Spiritual sanity today requires that we ask direct questions of ourselves about our life and values. Such questioning allows us to embrace the words of sacred Scripture and the tenets of our faith, so when we are called to offer a perspective on life to others we are not lost, nor do we become enmeshed in a secular framework similar to theirs.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, a favorite spiritual writer of mine, once wrote: “We teach children how to measure, how to weigh; we fail to teach them how to revere, how to sense wonder and awe. The sense of the sublime, the sign of moral greatness of the human soul and something which is potentially given to [everyone] is now a rare gift.”
Why is this so? Maybe it is so because we fail to prepare our children for their spiritual adult years in the correct way. We do not set the stage for our children to become spiritually sane; wisdom figures later on in life. Maybe we fail to see the path of holiness ourselves and therefore feel inadequate to help them at an early age to seek it. And so, we need to break through the routines of secularism with the real meaning of life so that this becomes more possible.
My wife was, at one time, a religion teacher for primary grades. During this time she told me there was a time-honored tradition in her school. It was this: Students from kindergarten and the first grade would, on occasion, with their teachers' encouragement go into another class and interrupt the lessons in progress. They did this for a very special purpose that they boldly announced through the use of a sign atop a stick which one of the group held. The sign said: Poetry Break.
Once they entered the room, they stood in front of the class and waited for silence. After all was quiet, together they recited a piece of poetry, thanked the class for their attention, and left. Would that we could have some of these poetry breaks in our businesses, at faculty meetings in universities such as mine, or even in some of our churches at times to remind all of us of what is truly important and valued in life!
Spiritual sanity requires us to question the voices that are guiding our lives. It asks us to determine what inner and world values are leading us to believe, think, feel and act the way we do. If we are to do this, we need a strong interior life fed by poetry, art, good music, prayer, reflection, a sense of justice and an appreciation for the value of deep compassion. No longer must these elements of life be seen as extras or interruptions to the real, practical and important parts of the way we live. For if we cannot see the importance of these elements, we will continue to postpone the spiritual — and the peaceful sanity that comes with having a strong inner life.
If this is a serious problem for us as adults, it certainly is even worse for our children. Once again, in the words of Rabbi Heschel: “The problem of our youth is not youth. The problem is the spirit of our age; denial of transcendence, the vapidity of values, emptiness in the heart, the decreased sensitivity to the imponderable quality of the spirit … The central problem is that we do not know how to think, how to pray, how to cry, how to resist the deceptions of too many persuaders.” Amen.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
