Catholica: Spirituality - what does it mean in a Christ-centred context by John O'Keefe

FR JOHN O'KEEFE...

Spirituality — what does it mean in a Christ-centred context?

Due to an error on my part I had originally scheduled an Easter Sunday reflection here from Fr John O'Keefe. He had submitted a whole series of reflections which I have been posting on the discussion forum through Lent and up until Good Friday. Very late in the piece I discovered that his list did not include one for Easter Sunday when I thought it did. In it's place I am republishing Fr John's wonderful reflection on Spirituality which we originally published on 19th September 2006. Fr John is a Vincentian priest based in Sydney. ...Ed

The origins of the word...

"Spirituality" is a word bandied about a lot these days.

For example, a modern phenomenon today is called 'Spirituality in the Pub'. Groups of people, sometimes quite large groups, come together to discuss the meaning of life, the morality of things that make up human living, things that enhance human dignity. They meet in the pub because, unlike in church, they feel more free to speak about the things that really matter to them.

Lots of people seem to be in a search for spirituality, although it is not always clear just what they mean by that. The word can have various meanings for different people; one of the most common meanings that spirituality has for many is the search for a meaning and purpose in life.

But where does the word 'spirituality' come from? What relevance does 'spirituality' have for us as Christian people? It is important that we know these things for us to understand what the human spirit is and what spirituality can be for us as good human beings. Such knowledge will also help us to understand the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit.



	Artists down through the ages have had great difficulty in trying to pictorialise the Holy Spirit. This woodcut, entitled "The Descent of the Holy Ghost" was published in the book "Les Heures de nostre dame" in approximately 1620. Image borrowed from the Pitts Theology Library, Digital Image Archive.

The word 'spirit' comes from the Latin word 'spiritus' which has two meanings. It can mean the movement of the wind, or it can mean the breath as it is exhaled from the human body.

The wind is dynamic; the wind is free, "it blows where it wills", it moves things — the flowers, the trees, the plastic bags which adorn some neighbourhoods. It moves the sands of the deserts; it stirs up the waves of the sea. It blows different smells, sweet or unpleasant. It is used these days to generate electricity. The wind simply cannot be contained.

The breath of any living creature, as it is breathed out, might be sweet or sour, but it is bringing out into the open something of what a person is at any given moment. The spirit of a human being is what naturally comes from that person, whether it be good, bad or indifferent. A person's spirit can be for others something that is life-giving, or something that leads to evil in some way. The spirit of a human being comes from the innermost part of a person and it has an effect on others.

Different manifestations in different human beings...

A person's spirit might be evil, as was the case with the great dictators who ruled many countries. Evil came from them quite naturally. They breathed it out; it came from deep within them, caused much suffering and took away from the poorest of people their fundamental human rights. There are people in our own society today whose deeds are evil, who spread evil wherever they are. Some of these are rapists, murderers, child molesters, those who make fortunes from the drug trade, and many, many others. Rather than our humanity being enhanced by their lives, the human race is degraded.

St Paul [Galatians 5:18] speaks of such people as producing bad temper and quarrels, antagonisms and rivalry, jealousy, factions and malice, drunkenness, sexual vice, and other things. Happiness and human dignity do not flow from any of these.

But there is also so much goodness breathed out into our world today. There are so many loving parents, so many beautiful children, so many people who go out of their way to serve those in need. There are carers in so many places, good people who spend their lives trying to bring meaning to young people and children who are abandoned, or who wander our streets, having nowhere they can call home. There are carers, too, who give their time and love to the elderly and those who are incapacitated. There are so many generous people. The spirits of such people are alive. They enhance human dignity.

Fruits of the Spirit...

St Paul, in the same letter to the Galatians, Chapter 5, speaks of what are called 'fruits of the spirit. 'These fruits are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control.' Paul talks about these things as coming from the Spirit of God; they make God's presence real for everyone to see. But God works through human beings, and ordinary people who breathe out these gifts are life-givers to this world of ours, people who contribute greatly to the dignity of human beings, and to the richness of our society.

But a person cannot breathe out unless he/she first breathes in. As human beings, we are all open to the spirit of other people. People might smile at us or they might scowl. Both the smiles and the scowls have their effects on us. Some people are loving people; some are angry people; some are optimistic or pessimistic people. What comes from them is their spirit. And it usually has an effect on those around them. If we breathe in goodness, then we will necessarily breathe out goodness as well.

The spirituality of Jesus...

The imperative for every Christian person is to be like Jesus. That is what we are called to be if we wish this world of ours to be a happy and peaceful place. Jesus is revealed to us as the ideal human being, the kind of person we can all be. Jesus certainly worked for the reign of God in the world of which he was a part. What was the spirituality of this man, Jesus?

Jesus 'breathed out' so much goodness. It came from him so naturally. He cared for the sick; his heart went out to widows and mothers in their bereavement; he found food to feed the hungry; he felt for those who were looking desperately for leadership and inspiration; he spent time forming leaders for their role; he loved children and urged everyone to become 'like a little child'; he gave hope and meaning to the life of the woman at the well. One of the most important things he did was challenge the religious authorities of his day; he condemned the 'money changers' who made a mockery of religion; he condemned the priests for imposing impossible burdens on people; he condemned the hypocrisy which was rampant in the religious elders of his church. Jesus knew that religion was the binding of people together to form a community who cared about one another, a community of the family of God. One of the most important things that Jesus 'breathed out' was the importance of God in his life; he gave time to God, he knew his God in a familiar way; he went to the synagogue with other people every Sabbath, because it was there that God's people came together to celebrate what they were, and to become what God was calling them to be. It was in his prayer that his awareness of God in the ordinary things of life developed. The 'breathing out' of Jesus was 'the breathing out' of God. All of that expresses the spirituality of Jesus.

But, just like us, and as a model for us, Jesus needed to 'breathe in' the things of God, things that he surely found in his mother and father and in the other people in his life. Something very special was his appreciation of the God to be found in little children, in the 'flowers of the field', in the poor. He was inspired by so many things that it became natural for him to 'breathe out' what was of God. The result of all his activity was to produce joy, peace, goodness, gentleness, and all the other things that Paul calls 'the fruits of the Spirit' of God. Jesus made God real for so many people. If we can produce all these good things, then we, too, can be, like Jesus, 'saviours of the world'.

Jesus believed in God, he became filled with the Spirit of God, and he gave flesh to the Spirit of God, and so he did, quite naturally, the things of God. That is our calling, too — to become the human flesh that gives birth in our world to the things of God. All that Jesus was for his world, we can be for the world of today. That is the kind of Spirituality to which we are all called.

John O'Keefe is an Australian Vincentian priest. He has been a priest for 49 years. In that time he has spent 13 years as a teacher, 17 years as the Director of Spiritual Formation in seminaries and 12 years serving the people of the outback in Western Australia and Queensland.

Photo Credits: The main image was created by Brian Coyne loosely based on
the meditation symbol used by the Science of Spirituality website.

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