John 15:1-8
Disconnected Spirituality
 by Rev. Steven G. Oetjen
Reprinted with permission of "The Arlington Catholic Herald"

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John wrote to show that Christ was
the Messiah, the Divine Son of God.

Jesus said to his disciples:  "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.  He takes away every branch in me that does not bear fruit, and every one that does he prunes so that it bears more fruit.  You are already pruned because of the word that I spoke to you.  Remain in me, as I remain you.  Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing.  Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned.  If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask for whatever you want and it will be done for you.  By this is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples."

It is common these days for people to identify as "spiritual but not religious."

The idea is that organized religion is not what is really important.  If it is an "organized religion" according to this view, then it is merely a man-made institution.  What is really to be sought is "spirituality," because that concerns one's connection to God.  If organized religion helps with that, fine.  But doesn't all the man-made stuff just get in the way of my relationship with God?  That is the "spiritual but not religious" attitude in a nutshell.

It is an understandable attitude because it shows an honest desire to get in touch with God without letting anything else get in the way.  But the huge problem with this attitude is that it throws the baby out with the bathwater.  Or, more literally, it throws the divine out with the human.  To dismiss the Catholic Church just because it is an organized institution made up of human beings is to miss the fact that it is not merely a human institution.  Yes, in a sense, the institution is founded by a man.  But that man is Jesus Christ, who is also truly God.

The incarnation is what makes possible our intimate contact with the divine.  God became man and dwelt among us.  It is not that the humanity of Jesus "gets in the way" of the divinity  It is precisely through his sacred humanity that we have real contact with his divinity.  And the incarnation did not end when Jesus ascended into heaven, nor did our ability to have contact with God through the incarnation end when Jesus ascended into heaven.  When he chose his apostles and established the Catholic Church, Christ was extending his incarnation to the whole world in a way that would continue through the centuries.  It is not that the "humanity" of the Catholic Church "gets in the way" of our connection with the divine.  Worship in the sacred liturgy, the sacraments, person-to-person teaching, handing on the faith: it is precisely through these "human" elements that our humanity is given real contact with God.  The Catholic Church, just like her Lord, is "incarnational".  This is precisely the way Jesus established for us to be mystically united to him, and thus united to his Father.  "I am the vine, and you are the branches," he says in today's Gospel.  If we are disconnected, no life flows into us, and we wither.

This should make it abundantly clear that the "spiritual but not religious" attitude is way off the mark.  There is no such thing as a disconnected spirituality.  We are not attached to Christ if we are detached from his church.  The reason for this is simple.  He is the vine and we are the branches.  If we are joined to him we are joined to everyone else who is joined to him.  There is only one Jesus, not a separate Jesus for each one of us.  So, we cannot be in detached isolation from one another.

God gives us a concrete community to be a part of.  Any authentic movement of God's grace within us should lead us to a fuller life of participation within the church, not to an isolated spirituality.  Any authentic spirituality should always lead to greater communion.

It can be tough being a part of a community.  We might not get along with everyone.  And hey, we all need some pruning.  But this is the church, and this is God's design for our salvation, difficulties and all.  Through such a community of faith, so many goods flow.  We are united in Eucharistic worship. We can be challenged by others when we need  be challenged.  We can be inspired by the faithful witness and example of others around us (and the saints who have gone before us).  The community can help break us out of our tendencies toward selfish individualism.  It also provides a certain stability, which can carry us beyond the excitement of initial conversion and through the trials that come in different stages of our lives.  There is time-tested wisdom from religion and a living community in which this faith and spirituality is lived out.  All of these things, and more, are found in the communion of the saints - all the many branches united to Christ, the one true vine.