With Holy Week just passed I can address the topic of
religion versus spirituality.
This is a vast topic. Spirituality as a term makes the
discussion a whole lot easier. For one there is very little regimen or
catechism relegated to spirituality. That makes it much simpler to deal with. A do it yourself, thing, right?
Religion on the other hand has much more to learn about.
Calendars of holy days, saints and prophets of mighty sagas, interactions with
God with thousands of people amassed in unlivable places like deserts and
mountain tops and flooded expanses. Golly! The complexity boggles.
Of course there are stories writ large in unspeakable
languages and dialects. Usually these are found in the Pentateuch, Torah, Koran and Bible. Turns out these four are mostly the same thing although there is
discussion – argument actually – about the relative anchorage of these
texts. Of course argument is a rightful
term when it comes to religion. Seems people have been arguing over religion
for thousands of years. All in the name of love!
Yes, it is a puzzle why mankind attaches such loyalty to a
matter of creed. When each of these religions speaks of God’s love for Man, and
his exhortation that Man is to love each other as himself, mankind goes dumb.
He patently gets it but doesn’t live it. And then wonders why such troubles ail
the earth! Well, Duh!
I found Holy Week to be meaningful. Personally it was a good
time to be quiet, thoughtful, and open to fresh thoughts of inner peace as well
as personal housekeeping with which I might find fresh ideas and serenity.
That’s what Lent allows me; space and quiet to think. Good Friday services
remind us of how serious life is, the passage of it, and death and finality.
Even with that we are called to ponder what comes next. Regardless of our
answers we are challenged to think and believe and rethink and re-balance our
creed. It is a good exercise of mind and spirit. And life.
Spirituality is a natural pondering of all of the above. Only
it is more accessible to our human minds. We need not recall creed or catechism
or Sunday school. We only have to respond to what matters the most to us. And
in such things stuff doesn’t matter. Not money, time, houses, cars or
fashionable clothing. No. This is about the mind and feeling.
The adventurous asks timeworn questions: Why am I here? What
is the purpose of Life? Is there a God? What is death? What happens after
death? Does all of the good we do in life somehow accumulate to ‘credit earned’
after death? And if so, how does it count?
Watch it! Too many questions create an agenda to write a
creed, and that leads to dogma, and written texts, biblical sayings and
quotations, and entire catechisms to be followed in Sunday school. You see
where this leads us, and where we gathered such history in the first place? Ah
yes. Mankind’s curiosity has led us to strange places.
Thousands of years later we have religious wars, jihads,
misreading of various religions and a confusion of prophets, holy people and
creeds. The confusion confuses further. And people die in the name of God.
Only God is weeping over such folly! Surely he/she does
weep!?
I prefer to think of spirituality in which I am responsible
for what I believe and how I believe it. Without involving others in the fray,
my spirituality nourishes me and directs me to treat others well and with
respect. Even if they don’t believe as I do, at least I don’t know what they
believe and they don’t know my beliefs either.
See what a peaceful world this would help create? If only.
April 15, 2016
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