What is Spirituality?
This new column will present spirituality in practice. How do we live a good life? What difference do religious practices make? Are we spiritual just because we spend time in church? We begin by clarifying what spirituality is.
What is a computer? What is a chapathi or an idli? What is the meaning of a shirt, or school or basketball court?
The answers to such questions are clear—and easy. We know the exact meaning of the question. We understand the answers.
This way, we can get to know rather precisely even things we have not seen. Thus, even if I have never seen an ostrich or a kangaroo, I can get quite an accurate idea of them from pictures and descriptions.
This is not the case with the term, “spirituality.” There is no way to describe the “spirit” or anything having to do with it. Hence, traditionally, wise teachers tend to use symbols and stories. Think of the parables of Jesus, or the stories of other traditions.
Spirituality is linked to religion, but is not the same as religious practice. One can be “religious” without being spiritual, or spiritual without belonging to any organized religion.
Eating properly or walking will help my bodily fitness. Thinking or reading this article can give you new ideas or clarify older views. Going to college will have given you added knowledge. What does a “spiritual” activity do?
There is hardly any agreement on this. Thus, a person may be very strict on going for Sunday Mass, but have no scruple in speaking ill of others. Is such a person spiritual? Or someone may observe the dietary rules of one’s religion (e.g., eat only vegetarian food), but cheat customers in business. Worse still, there are ideologies of hatred that claim to be sanctioned by God. Does God want anyone to hate and hurt others?
What is spirituality? How do we cultivate our spiritual life?
There is a strange criterion of fidelity in Jesus’ teaching. As we read in his account of the Last Judgement (which is a way of telling us what is most important), people are rewarded or rejected eternally for some very “material” activities—feeding the hungry, giving a drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, etc. Hardly any “spiritual” activity is mentioned here! The final “balance sheet” says nothing about praying or attending Mass or joining religious orders, or being celibate. What then is a spiritual life? Who is truly spiritual?
A short definition
If you want a short definition of spirituality, here it is:
LIVING LOVINGLY, WISELY AND RESPONSIBLY IN ONE’S CONCRETE SETTING, USING ONE’S GIFTS AND ACCEPTING ONE’S LIMITATIONS.
Spirituality is a way of life. It is not simply about a particular set of activities, such as church attendance, or avoiding meat on some days, or going on pilgrimage.
If we take Jesus seriously, the main trait of our daily life will be love. We need not sound pious or spend long hours in a place of worship to be spiritual. But we need to treat those around us with love and respect. We will not sing beautiful hymns in church and gossip during breakfast. Nor be harsh to the girl in the kitchen. Nor neglect the sick and the less talented.
To be loving in concrete demands WISDOM and RESPONSIBILITY. We need to take wise decisions, putting first things first. It would be foolish to spend much time and money on luxuries and neglect one’s duties, or damage our health through addictions. Thus, care of health, learning, emotional balance and relationships matter far more than watching TV or wearing a stylish dress.
GIFTS: Each of us is gifted. My gifts may be similar to yours, or different. The parable of the talents tells us what matters: not how many talents we have, but how diligently we use them. The one who buried his talent to protect it, is the one who is punished. At the end of our life, God will not ask me how I protected my talents, but how I used them. The biggest mistake would be not doing things for fear of making mistakes.
We all have our LIMITATIONS, too. Thus, a porter at a railway station or a tea vendor on the street cannot do philanthropy as a millionaire can. A cancer patient cannot go around and visit the sick or prisoners. A mother struggling to feed and clothe her children in spite of an alcoholic husband cannot be a daily church-goer or a travelling social worker. But they all can become saints.
I will one day be asked what I did with the gifts God “lent” me for a time. I did not pay for them. I did not deserve them. They were given to me free, to be shared freely. Do I?
Spirituality is the most practical thing in life. We know—and those who live with us know even better—whether we are loving or selfish, gossips or community-builders, harsh or kind, generous or tight-fisted, honest or corrupt.
As for wisdom, we will do well to learn from people who are sensible, to consult wiser people before taking important decisions, and not to take decisions when we are under the sway of intense emotions (like anger, sadness, jealousy or sexual passion).
Danger for Religious
Being responsible for my life is a duty I cannot hand over to someone else. For those of us who belong to religious orders, there is a real danger that we may reduce spirituality to practices of piety, and look at our superiors or religious order as being responsible for us. They cannot be. I can be a saint or a crook while staying in the Salesian Congregation. I can come out of a Eucharist as a compassionate and Christ-like person or a selfish or destructive individual.
For living a loving, wise and responsible life, we need clarity of vision and inner strength. For this, religious practices are a great help. Prayer can help me to forgive. Lent can increase my discipline. A meaningful Eucharist can lead me to see everyone as the Body of Christ. A good confession can help me to admit my faults honestly and want to change. A retreat or heart-felt Bible-reading can focus my attention on God’s plans.
All these are helps, not automatic switches that can “turn on” spirituality. No setting or practice, no group-belonging or longevity makes anyone spiritual. The monks of old knew this. Hence this saying in the monasteries: “It is easier to take the monk from the world than the world from the monk.” It is easier for a religious (or priest) to leave home and join a new setting (seminary or religious house) than to root out worldliness from our heart.
The spiritual life for a Christian supposes a set of priorities based on Christ’s life and teachings, and a serious attempt to move from self-centredness to love. The three temptations that Jesus faced are our constant temptations too: the pull of power, pleasure and possessions. This struggle never gets over.
But if we are truly after what matters, we will experience a peace, joy and inner strength which power, pleasure and possessions cannot give us. That joy and serenity mark the saints of all traditions. Spirituality in this sense is nothing mysterious. It cannot be described or measured directly, but its overflow onto the whole person is evident.
Pope John XXIII, for instance, was known as the GOOD Pope John. His warmth and simplicity touched the hearts of people. Francis of Assisi had a sensational impact on people. They would run to get a glimpse of him. St. Bakhita, the African slave who became a nun, promised the people of the Italian town where she lived (Schio) that no bomb would fall there—a promise that was kept. A simple, serene and transparent life, coupled with a compassionate outreach to others, seems to the most persistent trait of a genuine spiritual life.
There is a luminosity about truly good people, which is indicated by the halo painted around saints. May you and I be marked by a luminous aura of goodness.
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