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Chapter 3:

THE SPIRITUALITY OF RESISTANCE

 

HUMAN CONTEXT

Spirituality has a long tradition both in the East and West - in Asia and Europe - in many continents and countries. Asia gave birth to Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Shinto, Confucian, Sikh and many other spiritualities with their tremendous complexity and diversity. The East also has been the origin of Islamic, Jewish, Christian, tribal and many other ancient spiritualities. There is a lot of confusion about it or at least a lack of clarity.  Very often it is reduced to rites and rituals - identified with a vague, abstract feeling of transcendence.  It evokes a passive response, and does not make us active and dynamic in the name of spirituality. 

Even among the Christians, there is tremendous variety.  There has been the spirituality of the early martyrs, of the ascetics, of the monastics, the mystics, the Pietists, the Puritans and many other individuals and groups.  They have challenged and inspired the life of the Church for centuries. In the name of spirituality, a monk like St. Francis of Assisi and a nun like Catherine promoted poverty, chastity and obedience. Later, Thomas Kempis’ The Imitation of Christ; St. Augustine’s Confessions; Meister Eckhart’s Meditations; Blaise Pascal’s Thoughts and John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress have guided and governed the spirituality of Christians throughout generations. 

In the modern time, evangelicals and the ecumenicals do not agree on their understanding of spirituality.  The Religious Right of the Bible belt in the United States seem to have a monopoly over it!  Precisely, this enormous differences or

 

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 even the contradiction in the perceptions of spirituality calls for a critical evaluation of the issue from a Biblical point of view.  How much of it is relevant and meaningful?  Is the Bible advocating an individualistic, otherworldly, inner spirituality or does it stand for a social spirituality that is relational and dynamic?

 

OLD TESTAMENT BACKGROUND

Jewish religious tradition has emphasised deep spirituality from its inception.  This tradition has been supported and sustained, nourished and nurtured by a variety of religious and historical formulations.  To them God was a living, relevant reality. They had to be obedient or faithful to God. Their particular understanding of God enabled them to understand spirituality in a concrete ways.  ‘Knowing’ God was to experience God in their daily struggles. Their spirituality was expressed in their numerous Feasts and Festivals, Sacrifices and Sacraments of their own kind, which symbolised their devotion and commitment to the living Yahweh, God.  In their long history, the Hebrew people had to learn many lessons.  The most important lesson they had to learn was the nature and character of spirituality.  The just and liberator-God demanded a spirituality that inevitably leads to justice and liberation.  Jewish historical, Wisdom, Poetical and Prophetic literature attempted to communicate this kind of deep, authentic spirituality as opposed to anything fake or false, hypocritical or half-hearted.

The ancient practise of Passover sacrifice was a constant reminder of God’s liberating action in history, as stipulated in Deuteronomy.78  In addition to this sacrifice, they practiced their sacrifice of Peace Offering.79  Over the years what becomes clear to them is that sacrifice has a deeper meaning and purpose. It is not a formality to be followed by the faithful. Thus we hear in the Psalm,

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78 Deuteronomy l6: 2, 5 and 6

79 Leviticus 3:1, 3, 6 and 9; 4:10, 26, and 35; see also Numbers

80 Psalm 51:10, 16-17, see also 19; and Ps. 50:14

 

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Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and put a new and right spirit within me . . .For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.  The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, 0 God, you will not despise.80

In the dialogue between Samuel, the prophet and Saul, the king, we hear the former saying, ‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord?  Surely, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams’.81  A broken and contrite heart must lead to obedience to the purpose and will of God.  Thus the priority of spirituality is well established.  The sacrifices of the wicked are not accepted 82 but ‘to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.’  83 This understanding of spirituality becomes clear in the prophets. The eighth century B.C. prophets come out very strongly for justice.  Genuine spirituality must establish a rule of justice.  So they cried,

 What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls . . . bringing offerings is futile; is an abomination to me.  New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation - I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me... seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.84

In another context, Trito-Isaiah (another author), writing in about 515 B.C. asserted,

They seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that did righteousness... they delight to draw near to God, ‘Why have we fasted, and you do not see?’...  Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.  Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight... such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.  Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?  Will you call this a fast... Is not this the fast that I choose; to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?85

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81 I Samuel 15:22

82 Proverbs 15:8

83 Proverbs 21:3

84 Isaiah l: 11,13-14 and l7

85 Isaiah 58:2a, 3-6

 

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Obviously, the above text has been cited as a good example of the ambiguous or even a contradictory relationship that existed between religious fasting, feasting, sacrifices and spirituality in ancient Israel.  The Hebrew prophets did not mince words or shirk their responsibility as forthtellers. Such religious practises had degenerated into a formality and a farce.  Their stringent critique clarified the intention of God.  For the prophets, justice will be indicative of righteousness or religiosity must inevitably lead to righteousness in terms of justice and liberation.  Such an idea is constantly endorsed and vigorously advocated by the other prophets like Amos;86 Micah;87 and Hosea88 and Jeremiah89. This is sufficient to show that there is an essential unity and unanimity about the Old Testament with regard to the nature and function of spirituality.

It must be mentioned that fundamentally, spirituality has to do with SPIRIT, ‘ruah’. She is identified with the hot, strong wind of the desert and also in feminine terms. The Old Testament talks about several spirits that misguide human beings.  So it talks about evil, jealous, lying, haughty, broken, crushed and such other negative spirits that cannot be conducive towards spirituality. But basically, the Old Testament talks about the spirit of God that guides and governs the thinking and action of authentic priests and prophets, of kings and commoners.  Such a spirit gives them wisdom and understanding90. Prophet Ezekiel vividly describes the vital life-giving power of the Spirit.  The scene is a valley of dry bones and not just dead bodies - nothing seems to be left, no recognition and above all no identity.  But God’s Spirit is able and restores life and vitality.  Nobody becomes some body. That story anticipates the story of the Resurrection of Jesus.  Here ‘breath’ is used for spirit eight times91.  Thus spirituality, in the Old Testament, is decisively against all kinds of death or death-dealing forces that operate in the world.

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86 Amos 5:21-24

87 Micah 6:6-8

88 Hosea 6:6 and 12:6

89 Jeremiah 6:20

90 Deuteronomy 34:9; Isaiah 11:2; 31:3

91 Ezekiel 37:l-14

 

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APOSTOLIC WITNESS

The pioneering apostles understood the spirit and the mind of Christ. They were not confused and always sought for the guidance of God. They fully believed in the living, loving Lord, who was raised from the dead on the third day. Therefore, death did not put them off. They were aware of the different spirits like jealousy, deceit and evil.92  But they were also aware of and inspired by the spirit of the Lord that liberated them from the spirit of slavery and timidity93 and endowed them with the spirit of freedom, power, love and self-discipline. Their pioneering work of love and freedom is recorded in the Acts of the Apostles, which in fact is the act of the Spirit of God.  They were able to distinguish and understand the good spirit from the bad spirit94. In their daily life and work they made use of and advocated vehemently the gifts and the fruits of the Spirit of God95.  The qualities that are mentioned truly make them spiritual in relationship with the physical, the social.  It is not abstract, vague and remote.  It is very much life giving and life-enhancing in its fullness or wholeness96.  For this reason, the early apostles in their epistles, summoned people to walk by the spirit and not to quench her.97 They also gave a warning, ‘Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God’. 98  Thus they were not naive or simplistic in their spiritual aspirations.

Spirituality of the ancient apostles stemmed from their total commitment to Christ. Therefore, for them it could not be an empty and a meaningless exercise.  Those Jewish Christians had come to the conclusion that the traditional sacrifices of their foremothers and forefathers were no more relevant.  It was the supreme sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary that gave birth to a new spirituality. So they said, ‘Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.’99  Another apostle put it more sharply,

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92 Galatians 4:4 and 9; I Corinthians 12:10; Colossians 2:8 and 20; Acts 5:16; 19:12-13

93 II Timothy 1:7; II Corinthians 3:17; Romans 8:15

94 Ephesians 1:17

95 I Corinthians 2:14; 12:4-11; Galatians 5:22

96 Romans 8:6; I Corinthians 15:45

97 Galatians 5:16 and 25; I Thessalonians 5:19

98 I John 4:l

99 Hebrews 10:5,8 and 11; 13:16; I Peter 2:5

 

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If any think that they are religious and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.  Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.100

Spirituality, in terms of the world, was viewed by Paul as one of transformation and not conformity. 101 But it is true that due to theological-sociological reasoning, the early apostles were not fully sure about their attitude and action in the world.  They seem to be against the world102.  Therefore, very often their spiritual witness was in terms of martyrdom - willing to die for Christ rather than live for him103.  Such an attitude made Paul to advocate a KENOTIC spirituality - willing to empty oneself for ‘the sake of Christ so that God could use its supporter for God’s work in the world.104  Consequently, it would be more correct to state that the apostolic spirituality was simultaneously or concurrently against the world- for the world. So they issued a warning or a caution,

Do not let anyone disqualify you, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head... These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.105

From this it is very clear that the early apostles were positive people - down-to-earth and realistic about spirituality in spite of the Roman persecution they faced.  Thus it is not surprising that the ancient apostles were able to recall the prophetic promise,

...God declares, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams. Even upon my slaves, both men and women, in those days, I will pour out my spirit and they shall prophesy.106

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100 James 1:26-27

101 Romans 12:l-2

102 James 4:4; I Corinthians 7:31; I John 2:15-17

103 I Corinthians 9:15; 15:31; Romans 14:8; Philippians 1:21

104 Philippians 2:5-8

105 Colossians 2:18-l9a and 23

 

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Inspired and challenged by such words, Peter and Paul, James and John, and many other known or unknown apostles engaged in the task of transformation, willing to oppose and resist customs and practices, rituals and rites that did not conform to the mind of Christ. That was their fundamental spirituality.

 

GOSPEL TRUTH

Spirituality of the followers of Jesus originated in the latter. Ultimately, Jesus was their inspiration and challenge.  His life and work, his person and principles prompted the disciples and apostles to practise practical, ‘worldly’ spirituality that was rooted in and related to their own culture and society.

There were, however, some uncertainties.  Some of the gospel texts give the impression that Jesus was against the world,107 and particularly, “What does it profit them, if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?”108  These texts have been misinterpreted and read out of context and as a result the spirituality of Jesus has been misunderstood.  He was in the world but not of it, in the sense he did not fully subscribe to the means and methods, standards and strategies of the world.  This is what he meant when he told Pilate openly, “My kingdom is not of this world.” So it would be utterly wrong to think that Jesus was otherworldly, non-relational and atomistic in his action.  On the contrary, we find him to be social, sociable and public.  The religious, ‘spiritual’ people of the time, Pharisees, raised their eyebrows, looking at the relationships of Jesus - Martha and Mary, Mary Magdalene, the Woman of Samaria and even a woman sex-worker.109  The Pharisees accused Jesus of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners”.110 To such accusations, Jesus’ response was,

Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.  Go and learn what this means, “I desire mercy, not sacrifices’ for I have come to call not the righteous but the sinners. 111

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106 Acts 2:17-18; taken from Joel 2:28-29

107 John 15:19; 17:14 and 16; 18:36; Matthew 13:22

108 Mark 8:36; repeated in Matthew 16:26 and Luke 9:25

109 Luke 7:36-39; 8:1-3; John 4: 7-18; 11:1-39; Luke 10:38-41

110 Matthew 11:19

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Jesus’ spirituality did not support and encourage self-righteousness but real righteousness that lead to justice and liberation. He practised his spirituality in and for the world of reality and real people who were hurt, insulted and denied their dignity and fundamental, human rights.  Therefore he had no problem mixing with all kinds of people without prohibitions or inhibitions, without societal assumptions or pretensions.  So it was not only a spirituality of resistance against existing norms and standards but more than that it was an iconoclastic spirituality, meaning that Jesus was more than willing to break or destroy those customs and codes that contradicted the Kingdom of God.  He had instructed, “But strive first for the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things (food, clothing and shelter) will be given to you as well”.112 It would be wrong to draw the conclusion immediately that Jesus was not interested in food, clothing and shelter.  Essentially, he was a religious leader who wanted to establish his spiritual perspective and priority in relationship with the world.  I have already mentioned in the first chapter that as a social activist, Jesus directly confronted the Pharisees particularly about the Sabbath, curing on the Sabbath, his direct action in the temple in Jerusalem, his dealing with the woman taken in adultery and such other episodes.

For Jesus, “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”.113  Earlier, in his dialogue with Nicodemus, he had asserted,

... no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and spirit... The wind (spirit) blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.114

Indeed, the Holy Spirit is basically the Spirit of truth, both human and divine. 115  This means that in our pursuit of authentic spirituality, we must look for the underlying spirit of things - the real truth behind and beyond the apparent truth.  Nothing about Jesus is false and hypocritical.  It is good to end this section with the immortal words of Jesus,

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111 Matthew 12: 7; repeated in Mark 2:16-17

112 Matthew 6:33; repeated in Luke 12:31

113 John 4:24

114 John 3:5b and 8

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Beware of practicing your Piety before others in order to be seen by them... So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets... And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners... But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father...  When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words... And whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. 116

In the name of spirituality one must not indulge in externalism and exhibitionism.  Therefore, there is a big difference between Pharisaic spirituality and Jesus’ spirituality. All human beings have the inclination to make a show of spirituality.  This was the bane of even the early Church. Paul’s letter pinpoints the problem when he categorically states, “holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power”.117 This particular text has been variously translated, such as, “holding the form of religion...”; “they will maintain a facade of religion but deny its truth”; “keep up the outward appearance of religion but will have rejected the inner power of it”; “they will go to church yes, they won’t believe anything they hear”; “preserve the outward form of religion, but are a standing denial of its reality”. Obviously, Paul comprehended very well the depth and dimension of Jesus’ spirituality.  It has to do with the whole of life and all of life. God in Jesus demonstrated this in his life and action.         

 

THEOLOGICAL-ETHICAL AFFIRMATION

God in Jesus demands holiness and righteousness in terms of justice and liberation.  For this one must be willing to wage a struggle against people and forces that deny and dehumanise. From the total Biblical corpus we learn that spirituality does not encourage martyr-mania or martyr-complex.  Today’s martyrs must be

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115 John. 15:26; 16:12-13; 14:17

116 Matthew 6:l-2a, 5a, 7 and 16

117 II Timothy 3:5

 

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 willing to live and fight for the rights of humanity. God in Jesus is a historical-social being and as such spirituality is not an escape or running away from the world but be willing to resist and fight forces which seek to debilitate and destroy life in all its fullness or wholeness.  Spirituality is not selfishness, meaning that we hanker for our own salvation in isolation or apart from others - withdrawing into our own ‘cocoon’ existence.  Spirituality is engagement, involvement and even confrontation for the sake of freedom, justice and peace.  In our spirituality we must avoid and categorically reject dualism between social and spiritual or physical and spiritual; between immanence and transcendence; between the historical and the eternal.  God of the Bible is an incarnational God.  God becomes identified with and involved in the affairs of the world.  Spirituality must inculcate in us the sense of the divine and give us the signals of transcendence in our daily life.  In the name of spirituality, as much as we do not indulge in dualism, we should not be involved in reductionism.  This sense of the divine or transcendence will enable us to be objective and fair in our dealings with people and forces.  It will help us not to idolise any of the historical movements of resistance or revolution.  It must make us critical, prophetic and liberating in attitude and action.

 

QUESTIONS FOR GROUP DISCUSSION

 Examine carefully the story of the Mount of Transfigurations recorded in Luke 9:28-36 or Matthew 17:l-8 or Mark 9:2-8. Do you think that this experience of transfiguration helped them with their experience in the valley of disfiguration?

 Look at the Parable of the Good Samaritan as documented in Luke 10:29-37.  What can you learn about spirituality from this story?

 How relevant is the Biblical spirituality to the modern world particularly to the changing Asia?

 

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FIELD STUDY

Make an empirical study of spirituality as practised and promoted in your church by your Pastor and parishioners.  Make sure that you approach the cross-section of your congregation - young/old; boys/girls; women/men; well to do/not so well to do etc.  Suggest some concrete steps to improve the character of their spirituality, leading to a spirituality of resistance.

 

QUOTATIONS FOR GROUP AND PERSONAL REFLECTION:

Spirituality, in the strict and profound sense of the word is the dominion of the Spirit.  Spirituality is a concrete manner, inspired by the Spirit, of living the Gospel.  This is a spirituality that dares to sink roots in the soil of oppression-liberation.  A spirituality of liberation will centre on a conversion to the neighbour, the oppressed person, the exploited social class.  Our conversion to the Lord implies this conversion to the neighbour.  Therefore, the Good News cannot be domesticated, made static and devitalised.

The freedom of God, even though it means the freedom of the love of God, does not make humans happy.  Humans want to control and domesticate God.  Humans want to confine God in some definite place.  They put God in a cage, as it were, with inspiring ceremonies and praises! God is thus ‘grounded’ (localised) in the temple and this arrangement gives the human an opportunity to commercialise his grace.  Special ‘sacred persons’ are assigned to the temple to retail and distribute the ‘tamed’ grace of God to the people.  Attachment to a ‘sacred temple’ can produce an extraordinary lie!  Jeremiah saw this (7:4) and so also Jesus. (Mark 13: l-2).

 

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Spirituality is to adopt the perspective of the poor, the marginalized, and the dis-empowered victims of the established system. Spirituality is responsibility for and with those peoples. The word ‘spiritual’ seems to exclude a priori all material reality and activities bound up with matter and its processes.  It suggests the immaterial, the interior, and the other- worldly.  The spirituality should trace its way back to the Hebrew, ruah, the breath of God, the wind of God, the energy and the power of God.  Spiritual life is human life, the whole of human life inspired by and led by the Spirit, the energizing presence and activity of God.  That avoids individualism, dualism and elitism.

Spirituality calls us to make alliance with strange comrades-in-arms in a war against powers and principalities. It calls upon the church to political and cultural action, not in order to assume a permanent leadership and control of the society, but as its stringent critic, to blast its illusions and make it face the responsibility to be itself, to undertake the hard and human work of building a society of free women and men.  We will meet God in the midst of the awakened, oppressed people.

 

REFERENCES

‘Spirituality and Human Liberation’ in Voices from the Third World, Vol. X, No. 3, September 1987.

Fabella, Viginia, Lee, Peter K.H., and Kwang-sun Suh, David (ed.), Asian Christian Spirituality: Reclaiming Traditions, 1992.

Poulose Mar Poulose, Spirituality for Struggle 1999.

Somen Das, Christian Spirituality and Indian Reality, 1988.