As religion becomes more ritualized, does its spiritual message become obscured?

[meltzerboy]

My own religion, Judaism, is sometimes accused of containing too many rituals and being more interested in the letter of the Law than the spirit of the Law. One of the responses to this accusation is that G-d gave us the Law as a token of His love and that it should always be practiced in the spirit of love, never mechanistically, by rote or habit, or with a sense of obligation or burden divorced from spirituality. Catholicism also has its rituals based on its Canon Law, just as Judaism has its Torah Law and Islam its Sharia Law. My question is, do you think that strict adherence to the detailed legal obligations of a religion, regardless of which one, for all its benefits with respect to instructing us on how we may better lead a moral life, also has a tendency to obscure its spiritual message?

 

[KendraDZ1902]

Personally, I’m a rule follower. It is easier for me to follow the rules of Catholicism than it is to “go with my gut.” Yes, I have “felt” God’s presence, per se. Prayer calms me, but I was never good at being a protestant because it just seemed like so much wasn’t set in stone. Sometimes being spiritual has too many feelings involved which can cloud the mind. But that’s just me.

 

[Usige]

Possibly. I think the issue is when people only learn the rules without learning the foundation the rules are built on. I would assume the rituals in Judaism, like Catholicism, actually have a deep spiritual basis; say a physical reflection of a spiritual reality. Unfortunately in Catholicism few learn or remember what the physical actions reflect. The reason for the rules and rituals get lost and become mechanical.

My pastor was just reflecting on this last week. He spoke about how many Catholics do things without understanding why. As he said our religious education is like a 3rd grader. Young children need to learn the habits, but as they mature the need to understand why. It is that next phase of understanding that is often lacking.

 

[McatholicN]

 

[PietroPaolo]

My own religion, Judaism, is sometimes accused of containing too many rituals and being more interested in the letter of the Law than the spirit of the Law. One of the responses to this accusation is that G-d gave us the Law as a token of His love and that it should always be practiced in the spirit of love, never mechanistically, by rote or habit, or with a sense of obligation or burden divorced from spirituality. Catholicism also has its rituals based on its Canon Law, just as Judaism has its Torah Law and Islam its Sharia Law. My question is, do you think that strict adherence to the detailed legal obligations of a religion, regardless of which one, for all its benefits with respect to instructing us on how we may better lead a moral life, also has a tendency to obscure its spiritual message?

Only when its “spiritual message” is watered down and distorted. For example, if you take the “spiritual message” of Christianity to be “God loves you, Jesus is nice, be nice to each other” then you might see the ritual of the Mass or the obligations of the moral law as “obscuring” this message. But, that isn’t the message at all. The real message includes sin and repentance (i.e. living a moral life) and proper worship (i.e. ritual). Can some people follow the law without love (like the Pharisees in the NT)? Of course, but that doesn’t put a black eye on ritual, but on lovelessness As Aquinas would say, abusus non tollit usum - Abuse does not preclude proper use.

 

[SuscipeMeDomine]

Interesting question. I’m sort of thinking out loud here so this isn’t well thought out.

I think people definitely can get caught up in the law and lose sight for its reason. I think that we can also get caught up in wondering how close to the line we can get without crossing it and breaking the law. (As an example, the law says Catholics must attend Mass on Sunday. And I see many questions here about “how late can I arrive and meet my obligation?” or “if I attend a 1pm wedding Mass on Saturday does that meet my Sunday obligation?” Clearly the emphasis isn’t on worshiping God or keeping the day holy, it’s how close can someone come without crossing the line.)

At the same time, the law gives guidelines that are important. If Sunday comes and I feel like sleeping late or going to brunch or watching sports – anything but going to Mass – knowing that I am obligated to attend may give me the push I need to get to church.

The third thought that crosses my mind is that the law can be used to exclude people and I think that can be dangerous. Individuals sometimes want to be judge and jury about who is or is not a good Catholic (or a Catholic in good standing). It can be tempting to want to close the circle to those who don’t meet our standards, but I don’t think that’s what we’re called to do. We need to change hearts and minds, not shut people out. If we exclude them, we’ll never have the opportunity to change their hearts.

 

[Neofight]

My own religion, Judaism, is sometimes accused of containing too many rituals and being more interested in the letter of the Law than the spirit of the Law. One of the responses to this accusation is that G-d gave us the Law as a token of His love and that it should always be practiced in the spirit of love, never mechanistically, by rote or habit, or with a sense of obligation or burden divorced from spirituality. Catholicism also has its rituals based on its Canon Law, just as Judaism has its Torah Law and Islam its Sharia Law. My question is, do you think that strict adherence to the detailed legal obligations of a religion, regardless of which one, for all its benefits with respect to instructing us on how we may better lead a moral life, also has a tendency to obscure its spiritual message?

The pope just recently spoke of this…I don’t think many people heard or listened to it, though.

It does, but only if individuals let it. You can see a lot of that here, daily on CAF.

 

[robwar]

Interesting question. I’m sort of thinking out loud here so this isn’t well thought out.

I think people definitely can get caught up in the law and lose sight for its reason. I think that we can also get caught up in wondering how close to the line we can get without crossing it and breaking the law. (As an example, the law says Catholics must attend Mass on Sunday. And I see many questions here about “how late can I arrive and meet my obligation?” or “if I attend a 1pm wedding Mass on Saturday does that meet my Sunday obligation?” Clearly the emphasis isn’t on worshiping God or keeping the day holy, it’s how close can someone come without crossing the line.)

At the same time, the law gives guidelines that are important. If Sunday comes and I feel like sleeping late or going to brunch or watching sports – anything but going to Mass – knowing that I am obligated to attend may give me the push I need to get to church.

The third thought that crosses my mind is that the law can be used to exclude people and I think that can be dangerous. Individuals sometimes want to be judge and jury about who is or is not a good Catholic (or a Catholic in good standing). It can be tempting to want to close the circle to those who don’t meet our standards, but I don’t think that’s what we’re called to do. We need to change hearts and minds, not shut people out. If we exclude them, we’ll never have the opportunity to change their hearts.

you are very well thought out

 

[MaryT777]

Only when its “spiritual message” is watered down and distorted. For example, if you take the “spiritual message” of Christianity to be “God loves you, Jesus is nice, be nice to each other” then you might see the ritual of the Mass or the obligations of the moral law as “obscuring” this message. But, that isn’t the message at all. The real message includes sin and repentance (i.e. living a moral life) and proper worship (i.e. ritual). Can some people follow the law without love (like the Pharisees in the NT)? Of course, but that doesn’t put a black eye on ritual, but on lovelessness As Aquinas would say, abusus non tollit usum - Abuse does not preclude proper use.

 

[robwar]

Only when its “spiritual message” is watered down and distorted. For example, if you take the “spiritual message” of Christianity to be “God loves you, Jesus is nice, be nice to each other” then you might see the ritual of the Mass or the obligations of the moral law as “obscuring” this message. But, that isn’t the message at all. The real message includes sin and repentance (i.e. living a moral life) and proper worship (i.e. ritual). Can some people follow the law without love (like the Pharisees in the NT)? Of course, but that doesn’t put a black eye on ritual, but on lovelessness As Aquinas would say, abusus non tollit usum - Abuse does not preclude proper use.

The spiritual message of God is love nothing else matters used to be called sloppy agape.
There use to be a saying “God loves you but loves you too much to let you stay that way”.
Which fits what you are saying in that yes God is love but that love includes repentance from sin, a change in your life, proper worship. Sadly people swing from one extreme to the other without the balance of spirit of the law and the ritual or letter of the law.

 

[PietroPaolo]

The spiritual message of God is love nothing else matters used to be called sloppy agape.
There use to be a saying “God loves you but loves you too much to let you stay that way”.
Which fits what you are saying in that yes God is love but that love includes repentance from sin, a change in your life, proper worship. Sadly people swing from one extreme to the other without the balance of spirit of the law and the ritual or letter of the law.

“Sloppy agape”

 

[St_Francis]

My own religion, Judaism, is sometimes accused of containing too many rituals and being more interested in the letter of the Law than the spirit of the Law. One of the responses to this accusation is that G-d gave us the Law as a token of His love and that it should always be practiced in the spirit of love, never mechanistically, by rote or habit, or with a sense of obligation or burden divorced from spirituality. Catholicism also has its rituals based on its Canon Law, just as Judaism has its Torah Law and Islam its Sharia Law. My question is, do you think that strict adherence to the detailed legal obligations of a religion, regardless of which one, for all its benefits with respect to instructing us on how we may better lead a moral life, also has a tendency to obscure its spiritual message?

I have re impression you have taken natural law, ritual, and temporary laws of God (which might be called disciplines) and put them all in one pot and asked about them as if they are all the same. Maybe I didn’t catch what you were trying to say…

Anyway, when it comes to ritual, i think of things we do for God, which we should do in a way pleasing to Him. For Catholics, I think we sometimes forget that ultimately what we do is for God, in the way that when a concert pianist plays, he is playing for the audience. And in the same way, we want to do our best for God and even practice so we can improve.

So to me, rituals and their components are important to do well in that respect. Again from the Catholic perspective, we should be striving for an ideal, which may sometimes involve accepting limitations, for example, a Mass performed outside during war. But we should not accept abuses, which are purposeful deviations for human reasons.

Natural law is important to adhere to. We should be doing what we can to eliminate tye scourge of abortion, for instance. However, we must do it in a way that helps people to become closer to God. For this reason, I think that educating and using pictures of unborn babies in the womb have been very good. Stalin’s idea of forbidding abortion when population growth was important was not a good idea because then he allowed it when population growth was not important.

And disciplines are good for humans. They may be teaching tools, they may be reminders to us of God, but we should keep their primary purpose in mind. As you may know, for centuries the Church had the discipline of not eating meat on Fridays. So each time we ate on Fridays, theoretically, we were reminded of Christ’s sufferings for us.

When meat became more common and less of a cause for celebration, the Church modified the rule so we could do something else, but we were still supposed to follow the spirit of the discipline–to recall more intensely Christ’s act of redeeming us.

 

[robwar]

Metzerboy,
how is this issue discussed in Judaism between the reformed which would look at the spirit of the law to the Orthodox which seem to focus on strict observance?

 

[Charlemagne_III]

My question is, do you think that strict adherence to the detailed legal obligations of a religion, regardless of which one, for all its benefits with respect to instructing us on how we may better lead a moral life, also has a tendency to obscure its spiritual message?

The spiritual message is not obscured, but rather emphasized by the rituals. It’s when you get far far away from the rituals that the spiritual message tends to get obscured. When people stop going to church, they have little to remind them of the mandate to be spiritual, and the unspiritual distractions take over and tend to obscure the spiritual.

That is why ritual seems to be endemic in all religions, in some more so than in others.

Some people do take ritual as spirituality. They have no understanding or wisdom and need somehow to be shaken up.

 

[meltzerboy]

Metzerboy,
how is this issue discussed in Judaism between the reformed which would look at the spirit of the law to the Orthodox which seem to focus on strict observance?

That demarcation is slightly misleading (of course, not intentionally on your part). As I suggested in the OP, the letter of the law is supposed to be kept with an eye toward its spirit. So that, as another poster mentioned with regard to Catholicism, it should not be a question of what can I get away with regarding missing Mass based on the letter of the law, but rather how can I best serve G-d by making every effort to attend Mass and, if I cannot, seek forgiveness from G-d. However, I have found that people of all streams of Judaism, not just the Orthodox, have a tendency to lapse into the letter rather than the spirit of the law by means of habit, thinking they have fulfilled their obligation by obeying the law as written. I’m sure this way of thinking can be found among Catholics as well. As a Reform Jew, I tend to interpret Scripture from the perspective of the spirit of the law more than the letter; however, the most Orthodox Jews, including those well-versed in the study of Kabbalah, also do this by trying to understand and practice both.

 

[Iron_Donkey]

My own religion, Judaism, is sometimes accused of containing too many rituals and being more interested in the letter of the Law than the spirit of the Law. One of the responses to this accusation is that G-d gave us the Law as a token of His love and that it should always be practiced in the spirit of love, never mechanistically, by rote or habit, or with a sense of obligation or burden divorced from spirituality. Catholicism also has its rituals based on its Canon Law, just as Judaism has its Torah Law and Islam its Sharia Law. My question is, do you think that strict adherence to the detailed legal obligations of a religion, regardless of which one, for all its benefits with respect to instructing us on how we may better lead a moral life, also has a tendency to obscure its spiritual message?

Not necessarily. I suppose it is possible if the laws/rituals are poorly constructed, but my own experience is that the they can also guide us into a better understanding of things in general. I suppose it depends on the specifics.

Of course, even if the laws and rituals were perfect, it is possible for someone to focus on them in such a way that they miss other things, but this wouldn’t be built into the laws/rituals, but rather a consequence of that whole people are imperfect thing. So they can become a distraction, but I don’t think that is due to any inherent part of ritualness or similar.

 

[Charlemagne_III]

Ritual can defeat its purpose if it is not clear what the ritual stands for. Ignorance of ritual is the start of a downward path of spirituality. I am thinking, for example, of the old Latin Mass, which was full of obscure ritual that hardly anyone could understand, perhaps even the priest whose Latin may never have been all that up-to-par. I still don’t understand why some Catholics (who weren’t even alive when the Latin Mass was required) want to go back to it.

Recently our parish priest spent four Sundays using his homily to explain all the ritual and some of the history of the Mass. That was a month of spiritual epiphany for many, I think.

 

[robwar]

That demarcation is slightly misleading (of course, not intentionally on your part). As I suggested in the OP, the letter of the law is supposed to be kept with an eye toward its spirit. So that, as another poster mentioned with regard to Catholicism, it should not be a question of what can I get away with regarding missing Mass based on the letter of the law, but rather how can I best serve G-d by making every effort to attend Mass and, if I cannot, seek forgiveness from G-d. However, I have found that people of all streams of Judaism, not just the Orthodox, have a tendency to lapse into the letter rather than the spirit of the law by means of habit, thinking they have fulfilled their obligation by obeying the law as written. I’m sure this way of thinking can be found among Catholics as well. As a Reform Jew, I tend to interpret Scripture from the perspective of the spirit of the law more than the letter; however, the most Orthodox Jews, including those well-versed in the study of Kabbalah, also do this by trying to understand and practice both.

thank-you for your response and I didn’t want to mischaracterize Orthodox Jews. I think there is a similar comparison between more liberal minded Protestants with those that would be more evangelical/fundamentalist. Growing up in the Methodist Church, the emphasis was more on the spirit of the Bible as opposed to a more literalists view of Scripture. There seems that there is a need or balance between both ritual and its importance and then the underlining meaning or purpose behind it or “the spirit of the law”.
I think that was St. Paul’s point in the famous love passage in First Corinthians. where someone can do all the right things but if they “have not love” they are nothing.