The Gift of Charisma: Sacred & Secular Versions

September 24, 2024

I am a huge baseball fan.  For most of our country's history, baseball has been considered the national pastime, which is not surprising, because at its heart, baseball is a pastoral and cerebral game, appealing to America's 19th century agricultural roots. Baseball is a treasure trove of interesting personalities, stories of triumph and failure, and statistics. Lots of statistics.

As I write this post, it’s the most wonderful time of the year for baseball enthusiasts: the Pennant Chase. It is especially wonderful when you have a team in the hunt, as we do here in the Philadelphia area with our beloved Phillies.  Now, I have a confession to make-I grew up a Cubs fan, and since I firmly believe that you do not choose your team, the team chooses you, the Cubs will always have the first place in my heart. However, having lived in the Delaware Valley for over 30 years, I am grateful that the Phillies have adopted me as well. It has been a blast rooting for them, especially when they are home at "The Bank.”  

So why the discourse on baseball, when the topic of this blog post is charisma?

Maybe because of my dual-fanship, my favorite Phillies player is slugger Kyle Schwarber, who came up through the Cubs Farm System and is now the DH and lead-off man for the Phils. It was pure joy watching him help the Cubs win the World Series for the first time in 108 years back in 2016, and it is still pure joy watching him hit mammoth home runs, affectionately known as "Schwarbombs," for the Phillies. 

Because of his prodigious home run blasts, as well as his distinctive stature and style, Schwarber has almost a cult following in Philly, which he certainly plays-up by making the Lenny Kravitz/Living Colour recording of Cult of Personality his walk-up song, which always sends the crowd into a frenzy. Schwarber has charisma.

What exactly is charisma when it comes to baseball players and others in the public eye?  In today's parlance, charisma usually refers to a personality trait that allows its possessor to gain favor and support among the populace. However, it is important to note that this notoriety is not necessarily for positive reasons.  For example, in Cult of Personality, John F. Kennedy, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Mahatma Gandhi are referenced, but Mussolini, Stalin, and Hitler also get lyrical attention.  

This year, I am teaching a survey course on Western Civilization to the high school students at SFCCA, where we take a critical look at Ancient through Modern times. As we study figures of the past and the actions they have taken, there will be many examples of both virtuous and vicious charisma. To help the students make sense of this dichotomy, it is necessary to first utilize one of the hallmarks of classical education, the integration of subjects, and introduce them to the sacred approach to charisma.

Derived from the Greek Charizesthai meaning to favor, the traditional definition of charisma, and the one that still pops up first in the Oxford English Dictionary, is "a gift divinely bestowed upon an individual by the Holy Spirit."  So rather than a self-created power utilized for the benefit of the individual (as the term is often used), a sacred charism is a gift and fruit of the Holy Spirit, something to be discerned, cultivated, and poured forth for others and for the sake of spreading the Gospel.  However, as a gift freely given, it is up to the recipient how that gift will be used, and that is where things get interesting. In a manner of speaking, we all have charisma insofar as we are all bestowed with supernatural gifts. The challenge and the opportunity come when we intentionally decide how to use those gifts. 

As an example, we are currently in the ancient portion of our survey course and the students are working on memorizing Pericles’ Funeral Oration. Pericles was a statesman and a general in ancient Greece who delivered this stirring tribute at a funeral for Athenian soldiers who had lost their lives during the first year of the Peloponnesian War. He clearly had a gift, or charism, when it came to rhetoric, and he used it to comfort and uplift his fellow countrymen. Later in the year, we will look at other examples of gifted rhetoricians who decided to use their charism to promote hatred and division. 

Imago Dei

This notion of sacred charisma is precisely what we are trying to instill in each of our students.  What are their God-given talents?  How can they develop and practice them in a safe, loving, and nurturing environment?  How can those charisms both advance the mission of the Church and help our young people become hard-working, self-sufficient, and well-adjusted adults?  

To that end, the SFCCA Faculty has adopted Imago Dei, or Image of God, as the theme for the 2024-2025 academic year. We recognize that all our students are made in the image of God, and it is now up to us as a school community to help them discover how their particular charisms make up their own image, and how they can employ them for good in their daily lives. This is a lifelong endeavor, and each day will bring varying degrees of success. We tell our students that one way they can test how well they are doing is whether they see the fruits of the Holy Spirit (charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, chastity, and self-control) in their actions. Our school bulletin board is beginning to fill with examples of where students are seeing these fruits at SFCCA. The point, however, is not to fill the board, but to help the students develop this habit of self-reflection and, if needed, self-correction. These are just some of the "Big" goals of SFCCA, and they are much bigger than even a gargantuan Schwarbomb!

Back to the Beginning

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that baseball has been considered the American national pastime for much of the country’s history. I think it could be argued that this title is now owned by football, even though it combines, as columnist George Will famously quipped, two of the worst traits in American life: violence and committee meetings. For a lighthearted comparison between baseball and football, you might want to check out what comedian George Carlin has to say on the subject. I’ll let you decide for yourself which sport should wear the crown. Go Phils!

St. Francis, pray for us!