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“More than 76% of the population admit to having had a spiritual or religious experience…”
(The Hay Report, August 2000)
Modern society has become obsessed by wealth and fame. But many people sense that there is a deeper, spiritual side of life, which material wealth and social status can never fulfil. Christians believe that this spiritual side of human life is of vital importance to everyone’s sense of inner peace and wellbeing.
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”
(Saint Augustine, died 430)
Christians believe that God made the world, and that human beings are created in God’s own image. In order to find lasting peace and happiness, therefore, we need to return to the divine source from which we first came. This journey towards God is the heart of Christian spirituality.
“As the deer longs for the water-brooks, so longs my soul for you, O God. My soul is athirst for God, athirst for the living God…”
(Psalm 42.1-2)
According to the Bible God is love, and his love reaches out to embrace each and every one of us. In fact, the central mystery of Christianity is that God contains within himself a divine sharing of love, between Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And it is into this loving relationship that God calls us. It is God’s eternal desire that everyone and everything should share the joy of that perfect love.
“God has made known to us the mystery of his will…as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.”
(Ephesians 1.9-10)
But, however wonderful and inviting that may sound, we often find that our hearts are torn in two. Part of us wants to seek God. Part of us wants to go in search of other things that seem to bring happiness and fulfilment, but which can never truly satisfy our desires. This is an inner struggle that we all experience.
“I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.”
(Romans 7.15)
If we sincerely desire God, we realise that whenever we turn our backs on him, we set up a barrier between us. Christians call this barrier sin. Sin does not stop God from loving us, and to show us this truth, God the Father sent his Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to lead us out of sin and back into a relationship with him.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
(John 3.16)
In the life of Jesus we see the true nature of God, whose love never gives up, even in the face of death. That is why Christians call Jesus God, because in him we recognise the true image and likeness of divine love.
“Jesus said… ‘Whoever has seen me has seen the Father… I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”
(John 14.9-10)
By following Jesus in faith, we are filled with his Spirit of love and led back to our heavenly Father. In this way, we become part of the communion of love that binds together the life of God - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
“God is love, and those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them.”
(1 John 4.16)
But the love that God pours into our hearts is so great that it spills over into the world around us. So it enables us to love other people, and to work to overcome the barriers that separate us from each other. This is the fulfilment of everything Jesus did and taught:
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”
(Mark 12.30-31)
Prayer
O most merciful Friend, Brother and Redeemer; may I know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly day by day.
(Saint Richard of Chichester, died 1283)
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