This year’s Catholic Charismatic Renewal Conference, which was held at St Agatha’s Auditorium from Thursday 23 till Sunday 26 October, had as its theme, “Rooted in Christ”. Such a theme was providential at a time when not only the Church in Malta is experiencing an ever-growing absenteeism from Sunday Eucharistic celebrations but also the Catholic Charismatic Renewal itself is seeing its numbers decreasing year after year. Is this a cause for discouragement or a sign that something new is emerging?
If one looks at the question from a superficial stance, one is tempted to conclude that the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Malta is dying. It is not the first time that I hear nostalgic comments about how big crowds used to attend to the National Conference. But do crowds justify quality? My answer is surely in the negative. Like all other ecclesial movements, the Charismatic Renewal is experiencing a moment of grace.
It is being pruned in order to be a more docile and bold instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit so that Jesus Christ would be known, accepted and loved. This makes a lot sense when one considers the theme proposed for this year’s conference. In his letter to the Colossians, St Paul writes: “As therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so live in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col 2, 6-7). Jesus is our thanksgiving to the Father’s love. There is no perfect hymn of praise on earth and in the universe better than the Immolated Son.
There is no Jesus without the cross. No matter how difficult and agonising it is, the cross is the vehicle through which we are one with our Crucified Lord. If Jesus underwent passion, death and resurrection, who are we, as Christians, to take a different route? There is no beating around the bush. Either with Jesus or against Him. He told us so: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9, 23).
Carrying the cross is a daily business. Patience is badly needed in the following of Jesus, especially when hardships strike. Thus, the Apostle of the Gentiles’ encouraging word to the Colossians is the most appropriate in this regard: “May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light” (Col 1, 11-12).
How can we define the cross? I would rather propose the following story taken from the immense spiritual heritage of the Desert Fathers to say what the cross means. An elder was asked: What does it mean, this word we read in the Bible, that the way is strait and narrow? And the elder replied: This is the strait and narrow way: that a man should do violence to his judgments and cut off, for the love of God, the desires of his own will. This is what was written of the Apostles: Behold we have left all things and have followed Thee. St Paul would translate this in the subsequent words from his letter to the Galatians: “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Gal 5, 24). It is solely through such violent death of our old and egoistic self, our cross, that we can root ourselves in Christ. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn 12, 24). “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it (Luke 17, 33). By espousing and embracing ourselves, sinful as we are in Jesus, and let Him liberate us from our destructive selves through his self-giving love on the cross, in Him we shall be able to experience ourselves as “a new creation” (Gal 6, 14). Being rooted in Christ will impel each and everyone of us to exclaim with St Paul: “But far be it from me to glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Gal 6,14).
Let us let the Father root us in the person of his beloved Son Jesus Christ who “is the same yesterday and today and for ever” (Heb 13, 8). The Father, who “according to the riches of his glory he may grant (us) to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in (our) hearts through faith; that (we), being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that (we) may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph 3,16-19). Our cross is our royal throne from which we are uniquely rooted in the crucified and resurrected Christ in the Holy Spirit!
If the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Malta manages to proclaim this message through its singular identity and mission it fulfills its particular role and charism within the universal Church. So be it!
Fr Mario Attard OFM Cap
San Gwann