Conti.. Spirituality of the Old..Religious- Part 111.A 

 Bandhu Ishanand Vempeny, S. J.

SPIRITUALITY OF THE OLD ESPECIALLY OF

THE RELIGIOUS -- Part 111

III.    A SEARCH FOR A SPIRITUALITY FOR THE OLD

Some years ago I was present for the Golden Jubilee celebrations of a CMI priest. As part of the ceremonies, a well-decorated ‘crown’ was placed on his head and a beautiful walking stick was handed over to him with great reverence. I consider this ceremony very significant. The crown represents the other-worldly (eschatological) and the walking stick represents the this-worldly (historical) aspects of the spirituality of the elderly. In this part of our essay we shall concentrate on these two dimensions of the spirituality of the old especially of the Religious. Of course, if we consider the “already-not-yet” dimensions of the Kingdom of God and the process of our growth into the image of the Risen Christ, we cannot make sharp distinction between the two dimensions.

A. The Concept of ‘Spirituality’

Before we get into the different aspects of spirituality a word on the concept of spirituality itself is in order. From a commonsensical point of view, a person is considered spiritual or religious, if he/she is concerned with not only his/her mortal body and its needs but also the immortal spirit in him/her. To put it in a somewhat precise way, we consider a person spiritual if he/she is concerned with the other-worldly, transcendental, eternal realities in an emphatic way without however neglecting temporal, this-worldly realities, responsibilities and values. To express it in the terminology of Sankaracharya, a spiritual person is one who has made a discrimination between the eternal and the temporary (nitya anitya vastu vivek) and uses the temporary values such as artha and kama according to the dictates of dharma in so far as they lead to mukti or moksha. Our descriptive definitions of spirituality are not much different from the one given by The New Dictionary of Theology: “It means one’s entire life as understood, felt, imagined, and decided upon in relationship to God, in Christ Jesus, empowered by the Spirit.”[i]

From a Christian point of view, a spiritual person is led by the Spirit of God (pneumatikon of St. Paul in Rom 8:1-7) subordinating the demands of the flesh (sarkikon).  To put the matter more elaborately, spirituality is the effort graced by God, leading to the Abba-experience (God as father-mother) resulting in whole-hearted trust in and surrender to God in love and dedication, and the experience of all human beings as one’s brothers and sisters who deserve our brotherly/sisterly love and care. To put the matter in another way, spirituality for us is the effort graced by God to enter into the Kingdom of God Ideal based on the ever-deepening experience of God as Abba and fellow human beings as brothers and sisters, with its this-worldly and other-worldly dimensions (already-not-yet). A true spirituality, together with the divine and human realms includes the cosmic realm as a whole in terms of ecological relations and concerns.

(Coming up next Part 111. B. The Eschatological Dimension )

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[i] Joann Wolski Conn, “Spirituality,” The New Dictionary of Theology, J. A. Komonchak & Co. (Editors), Bangalore: TPI, 1996, p. 972.