“You shall love the Lord, your God,
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
and with all your mind.
This is the greatest and the first commandment.
The second is like it:
You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments."
A comedian once joked that when someone said to him, “I’m not religious, but I’m spiritual,” he replied, “I’m not honest, but you’re really interesting.” I was also struck by a lyric in a contemporary Christian song called Fields of Grace by Big Daddy Weave which states, “There’s a place where religion finally dies.” It seems in our culture and, even, within some currents of Christianity there is a tension between religion and spirituality.
In fact, I do think there is a tension and I think today’s Gospel reading shows that it’s been around for a long time. The modern iteration of this tension goes something like this. Religion is about rules and rituals, fear and obligation, and an unquestioning acceptance of authority. Spirituality, on the other hand, is about freedom and exploration, love and tolerance, and personal actualization and fulfillment. Religion is, therefore, bad and spirituality is good or, at least, not too harmful.
It seems like you must make a choice: either you’re religious or you’re spiritual. Much theological reflection in the Church through history has dealt with such apparent either/or divisions: God is either one or three; Jesus is either God or human; the Eucharist is either bread and wine or Christ’s body and blood. The somewhat elegant solution to these issues can be called the Catholic both/and. For example, Jesus is both God and human. It transcends the apparent distinctions.
The Catholic both/and holds the apparently exclusive options in tension so as to enter into the mystery of God as the ultimate reality. We don’t solve the tension, but experience it, live with it, and grow from it. Something deeper and more profound is born. Two apparently distinct and irreconcilable options are brought together in unity. So what about religion and spirituality?
I am both religious and spiritual. Held together with religion, spirituality becomes grounded, accountable, and truly communal. It is not flighty or esoteric, but practical and life changing. Held together with spirituality, religion becomes life giving, innovative, and sustaining. It is not institutional or irrelevant, but relational and deeply personal.
Jesus shows us this path: all of the law and the prophets depend upon the love of God and neighbor. In a sense, Jesus unites religion and spirituality. To go even further, in Jesus, religion and spirituality are one. Early Christians initially called this new belief system centered on Jesus by a simple name: The Way. Jesus, of course, is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the head of his body, the Church. Jesus is at the door of each of our hearts knocking, waiting to be invited in. If we stand exclusively in religion or soar exclusively in spirituality, we miss Him. But if we encounter Jesus, we both stand and soar!