Fr. Flatley: Spiritual or religious ... Can I be both?
As a second-career vocation to Priesthood, I often found myself studying with students much younger than I.
They frequently said, “I am spiritual but not religious.”
I was never entirely sure how to understand this claim, but I believe it is important to try.
Does this help to explain the large number of “nones” among former Catholics?
These are folks who check off none when asked to identify their religious affiliation.
And what Catholic priest has not heard the sad lament of so many older parents, bemoaning the fact that most of their adult children no longer attend Mass?
How do we best create a religious experience that attracts a person who is genuinely seeking an encounter with the Holy Spirit?
Most especially, if they are convinced they do not need institutional religion?
Many young people today tell me they seek to experience God as a verb and not a noun. They state that they are more interested in how a person lives and treats others, rather than what a person proclaims to believe, or what creed they profess.
Mind you, we need our creed. We need the dogma and doctrine of religion.
These teachings and traditions set the boundaries and construct the yoke, which keeps us safe.
They instruct us in the moral life. And yet we read from St Paul: “And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian” (Galatians 3:25).
Does spirituality express what faith proclaims and religion teaches?
Perhaps we Catholics should try to find better ways to make proclamations around our personal beliefs and faith experience.
It might be fair to say that most Catholics do not normally make public proclamations. We do not typically say, “I have been born again” or “Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior.”
But I wonder if we should try to find a Catholic way of proclaiming these beliefs?
In fact, I am not sure we would even say, “I am Spiritual.” I wonder why?
Come on, Catholics! Do we love Christ? Do we have a personal relationship with Jesus our Savior?
Do we discuss our faith experiences with one another?
If so, how do we best convey our Spiritual experiences, so as to draw others ... to the warmth of Christ’s love?
Will they know we are Christians by our love?
I believe that programs such as Christ Renews His Parish and Cursillo are so particularly powerful because they give Catholics permission to explore spirituality.
In these programs, we are invited to personally profess and share our faith with one another, to be vulnerable and to wash each other’s feet.
Religion teaches that every human is created in the image of God, and good Religious formation can teach the path, which leads to the likeness of God.
But how is that likeness shining through us?
Are we reflecting the Spirit of God, or keeping it to ourselves?
Brothers and sisters, let us seek unity in our faith, rather than division, and strive to build up the Kingdom of God, here and now.
In the end, we must ask, “How do we best lead others to the Holy Spirit and back home to their faith tradition?”
Let us be companions on this faith journey.
Let us understand that religion and spirituality both have a role to play.
They are the two shores ... holding, carrying and making way, the path ... for this Great River of Grace to flow.
May that grace flow within and through us and out to others, attracting them to the same light.
Fr. Flatley is pastor of Immaculate Conception Parish in Jefferson City.
