As I travelled back to the archdiocese last weekend, I was caught by the tropical storm and its inevitable results: delayed flights, missed connections and a great deal of time in various airports.

So what did I do? Well, I prayed, I studied, I read and I watched hundreds of other people who were also inconvenienced by the storm.

I noticed that many of the people were families returning home for the opening of the school year or college students heading for institutions of higher learning.

As I watched the people, I wondered how many of them were believers, how many followed an explicit spirituality and how many of them had a value system that was motivated by their spirituality.

Since many were obviously heading back to school, I wondered whether the schools at which they would study and learn the rules of socialisation would support or challenge their spirituality and values.

As I watched the parents, I wondered about what keeps them going and whether they had a quality lifestyle filled with purpose and meaning flowing from their spirituality and chosen careers.

I watched the senior citizens with a special interest since I am a senior citizen myself. I wondered about how active and holistically fulfilling their lives were, whether their memories were a source of consolation for them and whether they were at peace.  

All those questions about how to live the one life we have been given to live prompted me to use the six and a half hour layover in Miami to begin outlining this column in my mind.

A Catholic perspective on life

I use the word Catholic as a context for the word perspective in this column because most people who read the Catholic News follow the Catholic tradition. Other religious traditions and philosophical approaches to life must also address the same issues but they must do so within their own context.

The Catholic perspective has always taught that living a full life means living in relationship: relationship with God, self and others.  The Catholic tradition insists that living in relational isolation is not in accord with God’s creative plan for the human person and will not lead to happiness.

The Catholic perspective is not just pious theory. It is about wisdom – knowing how to live your life. For example, it addresses the very challenging contemporary pastoral problem of individualism. It offers a practical corrective to individualism and a hopeful alternative to the radical, holistic loneliness that eventually flows from individualism.

Individualism not only influences people to understand themselves according to subjective preferences and feelings, it also undermines their ability for making and keeping commitments to others. The “self” becomes the norm for living.

While it is true that individualism may co-exist with considerable secular success, financial independence and personal comfort, it is equally true that it will not bring meaning and joy to life. By the will of God life must be relational. This Catholic perspective on life reflects and communicates biblical wisdom.

Recommendation: As you think about your life, reflect on its relational aspects.

The spiritual implications of the Catholic perspective

The Catholic tradition is extraordinarily profound in its foundations, spirituality and theological content. It has sustained people for centuries and even today, when secularisation is so very influential globally and new age spiritualities are being used by many who are searching for meaning in their lives, the Catholic tradition still touches the hearts and lives of people.

It offers clarity, guides people in times of confusion and supports growth in the relationship that every person must have with God and with the community of God’s People.

The challenge is to develop access in one’s life to the Catholic tradition. Unfortunately, this is the dimension of faith living that many Catholic people do not pursue with sufficient vigour.

They have no personal, sustained access to the tradition. Obviously, if there is little access, the tradition will have little or no influence over thinking, decision-making and living.

Access to the Catholic tradition can come in many forms. The witness of believing and practicing Catholics, participating in courses/discussions on prayer and liturgy that are followed up by groups who pray and celebrate in a persevering manner are just two examples of access.

Sacred music as a background for reflection is another example of access, the interactive use of the Internet, video tapes and DVDs on specific spiritual topics provide other examples of access. The point is there must be access to the tradition and it must be sustained if it is to be an effective force for living.

Recommendation: As you think about your life, reflect on whether you have sustained personal access to the Catholic Tradition.

The moral implications of the Catholic perspective

The link between moral living and spirituality is intrinsic to the Christian life. God’s Law communicates wisdom. Christ gives us insight into the plan of God and shows us how we are to understand ourselves.

The believer’s response is Christian living. In a troubled world, the teaching of Jesus clarifies for us what is true and fully human. Jesus must be accepted with trust.

Church teaching makes explicit for us the need for grace obtained through prayer that makes possible the self-surrender and discipline required for Christian living. 

How people live their lives reveals their value system not only to others but even to themselves. Unfortunately, many people do not think in terms of personal accountability to anything outside of themselves. Terrible evil, both personal and social, has resulted from that pattern of thinking! The Catholic perspective proclaims the opposite: we belong to the Lord in life and in death.

Recommendation: As you think about your life, reflect on whether the connection between spirituality and moral living is receiving the attention it deserves.  
 
A final thought

If the Catholic perspective for life is to guide us through life, then, similar to life itself, it must receive continual attention. 

There is no guarantee that the Catholic perspective for life will be a permanent reality in our lives. The new evangelisation called for by Pope John Paul II was and is still directed at all the people who were once members of the Church.

For various reasons, they have changed their minds. Each of us must respect the potential of that statistic. On the positive side, we must also be encouraged by the significant number of people who enter the Church each year because they find the Catholic perspective so appealing.