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The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ
10 June 2007
Dear Friends in Christ,
A common expression in our day is something like this: “I’m very spiritual; I’m just not religious.” By this, the speaker usually means that he or she is vaguely interested in matters of the heart and soul but does not belong to any religion, and when that is the meaning, then from the Christian point of view, this is like saying “I’m very patriotic; I just don’t vote, pay my taxes, or obey the law.” In other words, such expressions are vacuous nonsense, usually offered as an excuse for refusing to answer the central question of all human life: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? So what is true spirituality?
Before we answer that, a prior question must be asked. Does the human person have two parts or three? We often speak of man being body and soul (two parts), meaning the material and immaterial dimensions of human life, but Holy Scripture usually speaks of man being divided into body, soul, and spirit (three parts). In this Scriptural way of speaking, a distinction is made between the simple life force which we share with all other living things (soul) and the breath of God which gives us reason and freedom (spirit). Spirituality, then, is attention to the spirit or divine life in man. This is the life of grace which is given to us through faith in Christ Jesus, and since apart from Christ we are dead in our sins, there is no life of God within us and the divine image is so obscured that we cannot speak of spirituality in any meaningful way without the intimate friendship with the Lord Jesus which comes only by grace through faith, hope, and love. And since the Bible gave us the very words “spirit” and “spiritual”, it is impossible to speak meaningfully of “spirituality” outside of Biblical religion. In other words, there simply is no way to be truly spiritual without being religious, and that in turn means living fully and actively as a member of Christ’s Church.
Seen in this context, the word “spirituality” is another way of talking about the interior life of Christian disciples: how we pray, the ways in which we experience the love of God and the presence of Christ, the disciplines without which there is no discipleship, etc. In next week’s column, I will explore several dimensions of authentic spirituality, but for now, I encourage all of us to respond with a simple, clear, and loving testimony to the Gospel of Jesus Christ to any person who announces that he or she is spiritual but not religious. Only the truth will set us free, and only Jesus Christ is the truth of God and the origin of all spirituality. We are only spiritual, then, to the extent we live in full communion with the one, only, living, and true God—the only Way to whom is Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Father Newman