by Father Robert Lauder

Second in a series

What may appeal to me more than anything else in Evelyn Underhill’s book, “The Spiritual Life” (Morehouse Press, 1937, pp. 127) is Underhill’s attempt to place every human activity under the umbrella of spirituality. A spirituality is not really some attribute added to a person’s life but rather the person’s life itself.

I think many people today feel that they are being torn in several directions. The feeling of being overburdened and of having too many obligations seems to be a relatively widespread experience in our contemporary world. Some people feel as though they can do little to direct their lives.

I know that for years I have strived to keep a unity in my life, to allow what I think is most important to take center stage, and yet, I often feel as though I am being pulled in many different directions. Even though I am a very organized person, or at least I think of myself that way, I know at times I feel frustrated because I am unable to do all I want to do or because I am being pressured to do what I don’t especially want to do.

Living Out the Vision

I think of spirituality as more than a vision of life. I would describe philosophy as a vision of life. Spirituality, I think, is a vision of life and also a living out of that vision. A person can have a beautiful view of what life means but not live up to that vision. Spirituality refers to the actual way that a person lives. It forms and shapes the person’s identity.

Underhill mentions that some people seem to move toward God very rapidly and that a great deal seems to be done for them. In contrast we find that our journey toward God is a long one and a slow one. Underhill writes the following:

“Some appear to be whisked past us in a lift; whilst we find ourselves on a steep flight of stairs with a bend at the top, so that we cannot see how much farther we have to go. But none of this really matters; what matters is the conviction that all are moving towards God, and, in that journey, accompanied, supported, checked and fed by God. Since our dependence on Him is absolute, and our desire is that His Will shall be done, this great desire can gradually swallow up, neutralize all our small self-centered desires. When that happens life, inner and outer, becomes one single, various act of adoration and self-giving; one undivided response of the creature to the demand and pressure of Creative Love.” (pp. 35-36)

Underhill’s vision of what happens to a person who has the conviction that all are moving toward God and that the journey is supported and fed by God is beautiful. She characterizes such a person’s life as an act of adoration. In other words the person’s life of self-giving becomes like a prayer.

I think it is very important that Underhill points out that the demand and pressure placed on us is that of Creative Love. I don’t think that God forces us to do anything. The power that God presents to us is not physical power but rather the power of love. I believe that the strongest force in the world is love, but it isn’t a force that makes something happen necessarily. I have come to believe that love causes freedom.

Unique Opportunity

The power of love is unlike any other power. When someone is loved that person is not moved or directed the way that a robot or puppet might be moved. Rather when someone is loved the one loved can attain a new freedom. I don’t pretend to understand this completely. It involves the mystery of love and the mystery of freedom. The greatest love is also the most creative love, and what is being created is the freedom of the beloved. If the one loved accepts the love bestowed, then the beloved has a unique opportunity to become more free.

All love can free those who are loved. God’s love is the most powerful love and so can be the most creative. When God’s love is accepted, those who accept that love can become saints. The freedom that God creates in those who accept His love is the freedom to love in return, to love both God and others.

A person who has been receptive to God, Who is Creative Love, will have a unity in his or her life. The center of the human person will be flooded with God’s Love, and the person should be able to approach all activities, both the obviously sacred and the seemingly mundane, with God’s love as the light and energy directing the person’s free commitments.[hr] Father Robert Lauder, a priest of the Diocese of Brooklyn and philosophy professor at St. John’s University, Jamaica, writes a weekly column for the Catholic Press.