Spirituality Lured by the Spirit to an ethical
life
By SIDNEY CALLAHAN
We can be absolutely certain that
God is good and wants humankind to be morally upright. The divine mandate for
human beings comes through loud and clear in the Ten Commandments, the Golden
Rule, and the rest of the scriptures and creeds taught by the church. But
Christians may not be so sure of exactly how spirituality and morality relate
to each other.
At least we know how scandalous it is when there is a radical
disconnect between worship and ethical behavior. Who hasnt been horrified
to read of priests sexually abusing children, or nuns abetting genocide, or
Catholics taking part in torture or death squads? Clearly in cases of ethical
atrocities, religious practice has become separated from the fundamental
command to do good and avoid evil.
Yet among ordinary Catholics who are trying to be good, the effort
to integrate faith and moral behavior can be a persistent challenge. The
faithful recognize that Christians must be doers of the word and not hearers
only and that they have an obligation to walk the walk. But how can they live
out the gospel in everyday moral living?
An adequate moral or ethical life requires persons to have good
hearts, wise heads and virtuous habits of action. Happily, there is little
doubt that human beings start out wanting to become good. Always and everywhere
children become attached to those who nurture and care for them, and want to
gain their approval. Guilt and shame appear very early in human development
because children grasp the prevailing standards of morality and achievement and
want to meet them.
A social species
Human beings are a social species with big brains and the ability
to choose between alternative courses of action. Humans can imagine and think
about things that are not concretely present. Persons seek meaning as well as
love. Evolution innately equips us to seek realities beyond what can be
seen.
The innate capacity for the operation of conscience comes from the
ability to freely choose between behaviors and the possession of enough
intelligence to adopt standards of worth that transcend the self. Wherever
humans exist they produce art, music, religion, morality and cultural group
norms. All non-impaired adult members of the human species possess a
conscience, but Christians identify this powerful ethical pull with the work of
the Holy Spirit. God as Spirit may be anonymous and work in hidden ways in the
universe, but Christians recognize the One who lures them toward holiness.
Of course, people also possess a selfish drive toward survival
that includes competitiveness and the desire for dominance. Hence the universal
experience of every individual that they can choose between good and bad deeds.
Humankind is basically good but also flawed by being subject to selfish and
aggressive desires.
Psychologists now consider that we have been prepared through
evolution to have an instantaneous response to events that then can be followed
by a more reflective secondary response. The first spontaneous reactions will
come from past learning and built-in biological urges for survival; the second
response can be guided by new thinking and chosen aspirations or plans for the
future.
This perceived duality and inner conflict has been the origin of
morality and ethics. Their purpose is to help persons to think through choices
and resist wrong decisions. Different cultures and different religions will
operate in different ways to encourage cooperative moral behavior and
discourage actions that destroy human flourishing.
Every known human group possesses moral standards and some form of
ethics and some kind of religion. In some instances, members of a social group
may not have connected their moral obligations to their kith and kin with their
religious beliefs. Religions can exist that are mostly devoted to appeasing
supernatural spirits and gaining magic control over nature.
However, in every highly developed universal religion, individual
moral behavior is directly related to religious faith and practice.
Christianity inherits the genius of the Jewish prophetic tradition that sees
true worship of God in love of neighbor, aid to those in need and justice in
dealings with others. Traditionally, the church has required that Christians
attend worship and practice the 14 corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The
final judgment of a Christian life -- whether one will be among the sheep or
the goats -- has been seen to depend upon ones moral behavior toward
others.
Practicing justice
But today in a complicated and highly developed world it is harder
to know how to practice justice. It is the institutions and social systems that
give us the most moral quandaries. I dont think Christians have too much
trouble understanding how their faith applies in private life. Standards of
respect and care, shown in word and deed, can be easily applied to ones
family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. Honor your old parents, love and be
faithful to your spouse, care for children, grandchildren, friends and the
neighbor in need. Be honest, dont steal or cheat and strive to keep the
Golden Rule.
A more puzzling ethical challenge arises in the matter of deciding
an individuals moral responsibility to work for social justice and good
institutions. Individualistic Americans resist acknowledging the crucial
importance of institutions and social systems. They seem more or less invisible
until we bump up against some problematic abuse. We just dont think
enough about the way large systems shape our lives. For one thing, such
questions can require expert knowledge, and for another the individual can feel
helpless to effect change. Reforms may be needed in the church, Congress, tax
law, health care, welfare, immigration, education and military policy, but what
can we do about it?
The Catholic spiritual tradition offers help in both becoming good
as an individual and in deciding what should be done in a larger social
context. Whether dealing with individual morality or with larger ethical
questions, Catholics are not left alone without resources. There are tried and
true ways for Christians to integrate spirituality and moral challenges.
The emotions of charity and empathy are the primary ingredients of
moral behavior. If we dont care enough or empathize with others, then we
wont see or feel the need to act morally. Evolution has equipped us with
an emotional system that works to inform us and galvanize us to action.
Emotions make us pay attention to what is going on within us and in the
environment. Emotional sensitivity allows us to receive the signals from self
and others that point to situations where moral action is needed.
Emotions also help us to think better. Occasionally extreme
emotional responses can highjack us and be counterproductive, but in general
emotions provide the energizing power to focus our minds. Emotions signal that
the matter at hand matters. Love and care are the supreme energizers of the
Christians moral life. So how do we increase in love and beneficence?
Christians are helped to good-heartedness by spending time
attending to Gods inexhaustible love and mercy toward us and to the
world. It is a psychological truth that what we look at, what we desire and
love, will slowly shape our image. When Moses spoke with Yahweh, his face
became radiant with light. Gods promise that with Gods people
hearts of stone could be replaced with hearts of flesh has been in effect ever
since.
Lovers become attuned to one another through the time and
attention spent gazing at the other. Mothers and infants get in tune through
the same processes of mutual attention. Only a prolonged dialogue with the
source of all love and desire can increase our desire. Our fire is enkindled by
Gods fire.
Transformed consciousness
Human consciousness flows onward in a dynamic stream and can be
gradually transformed by lifting our hearts and minds to God. Prayer, worship
and meditation place us in the presence of Gods love and enable us to
respond and love in a Christ-worthy way.
Christians have been promised that they can become holy by the
gift of the Holy Spirit acting within us. We cannot do it alone. The
transformation that God works in us is really a matter of being taken into
Gods family life.
As a member of Gods family, we begin to take a Gods
eye view of things. As we increase in loving kindness, we grow more disturbed
by the evils that exist within and without. Our own omissions, failures and
sins bother us more deeply, and our examinations of conscience become more
detailed and subtle. At the same time, the moral evils and sufferings of the
world become more upsetting. The desire that Gods will be done on earth
fuels a healthy kind of moral anger over abuses. So what do we do about it?
Here is where wisdom and good counsel become important in the
moral life. It is too simple to ask what would Jesus do -- a popular question
many people now often hear as WWJD -- because we live in different
circumstances and have different gifts. Jesus tells us to go and do likewise,
so we have to work out what that may mean in our particular case. To act
morally and ethically, we need knowledge about ourselves, about the particular
case, about the particular context and what would count as a good outcome.
Ethics is an art, not a science. Yet choosing moral means to an end is
necessary since, as Mahatma Gandhi said, means are ends in the
making.
Facing a moral challenge, whether it be large or small, Christians
should pray for guidance. In times of quiet meditation, there is space and time
for Gods will to emerge in consciousness. Because of the danger of
self-deception, it is also important to seek the wisdom and counsel of others.
What does the churchs social teachings have to say on a particular
problem? And what do the wise and good advise?
Humility impels us to gather information and consult others.
Individuals engaged in moral decisions need all the help they can get. Even in
private individual decisions, consulting others is helpful. Sometimes other
people are able to help us see what gifts and talents we possess or lack. The
old moral rule that ought implies can still holds. God
does not ask us to do tasks that are beyond our abilities.
Other traditional wisdom about taking account of different states
of life is also important. Earlier moral decisions to marry and have children
must affect present moral obligations. Its no good deciding to rush off
to Calcutta to join Mother Teresas mission if you will abandon your
children, your husband and the dishes. Past professional commitments also
affect present ethical choices.
The assistance of the Holy
Spirit
While the specific moral decisions of an individual are her or his
own responsibility, the Holy Spirit assists in the operation of conscience. God
gives us the perseverance to stick to the hard work involved in a difficult
decision. Prudence is doing the best possible thing in the best possible way.
Unfortunately, we have seen people do the best possible thing in the worst
possible way, the worst possible thing in the best possible way, and so on.
Innocent doves can often profit by cultivating the shrewdness of the
serpent.
Meditating upon Gods truth, freedom and power may inspire
Christians to more audacious visions of what should be done in a situation.
Christians turned the world upside down because they did not adopt the
worlds view of human possibilities. Christians operate guided by a vision
of Gods Kingdom, and dont settle for the status quo. With hope and
confidence in God, Christians do not have to bow down before the bottom line,
or choose to do evil out of some tragic necessity. The only moral failure for
Christs disciples is to abandon the effort to do Gods good work. If
worldly success follows then thats wonderful, but Gods will above
all things.
It is good to remember that those persons engaged in the most
draining tasks find the strength to keep going by daily prayer and frequent
worship. Celebrations of the Christian life enliven and enlighten the human
spirit through the power of the Holy Spirit. The more exasperating and
frustrating the call to love and justice, the more we need to beg God for
fortitude.
Steadfast courage to keep going in the struggle to be good comes
from relying on God. The more repetition and drudgery in the duty, the more we
need the example of saints and the support of our community. Persecution and
conflict can also beset the moral life. Evil persons hate the good and their
tranquility. The greatest saints were like Christ in the way that their joy in
Gods gifts inspired them to make sacrifices for others.
One other law of the moral life helps us on our way. The smallest
moral act can bear much fruit. To take one step on the path toward God puts you
in a different place with an ability to see further, and seeing more, we can
care more deeply. Through caring more we can choose to act again, and yet
again. When good choices have been repeated enough times, they become the moral
habits we know as virtues. Perhaps one of the delightful ironies of the Holy
Spirits work is that eventually moral behavior becomes second nature.
Goodness flows from the joyful heart without struggle or even awareness. At
that point, as St. Catherine of Siena has said, all the way to heaven is
heaven. Were home free once again.
Sidney Callahan is professor of moral theology at St.
Johns University, Queens, N.Y., and a columnist for Commonweal
magazine.
National Catholic Reporter, December 13,
2002
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