NURTURING CHARISMS
Fr. Mervyn
Carapiet
Chapter
19 of Luke’s gospel shows the master punishing the servant for not using his
freedom and discretion over the one talent given him. Neglecting one’s talents
is punishable. Most people it seems restrict their potentialities for some
reason or the other. They do learn from their mistakes, though. But what
prevents them from learning from their successes? One great talent is
education. Apart from its meagre use for earning their salary, many people do not endeavour to put their education to enhance
humanity. There is no job that exhausts one’s education completely. We need a
variety of jobs to express the facets of our personality. Our dominant talent
may be expressed in wage earning, but the auxiliary talents may want to be
expressed in other outlets like parish ministry and forms of leisure. If we
neglect our secondary talents, they will come back with a vengeance,
precipitating a personality imbalance, especially if the environment in which
we live and work is not supportive and a strain on the emotions. Other factors
such as transport and personal safety, the mentality of the employers and the
colleagues make up a healthy environment for exercising one’s talents.
The
sweep of our ministry
Talents are nourished by prayer and contemplative Scripture
reading. The times for these activities must be hard fought for and strictly
set aside as sacred, untouchable and indispensable, not crowded out by job
activities and peripheral ministries, and relegated to the category of “catch
as catch can.” In today’s world of work and business time is precious, but
never so precious as to suppress daily periods of prayer, exercise and play.
St. Francis de Sales once said: “The normal prayer time for an ordinary
Christian is one hour; unless he is very busy, in which case it should be two!”
Pastors and their associates need to ask themselves, “What kind of nurturance
do I really need in my ministry and to be successful in it? How do I make my
cup of gifts flow over for my ministry and my people without draining it dry?”
In taking on the responsibility of being ministers, we should have more control
over what helps our ministry. If there are factors that work against us, we
must bring the matter to the notice of the superiors. Since there is no point
in putting a square plug in a round hole, superiors must act on the data and
facts to which the contributions from our side must be total. Broadening one’s
shoulders this way enables one to adjust to new burdens and prevents burnout.
When key charisms appear, they cannot be swept under the rug; a bulge would
form, and they will somehow reappear. Suppressing charisms is tantamount to
suppressing the Spirit.
The gospel of Mathew 5, 14 – 16 reads as follows: “You are the
light of the world. A city
built on a hilltop cannot be hidden. No one lights
a lamp to put it under a tub; they put it on the lamp-stand where it shines for
everyone in the house. In the
same way your light must shine in people’s sight, so that, seeing your good
works, they may give praise to your Father in heaven.”
NURTURING CHARISMS - 2
Fr. Mervyn Carapiet
We still meet Christians who practise
assiduously, but are incapable of contemplation. They take Communion
frequently, but cannot give thanks. Their ethic is narrow, turned inward;
scrupulosity and detail bedevil their moral performance. Their God is a
bookkeeper. They become incapable of opening to the Other, to gratuity. The
Jewish priests were wont to shut up the lepers in the temple, because alone had
the right to declare the disease healed. Our clergy likewise have tended to
train the laity in the narrow limits of legalism that is altogether foreign to
true thanksgiving and genuine communion with God. These are the people who
today find in themselves a gnawing distaste for charisms.
Keeping a positive frame of mind enables us to learn not only from
our failures but also from our successes, which is why we normally consider the
positive factors in any analysis. Picking on mistakes only dissipates energy.
When we drag out and highlight failures the highest they can go is mediocrity.
Nobody blesses mediocrity. In developing the strong points we already have, the
instances of success will become paradigmatic. Further, with a view to avoiding
imprisonment in the past, ministers and associates must learn transferability
skills. Keeping one administrative post all one’s life would be the
stereotyping of self and others. It is a misshapen notion that growth must
always be upwards. If everybody wants to go upwards the top gets crowded, and
so does competition and rivalry. Growth need not be in a straight upward line.
Most of us can plateau, extending ourselves by integrating more and more
situations, people and experiences, and absorbing charisms manifested by other
people.
Achievement Analysis
The minister must first locate his position in the ministry: he
must have no doubt about his job description, extent of competence and the
expectation of those he serves. He must not expect success on every count. We
are the sum of our talents, which includes the art of harmonising failure and
success. Basically, there are two types of talents: functional and personal.
Functionally talented is the person who can organise and get things done. This is the
talent of leadership and management, which requires knowledge and method.
Personally talented is the one who has the internalised qualities that animate
his ministry. For example, patience for childcare and for the handicapped;
energy for youth apostolate; punctuality for appointments and reliability for
commitments. A harsh and abrasive style will not do for ministry.
Personal charism makes work easy without fluster-bluster or the
application of “will-power.” Ministry is convertible with enjoyment. A musician
may play a piece beautifully but it may well be a torture and exercise, not a
free warble of “unpremeditated art.” Personal charisma must be co-natural
enough to take one’s strengths and run with them. Coasting along with
grace-gifts that flow naturally makes the ministry an enjoyable experience.
Besides helping the people, grace-gifts are the spontaneous expressions of what
the minister is. It is wrong to think that we must value only those things that
we had to work hard and paid heavily for. We must value our natural gifts, look
at ourselves and give credit where it is due. A mental snapshot of my talents
and me shows me at my best. What does it tell me about my acquired skills and
myself? One final question: does my self-portrait clearly reveal my fundamental
dynamism for building the Body of Christ?
(concluded)
