The Past

Institutional religion is one of the few entities, organizations that seem to have a magnet to return to the past for "better days" than whatever is happening in the present. In most all other areas of our lives, a return to the past seems a bit odd if not silly. Fashion does have some success here. What we wear can become trendy if it is "retro" but even the material will be modern. We won't be going back to cotton that wrinkles. We don't want cars from the 30s or ice boxes instead of refrigerators. We are not returning to Newtonian physics, or bleeding people who are sick.

Religion seems to have this fundamentalist tendency to think that living in the past will make all things better. Some in Islam want to return to the 7th century. In Catholicism there is this desire of many to go back to the mid-twentieth century or even earlier to fix up the mess of the present. The past is not a fix. That horse is out of the barn.

The spiritual path is evolutionary. We grow and change and need a spiritual life that keeps up with us. If we are 50 years old and still have the same piety of a second grader receiving their First Holy Communion, then we are stuck. We have not grown. I suspect the stuck part may be fear or anxiety based. We want to feel good. Spiritual growth has dark nights, difficult times in which we lose a sense of surety and fulfillment.

Many people drop out when this happens. No one told them it is normal. They think God or religion has abandoned them or is no longer relevant. The rules, and catechism do not seem to help. What to do? Read my blogs! Oh no, I have dropped into a moment of egocentricity! Well, no one is perfect. God's love adjusts to our imperfections. That is why we say Divine Love is unconditional.