Spiritual but not Religious, Part III

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I’ve written at least two previous blogs on this subject, knowing that many say they are spiritual but not religious. And up front, let me say that I believe no one, and no religion, has the market cornered on spirituality.

What I’m not convinced of is that a do-it-yourself spirituality is the best way of finding God.

I’d like to share a few ideas about how I believe spirituality and religion are not necessarily at odds. I say “not necessarily” because I believe there are some people - maybe many - who are religious but not spiritual as well as vice versa. But the two are by no means mutually exclusive. To me, it's a false dichotomy.

Also, up front, I want to say that my views on this subject - spiritual but not religious – have changed a bit since staring to read, “Jesus, An Historical Approximation” by Jose Antonio Pagola, a Spanish theologian and Scripture scholar.

Jesus' Parables

Pagola is good at explaining and providing background on Jesus’ parables. And he provided both when writing about the parable of the two men praying in the temple, one a Pharisee – those Jewish officials often criticized by Jesus – and a tax collector, a person who collected taxes for the Roman occupiers, carrying off Galileans’ best crops and other resources to officials in the area’s principal cities, Sepphoris or Tiberias.

The Pharisee stood in the Temple and prayed, “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.” He then followed with a list of his virtues and virtuous practices.

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’” Said Jesus: “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other….”

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The pious Pharisee was the one who kept the commandments and fulfilled all his religious duties but did not find favor with God. But the tax collector, who threw himself on God’s mercy, without even promising to change his life, receives forgiveness.

Jesus’ listeners must have been confused, writes Pagola. Most of them had made pilgrimages to Jerusalem. They knew what praying in the temple was supposed to be and the Pharisee seemed to be the model for that. Isn’t Jesus, by approving the tax collector and rejecting the Pharisee, threatening the whole religious system of the temple?

“If Jesus is right, then nobody can be sure of anything,” writes Pagola. “They must all appeal to God’s mercy. What good then is the temple, and the spirituality it nourishes? “…How can the reign of God be based, not on the justice formulated by religion, but on the bottomless mercy of God?”

Many people ask similar questions about religion today. But the principal one is, “Why do we need it?”

Because if we understand and practice our religion, it can provide a roadmap for spirituality as well as a community that supports and encourages our faith in the face of widespread skepticism and confusion. It helps us, not discourages us, from growing a relationship to God and to each other.

Like AA?

In this way, it’s like the famous anti-addiction program, AA, or Alcoholics Anonymous. Members go to meetings for support, encouragement and inspiration, but the real work goes on between the meetings.

Similarly, religious people go to church or synagogue to pray together and be together, but the “real work” is the development of a prayer life, and in showing compassion and kindness to others.

Christians, of course, believe their faith is much more than similar to AA meetings. They believe that the church is the Body of Christ, and in the case of the Catholic Church to which I belong, that the Mass provides a unique path to intimacy with God.

So, is spirituality possible without religion? Of course, but in my opinion, it’s not the best way to find God.