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
      holy is his name.
  50His mercy extends to those who fear him,
      from generation to generation.
  51He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
      he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
  52He has brought down rulers from their thrones
      but has lifted up the humble.
  53He has filled the hungry with good things
      but has sent the rich away empty.
  54He has helped his servant Israel,
      remembering to be merciful
  55to Abraham and his descendants forever,
      even as he said to our fathers."

  56Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. (Luke 1:46-56). 

And the glorification of God in unknown languages, as in the Pentecost of Jerusalem:

4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

5Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language.

7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? 8Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language? 9Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11(both Jews and converts to Judaism Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"

13Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine." (Acts 2:4-13).

But another charismatic gift is at the basis of Mary’s experience of the Spirit: that of prophecy. All the experiences narrated by St. Luke in his Gospel and in the Acts attach a close relationship between the coming of the Spirit and, for example, the prophetic charism exercised in the song of the Magnificat. But Mary is not the only one. This charism blossoms forth also in the midst of the people of God, as in Elizabeth who prophesies: “Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled" (Luke 1:43-44).

While the Catholic Charismatic Renewal recuperates some aspects of the Virgin Mary as the charismatic model, as prophetess and speaker of tongues, what is important in all this is that Mary is for the Church the most authentic model of Christian life and of its evangelising mission.

God bless you

 Evang. Oseh J. B.