November 18, 2003
Spiritual direction
Once on a rare retreat to a Community House on the nearby Cumberland Plateau, I was “assigned” to Sister Mary Anonym, a charming and witty woman then in her eighties. In my best feigned innocence, I asked if she might tell me what is a spiritual director.
With a candor that not only instantly found me out, but also startled my preconceptions, she said that she had no idea what is a spiritual director, that she didn’t much care, that she was not one, and that she was certainly not mine.
“Spirituality” is larger than life these days. Book stores provide for it whole sections. Some people even turn to the church for what they believe will be a “spiritual experience.” Some go so far as to seek “spiritual direction” as an aid to having one. The usual misunderstanding of the “spiritual awakening” said to be the purpose and result (but truly, the surprise) of 12-step programs causes almost as much concern and consternation in some people as the addiction that got them there.
All this is unfortunate, for it relegates spirituality to a single knot on the “rosary” along with others like mind and body and emotion, rather than the encompassing whole of them all. It is further to be regretted when the church buys into the whole idea and apparently gladly accepts its role as spiritual director, qualified or not. It is only a matter of time and grammar before the equation of spirituality with religion, one of the big cripplers in 12-step programs.
When religion and spirituality are fused, people look for holy things with holy names, holy people with holy costumes, and we only too gladly turn them up in every apse, nave, and icon. Imagine the malicious notion of one person being more reverend (or less or most or right) than another or there being any order holier than baptism, itself. Surely God is amused.
When the word became flesh and the veil over the Temple’s Holy of Holies was subsequently ripped apart, all of creation, no longer just some part of it, was revealed to be the outward and visible sign of the inward and spiritual reality it had been all along, mitochondria and all.
Neither spirituality nor religion are the church’s primary business. Humanity, human being, human rights, peace and justice are. It’s been beat into us that, somehow, to be human is bad news. Actually, sayings like “I’m only human” and “to err is human” are copouts, insulting to God. For to be human is the greatest gift, what God imagines us to be and thus gives us the freedom and grace to become.
Spiritual direction, indeed.
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