It’s common today to hear people characterize themselves as being “spiritual but not religious.” No one would condemn, reject, or look askance at someone because they claim to be “spiritual.” Quite the opposite. Even the most secular-minded of people appreciate the importance of one’s inner life and spiritual wellness. A non-religious spirituality is not merely tolerated; it often is celebrated and encouraged.
Spiritual Authenticity
One of the most admired qualities is authenticity. We do not appreciate dissimulation or disingenuous posturing. We despise attempts at empty “virtue signaling.” In an age dominated by social media, the human quest for the real—for the authentic and the genuine—is highly respected. This contemporary emphasis upon human authenticity (something that is traceable back to the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau) helps to explain why spirituality is also so highly esteemed today. Everyone appreciates that one’s inner life, spiritual sense, and fundamental convictions and beliefs are of predominant importance. We intuit that within the human person lies the essential core of who someone is and what someone is truly about: one’s soul and spirit.
Few today would claim to have personally exhausted the meaning of life or to have arrived at a state of ultimate fulfillment. Nonetheless, we realize that the human spirit exceeds the terrestrial, temporal, and physical planes of our existence. We intuit that who and what we are extends beyond the here and now—even, perhaps, to eternity. Our soul—our spirit—lies at the core of our authentic and genuine selves. Hence, we herald those things which tap into our authentic spirituality—our authentic selves.
Authenticity and Religious Skepticism
In vivid contrast to this positive view of spirituality, many regard “religion” with suspicion. No one looks askance at spirituality. Many disregard religion. If all intuit the importance of spirituality, many can view religion as at best incomplete and at worst harmful in the human quest for authenticity. There are numerous reasons for contemporary reservations about religion. First, it’s possible to endorse religion in an inauthentic manner. Religious dissimulation is not unheard of. We have all known (or have heard of) people who “don’t practice what they preach.” Someone can attend religious services on Sunday but live reprehensible lives on Monday through Saturday. This possible dissonance between religious practice and actual human behavior is possible, we conclude, because religion is seemingly something more external, extrinsic, and incidental to our authentic humanity. There can be a division between the religion that one professes and who one is spiritually.
Moreover, God’s own spiritual identity would seem to discount the importance of religious practices. God himself is a spirit. He is infinite. He is not physical or material. He is everywhere. Therefore, it would seem like religious observances—things like attending a physical church on Sunday, receiving the sacraments on a regular basis, or making the sign of the cross and kneeling—are not actually necessary in order to cultivate an authentic relationship with God. Because God is spiritual, we meet him on a spiritual level. Religion, because it’s physical, material, and behavioral, does not actually attain God—nor does it reflect what is most real about the human person.
The “spiritual but not religious” view of human life, thus, can initially appear to make a lot of sense. It strikes us as preeminently authentic and insulated against any traces of hypocrisy. The genuine heart of the human person is the soul—the human spirit. And because God is spiritual, we are able to have an enriching relationship with God on the level of spirit and spirituality. Therefore, being “spiritual but not religious” is a lot better than being “religious but not spiritual.” Religion is good insofar as it helps one’s authentic spirituality, but religion is not absolutely necessary for authentic human living.
Love = Spiritual + Religious
Ultimately, however, it’s impossible to be spiritual but not religious. Although we are indeed spiritual beings (we have an immortal and rational soul), the human person is not only a spiritual being. We are necessarily spiritual and religious, both, because of who and what we are: the human person is a body-and-soul unity (see Catechism of the Catholic Church, nos. 364–365). Why is it impossible for a human person to be “spiritual but not religious”? The answer is simple: love is all-consuming. Whenever we love in an authentic, genuine, and profound way, we love with all of our being. It would be preposterous to imagine a diehard football fan rejecting the opportunity to attend the Super Bowl simply because he or she is a “spiritual fan” of the sport. If we’re truly fans of the sport, we wish to participate in the hallmark football experience in its fullness and with all of our fullness.
The same is true—in an even more evident and profound manner—within marriage. A man and woman get married because they love each other deeply. Authentically. Their nuptial vows express and formalize their loving consent to be united for the entire duration of their shared lives. Consequently, no newly married couple would be content to live separate lives. Why not? Authentic love unites. And a newly married couple seeks to be fully united—not just in spirit, intention, and commitment but also physically and domestically. When we love, we love it holistically—with all that we are. We are spiritual, yes, but we are also bodily. And our body-soul nature is necessarily brought into our most authentic loves. Because the human person is a body-soul unity, the human person is spiritual and religious.
These truths account for why Jesus Christ instituted not only a “spirituality” but also a religion. The Christian faith is both spiritual and religious in nature. Our Lord Jesus showed us what holistic love looks like. As the Eternal Son of God, he became man “for us men and for our salvation,” as we profess during the Creed at Mass. He loved us with all his heart. He thought of us throughout all moments of his earthly life. And he completely gave himself up for us on the Cross.
Jesus loved us entirely. And he instituted a religion that enables all of us—in body and in spirit—to receive the fullness of his saving love. Through the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, Jesus Christ continues to love us fully and authentically even today. And it is through the sacraments—religious practices—that we really encounter the real, loving Savior of our souls.
The Catholic Parish: Spiritual and Religious
All of this helps to explain why the Catholic parish is so important for human authenticity. We are body-and-soul persons. And in order to be happy and fulfilled—indeed, in order to be saved!—we need to experience a love that leaves no part of us unloved. The parishes of the Catholic Church are those places in which human persons are able to enter into Christ’s love spiritually and religiously. In the parish, we enter a sacred context and community in which we are able to be holistically transformed by Christ’s life-giving love. Through the sacraments of the Church, the human spirit is indeed elevated to God, but it is so elevated through religious practices. At Sunday Mass especially, the human person is loved and is enabled to love in the most complete and authentic way.
Religion without spirituality is empty, yes. But no one can be spiritual without also being religious. And this is why the Catholic parish is the heart of Christian life in the Church. In the parish, our spirit and our body—our entire and very self!—are brought into real contact with the authentic love of Jesus, our Savior.