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We are all endowed with the
potential to live a fully integrated life in its human and spiritual aspects.
Not that human and spiritual can be separated. Whereas the development
of our human side is more obvious, it is the spiritual aspect of our life
that often needs more development.
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we all have a spiritual side to our
lives. One of the roles of the Church is to allow that spiritual side
of our lives to grow. Of course it is not the only way that the spiritual
in us may grow. Some (Scott Peck and others) have pointed out that some
of us do not grow and develop spiritually much beyond Sunday School -
if we ever went to Sunday School. Just looking at our human lives, we
grow and develop as a human person over many years and this is facilitated
by family, society, school, further study and work.
How can our spiritual side develop to become more balanced? According
to some (Von Hügel, Gerard Hughes and others) the spiritual is made up
of institutional, critical and mystical aspects. If we are churchgoers,
whether frequent or infrequent, we are influenced by the institution,
the Church, in its worship and practices as well as in social activities.
Even if we are churchgoers we are not so readily involved in the critical
aspect of the spiritual.
To grow in that way, we need to be encouraged to think critically about
our faith, to question so that we hold our faith with conviction. Currently
in society we are engaged in a debate on ethical issues, one of which
being whether it is right or wrong to use embryonic brain stem cells for
research. This issue focuses on some big questions. When does human life
begin? Is there a stage when it is right to take human life? With ethical
issues it is probably more important to engage in critical debate than
to be given an answer.
As Christians we do not have a clear cut system of ethics. Rather, we
seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit before making choices. On the whole
we may believe that taking human life is wrong, but in specific situations
it may be the choice we take. The parents of conjoined twins would have
to grapple with that choice.
Saving one child might mean the sacrifice of the other. The other strand
of the spiritual, the mystical, is almost certainly an aspect we have
to work at. We should not take fright at the use of the term mystical.
The mystical is that 'part' of our spiritual side which is about our relationship
with God - our experience of God. We can all discover times and situations
when we have sensed a presence of God, whether walking along a beach or
in a beautiful natural setting. In Christ we are able to develop a more
personal relationship with God.
Christ is the human link to the Divine. Spending time with Jesus - the
Risen Jesus - silently in prayer fosters that relationship. Meditation
of a gospel passage helps us to grow in a mystical way. Our prayers may
well be one like Peter's: "My Lord and My God", said not once but a number
of times. May we all seek to grow in wholeness of life.
First published in the newsletter
of St Augustine's Parish, Hamilton, where the Revd Sister Gillian SSA
is Assistant Priest.
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