Expert: Griff Ruby - 11/2/2007

Question
I have been slowly contemplating the Catholic faith as my husband is Catholic; I am currently Baptist.  I however have been struggling with the fact that Catholics seem to ignore the importance of the gifts of the holy spirit.  Why are these gifts not exercised within open view of the church?  Are the church clergy not unlike the original saints in that God has bestowed on individuals the gift to heal, prophesy and speak in tongues?  If the church does indeed do this and I am just not witnessing it, please let me know.  Thank You.

Humbly Yours,
Sumiko

Answer
I think Pentecostal demonstrations of the gifts of the Holy Spirit have provided a seriously distorted idea of what these gifts really are all about.
It is one fine thing to pray for a miracle and be truly prepared to receive it from God, but quite another for some leader with a wildly gyrating, spinning, shouting and singing crowd, all emotionally worked up, to construe everything as though it were a miracle.  Jesus did not require such a setting when He worked His miracles, and neither did His disciples, and for that matter the various saints who have worked miracles in the centuries since.
But it does seem an interesting question:  In the Bible, miracles seem to be happening everywhere, right and left.  Some apostle just seems to walk down the street and several blind men are made to see, lepers are cleansed, demonized are exorcised, and cripples are made to walk, all in a day's work.  Why can't it be like that today?
You have some few who pretend it is still that way today, but the pretense wears thin as their techniques are found out and exposed (sort of like in the movie, Leap of Faith) and ultimately prove empty and non-miraculous.  But then you have at the other extreme those who would contend that miracles have ceased.  I have actually had it told to me once (not in Catholic circles, mind you) that Jesus and the Apostles alone could not only do miracles but also impart the ability to do miracles to others, and the others so imparted the ability to do miracles could not impart the ability any further, so once the last such empowered by some Apostle passed away, all miracles ceased.  And then there are those (various cults) who claim that only some fictitious "real" Christianity known only to the ancients, "rediscovered" by them, could work any miracles, but then they too have no miracles among them either, making one wonder why anyone would still follow them.
In the Bible, there is a strong emphasis on always "testing the spirits," tongue without an interpretation is useless, and so forth.  This is very important and of course all the many false claims of miracles can only function because they refuse any real test of their supernatural claims.  Let any qualified doctor examine the supposed recipient of a miracle and see if in his medical expertise he believes that there has been any miracle.  Many conditions can be aided by a better frame of mind, by the power of suggestion, by a perfectly natural remission, or even as a response to some new medication that finally works, and so on.  This is why the Church long ago established standards for all such claims of any kind (healing, prophecy, holy visitations by saints, etc.) by which the claim is carefully tested against the most stringent standards and perhaps even some valid claims are rejected but no invalid claim can get through.
For example, at the shrine of Lourdes, there are many claims of miracles, tens of thousands, and not all that much fewer in the way of crutches and so forth left there by people who felt they no longer needed them.  But in fact in all the history of Lourdes, only some 64 miracles have passed muster, having been examined by the qualified medical experts to ascertain that what happened was clearly outside the realm of the power of suggestion and positive thinking.
So miracles do occur, but they are rare.  I think they were probably rare in the Bible as well, but consider that in the New Testament, some three and a half years are compressed into a group of accounts which could all be read in full within a small fraction of a day.  Obviously there is a great deal more that has to have happened, but much of the non-covered time may also have been slim on miracles as well.  One idea that seems to make sense to me is that God only works so many miracles at a time, or within a day, and in the New Testament times those miracles would have been all close together, being at the hands of a small group of men, close knit, and often travelling together.  But now the miracles are still as rare but scattered to the far ends of the earth, very few become known to the general run of society, or obtain any press, such that we may not hear of any of them.  Perhaps a dozen miracles have in fact occurred in the past week, but as one was in some small town in India, another in a Siberian death camp, two in a couple of African villages populated by those who speak only some obscure and illiterate dialects, and so forth through the rest of them, that the chances of your learning of any of them at all is practically nil.
But the various spiritual gifts and ministries do have a very real place in the Catholic Church, not always as dramatic supernatural events, but as normal actions officially sanctioned and blessed and endorsed by the Church.
Let's start with the list in Ephesians 4:
1) Apostles - The role of the Apostle is continued by the bishops of the Church.  By an official and carefully controlled and regulated procedure of "laying on of the hands," the succession has been carefully preserved from the original 12 apostles to the bishops of today.  Their function is to exercise leadership and authority in the Church, to rule, to guide, to bless, and to arbitrate between contrary opinions and interpretations.  Such leadership provides a profoundly powerful source of unity among the Church, enabling the Church to act as a whole like a whole person (the Mystical Body of Christ) and not merely like some blob without unifying mind or purpose or direction.  Some bishops travel (like the original Apostles, or for example Saint Patrick who brought the Gospel to Ireland), and others tend the needs of the pastors over areas where the Church is established.
2) Prophets - Do you know that there was actually in Israel a "school of the prophets," to which Elijah belonged, and within which Elisha was Elijah's successor, and so forth?  Such "schools" find their equivalent today in the religious orders, especially the contemplative ones, in which those who join devote themselves solely to God, to seek the will and mind and purposes of God, and to be guided by Him in all that they say and do.  Contemplatives don't just stay behind locked doors meditating on great and wonderful things the rest of us can know nothing of, but as the will of God requires they will at times come out and say something that makes a significant difference.  Suppose that in all your life you will be permitted to speak only 10 words, but you have much time to meditate carefully on what those words would be, to pray before God that they might be the most important words that could be said, to be something profound and pithy, reverent and factual, obvious and yet no one else ever thought of it, and so forth.  When a prophet speaks, he speaks the mind of God, and everyone who hears it know it, for it finds an echo in their own hearts and consciences.
3) Evangelists - In the Bible we see a man named Philip who is referred to as an evangelist.  This is someone called to preach far and wide, to go into the highways and byways of the world, to go door to door, to call all into the Kingdom of God.  And what they do they do at the direction of the bishop.  I think some other non-contemplative orders may fill this bill.  And for example I would categorize Saint Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort as an example of a more recent evangelist
4) Pastors - These are the local priests ("Presbyters" in the Bible, from which the word "priest" derives) who are lower in rank than the bishops and who have particular congregations assigned to them, and who are responsible to pastor the souls in their care.
5) Teachers - These are those who are qualified to teach, who are carefully instructed in the details of the Faith and how to convey and explain it to others, that all might be edified by the knowledge of their own Faith.  Oftentimes, pastors must also double as teachers, so as to be able to discern the teaching ability and correctness of any others they may appoint to serve as additional teachers.  They too teach, but teaching is a responsibility they can share with others as well.
Now let's see what 1 Corinthians 12 (latter part) adds:
1) Healings -  this refers to those great saints who have worked miracles of healing, as well as those who though doing no actual "miracle" as such bring healing to others by more conventional means, everything from providing a listening ear for the one who is ill-at-ease to organizing and running and serving at hospitals.  The classical saints Cosmas and Damian were particularly noted for this function, as was the biblical physician Saint Luke.
2) Helps - In every congregation there are those who are the ones who really make it work, who give freely of their time to do things that need to be done, from cleaning the sanctuary to coordinating congregational events to being the ones to do the cooking and cleaning at various church social events and so forth.
3) Varieties of tongues - The need for spectacular translations into the various languages is not so strong as it was in the beginning, but there is always a role for those who learn the languages of the various peoples around the world so as to translate the Gospel into each and every language so that the Christ can be preached to the ends of the earth and whole nations of people can be baptized into the Kingdom of God.  There are always those who have a gift for these things, and who also have a gift for discovering how to reach out to specialized sorts of needs persons who might not be reached by more conventional preachments.
4) Miracles - This may be a reference to the "prophets" of Ephesians 4, but with more emphasis on the sometimes miraculous things they sometimes do (think of Elijah raising a child from the dead...), and again to those saints who have worked wonders, such as Saint Vincent Ferrier.
5) Administrations -  This is pastors under a different name, emphasizing their need to be the local administrators of their congregations, basically, "in charge" of things on the local level, and organizing and coordinating the efforts of the congregation's endeavors.
6-8) Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers - just like in Ephesians 4.
Now let's see what Romans 12 adds:
1) Leading - While this is normally the prerogative of the bishops (successors to the Apostles), and on the local level the priest (who also serves as pastoral administrator), at times, especially when the above don't fully perform their functions as they ought, the initiative devolves to various "lesser ranking souls" who see the path ahead and know and speak that which must be done, as for example Saint Catherine of Siena who wrote to the Pope that he must return from Avignon to Rome, since Avignon was not the proper home for the papacy (where it had been for some 70 years or so).
2) Showing mercy - This has to do with organizing charitable activities, for which the Church has long been famous since ancient times, everything from soup kitchens to homeless shelters to bringing food to distant lands where the people are starving, and so forth.
3) Ministry - This seems to refer to a lower ranking function than that of the priest (pastor, administrator), perhaps to be fulfilled by a deacon in that he assists the priest in what he does, leaving the priest free to address the spiritual aspects more than merely having to "wait on tables"
4) Exhortation - Another function of the Evangelist, whose job it is to exhort the people to come into the Kingdom.  Can also extend to those who call their fellow Christians to faith and trust when the going gets hard or certain individuals are faced with particular trials and need moral support.
5) Giving - This is another name for the "helps," but here with more room for giving not only of time and effort but also at times of money, which a church also needs to function with.
6-7) Prophecy and Teaching - as above.
Finally, 1 Corinthians 12 (earlier part), this addresses something quite different, for these are not specific offices or roles in the Church, but edificational qualities that all are expected to have in greater or lesser degree:
1) Word of Wisdom - This really corresponds to the gift of wisdom, which Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches is based on charity.  The true wisdom of God is rooted in the love of God for us fallen humanity, knowing what we are, loving us anyway, and desiring us to be molded and formed into the image of Christ, to be the best (before God) that we can be.
2) Word of Knowledge - The use of one's reason and learning to glorify God instead of other fallen purposes, using one's mind correctly, having one's mind educated by the teaching of God.
3) Faith - This would be faithfulness, loyalty to the Gospel, the ability to withstand terrible persecution and martyrdom for the Faith, and to believe and trust and act in accordance with that belief and trust even when everything else would seem to be opposed to it.
4) Healings - Though few of us are called to perform dramatic miraculous healings, many of us can be healers on a much smaller level, with compassion and real love for those who are in need, perhaps of a listening ear or an encouraging word, or sometimes to be forgiven though they thought themselves unforgivable.
5) Working of miracles - Again, though dramatic and law-of-physics-violating miracles are not meant for most of us, sometimes just the organizing of something that was thought impossible could also come under this category.  A church is dirt-poor and needs a new roof, which no one nor even everyone put together can possibly afford, but somehow somebody actually pulls it off and the church gets a new roof to keep out the rain.  Sometimes this takes some real stepping out in faith.
6) Prophecy - While it is only for prophets to prophesy, the rest of us can heed their words and be guided by their warnings and counsel, as it will tend to be most specific and germane to our present circumstances, and what we most need to do right now, and we should also have the good sense to distinguish between real prophets and fake, and to avoid getting too wrapped up in end-of-the-world prophetic speculations.
7) Discernment of spirits - We need to know who to listen to and who to ignore.  For many teachers who might even have some interesting thoughts, may be nevertheless defective in their understanding and as such must be avoided lest we fall into error.
8) Speaking in tongues - not only missionaries to foreign lands but we ourselves must learn how to convey what we have learned of God to our neighbors and others with whom we may come in contact.
9) Interpretation of tongues - This has to do with having understanding, with actually listening to others so that we can truly best address their concerns, and also listen to our teachers that we may indeed learn the lesson intended and apply it correctly.
So you should now be able to see that all of this stuff has a place in the Church, indeed one that cannot be stressed enough, though some fear to stress that point only because of the concern that some might think that the preternatural "showmanship signs" of false religions might be meant, and they are most emphatically not, in most cases, though there are some few miracles going on.  One other fine point to make here is that the Bible speaks of "signs and wonders" following the believers, not the other way around.  It is for us to seek the truths of God and to walk in that, and then leave it to God to provide whatever "signs and wonders" He so ever wills, and on His time schedule, not to be seeking after signs as every wicked and perverse generation seems to do (and they are given only the sign of Jonah, the resurrection life of Christ and His Church).