Escarez, Joseph Angelo A.
BENE2
4-BLM Wed 3:00-4:00
I. SPIRITUALITY DEFINED:
Spirituality is a broad concept with room for many perspectives. In general, it includes a sense of
connection to something bigger than ourselves, and it typically involves a search for meaning in
life. As such, it is a universal human experience—something that touches us all. People may
describe a spiritual experience as sacred or transcendent or simply a deep sense of aliveness and
interconnectedness.
Some may find that their spiritual life is intricately linked to their association with a church, temple,
mosque, or synagogue. Others may pray or find comfort in a personal relationship with God or a
higher power. Still others seek meaning through their connections to nature or art. Like your sense
of purpose, your personal definition of spirituality may change throughout your life, adapting to
your own experiences and relationships.
EXPERT’S DEFINITION:
Christina Puchalski, MD, Director of the George Washington Institute for Spirituality and Health,
contends that "spirituality is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and
express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to
self, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred."
According to Mario Beauregard and Denyse O’Leary, researchers and authors of The Spiritual
Brain, “spirituality means any experience that is thought to bring the experiencer into contact with
the divine (in other words, not just any experience that feels meaningful).”
Nurses Ruth Beckmann Murray and Judith Proctor Zenter write that “the spiritual dimension tries
to be in harmony with the universe, and strives for answers about the infinite, and comes into focus
when the person faces emotional stress, physical illness, or death.”
II. FABLE AND SYMBOL
FABLE
Judges 9:7-15
Now when they told Jotham, he went and stood on the top of Mount Gerizim, and lifted his voice
and called out. Thus he said to them, "Listen to me, O men of Shechem, that God may listen to
you. "Once the trees went forth to anoint a king over them, and they said to the olive tree, 'Reign
over us!' "But the olive tree said to them, 'Shall I leave my fatness with which God and men are
honored, and go to wave over the trees?'
"Then the trees said to the fig tree, 'You come, reign over us!' "But the fig tree said to them, 'Shall
I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?' "Then the trees said to the
vine, 'You come, reign over us!' "But the vine said to them, 'Shall I leave my new wine, which
cheers God and men, and go to wave over the trees?' "Finally all the trees said to the bramble, 'You
come, reign over us!' "The bramble said to the trees, 'If in truth you are anointing me as king over
you, come and take refuge in my shade; but if not, may fire come out from the bramble and
consume the cedars of Lebanon.'
SYMBOL:
“NATURE”
RATIONALITY:
In nature we see how God created his beauty, when we are near it. We feel the connection with
him. In Isolating ourselves to it, we feel the words of wisdom it tries to embody to us, The message
of life and something transcendental. We feel empowered by the words it speaks to us. In this we
feel as if we only a fraction of the massive creation of God. We feel bless as we can observe this
Incredible sights. Nature has its own means of balance. If you observe nature, you will see that the
five elements that form its basis are opposed to each other. Water destroys fire, fire destroys air.
Then there are so many species in nature — the birds, reptiles, mammals — and all these different
species are hostile towards each other, yet nature balances them out. We need to learn from nature
how to balance opposing forces, both within ourselves and in the world around us. Our connection
with the environment is our first level of experience, and one of the most important. If our
environment is clean and positive, it has a positive impact on all the other layers of our existence.
As a result, they come into balance and we experience a greater sense of peace and connection
within ourselves and with others around us.
Above all, we need to be able to experience our world with an open mind that is free from stress,
and from that place we need to create the means of protecting our beautiful planet Earth. For this
to happen, human consciousness must rise above greed and exploitation. Spirituality, the
experience of one’s own nature deep within, provides the key to this vital relationship with oneself,
with others and with our environment. This connection to our own essential nature eliminates
negative emotions, elevates one’s consciousness and creates a spirit of care and commitment for
the whole planet.
III. SPIRITUAL PERSON
ST. THOMAS AQUINAS
Being-Mysticism
The twentieth-century German theologian Josef Pieper once suggested that Aquinas should have
been known as Friar Thomas of the Creation. For while St. Thomas, as he himself testifies, did
everything out of an unstinting love for the incarnate Son of God, the surpassing riches of Christ
never kept him from drawing the full theological implications of St. Pauls words to the Romans:
Ever since the creation of the world Gods invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has
been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. As the Catholic faith teaches that the
created order witnesses to the existence of a God who entirely surpasses every form of finiteness
and contingency, Aquinas can argue that the human experience of transcendence is founded on the
causal relationships that bind the created person with the Creator. By appeal to the real distinction
in created beings between their specific identity (essentia) and their actual existence (esse),
Aquinas unequivocally excludes all forms of pantheism or panentheism. St. Thomas instead
describes an ordering that obtains between intellectual creatures and God and that establishes the
basis for a certain kind of justice: Reverence for and submission to an utterly transcendent God are
among the dispositions that religion requires of the human person. Of course, to acknowledge an
acquired virtue of religion in no way prejudices the fact that the only perfect worship of God
remains that which is revealed by Jesus Christ and is practiced in the Church of faith and
sacraments. Aquinas appreciation for creation as providing the basis for an analogical knowledge
of the supernatural order lies at the heart of his Being-mysticism, for which the most celebrated
commentator remains the German Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart (c. 1260-1327).
Bridal-mysticism
Aquinas also would have merited the title Friar Thomas of the Incarnation. For as commentary on
the magisterial documents that affirm the divinity of Jesus Christ, Aquinass discussion of the
metaphysics of the Incarnation ranks among the best in this genre of Christian literature. Aquinas
locates the supreme moment of alliance between God and man in the hypostatic union. In the
person of the Son, a human nature comes together with the divine nature, without either one
thereby suffering division or mixture. As the primordial wedding between God and mankind, the
Incarnation makes a personal relationship between God and human persons possible; for each
member of the human family becomes an adopted son or daughter of God only in the one incarnate
Son. Aquinass Bridal-mysticism emphasizes the intimate communication with God that Christs
mission makes possible for all persons. So while the human person can approach the Creator in a
spirit of reverence and submission, only those who are sons or daughters in Christ dare address
God using the familiar name: Abba, Father. Aquinass explanations about the person and life of
Christ especially his salvific death, his Virgin Mother, his mystical body, which is the Church, and
the sacraments all serve to explain how this privileged form of personal communion with God
begins and develops in the Christian believer. As Aquinass own deathbed prayer witnesses, the
blessed Eucharist preeminently realizes his Incarnation-centered mysticism, for at the moment of
Holy communion the Christian believer is joined with the person of Christ as present under the
sacramental signs of bread and wine. The Sienese Dominican Catherine Benincase (1347-1380),
who, while herself communicating, received a mystical ring as a symbol of her extraordinary
spiritual union with Christ, best represents Aquinass Bridal-mysticism. Moreover, her
indefatigable defense of Christs mystical body points out the ecclesial aspect of communio that
Aquinas assumes as the foundation for all true Christian mysticism.
Knowledge-mysticism
On Aquinass account, the theological virtue of faith is first of all a perfection of the human mind.
Under the impulse of divine grace, God moves the human will to assent to truths that surpass
reasons grasp and for which God therefore serves as the only source and guarantor. But
theological faith also effects a marriage between the human person and God. In one of his short
works, the Exposition on the Decretales to the Archideacon of Todi, Aquinas cites the biblical text
from Hosea, I will espouse thee to me in faith, in order to emphasize the mystical dimension of
Christian belief. Thus, Aquinas teaches that this virtue leads the human person not only to a
cognitive grasp of revealed truth, but also to an authentic embrace of the divine Persons that
such truths represent. The transformation of the human intellect that faith achieves in the
believer is the beginning of the new life that charity establishes in the person. By the gracious
condescension of the divine Goodness, charity makes the human person a lover of God, and this
love reaches its earthly perfection in the affective beholding of God that Aquinas calls
contemplation. For Aquinas, contemplative prayer forms part of the ordinary dynamic of
Christian mysticism. The spiritual elitism that characterizes certain European mystics of the
seventeenth century, such as the Spanish priest Miguel Molinos (c. 1640-1697) and the French
clairvoyant Madame Guyon (1648-1717), finds no support in the works of Thomas Aquinas. On
the contrary, as his teaching about the gifts of the Holy Spirit makes plainly evident, the
theological life of faith and charity develops into a form of habitual connaturality that makes the
felt experience of God a swift matter of ease and joy. Aquinas himself provides a peerless
illustration of this Knowledge-mysticism.
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https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/what-spirituality
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Fables
https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Fables
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sri-sri-ravi-shankar/our-spiritual-connection_b_648379.html
