“The fly that touches honey cannot use its wings;
so the soul that clings to spiritual sweetness
ruins its freedom and hinders contemplation.”
- St. John of the Cross -
This is just what I needed to read (which in itself sets off some internal alarms.) The vast majority of my time I do not *feel* close to God, I do not *hear* the sweet music of spirituality over the hum of the engines of my life on steady course. But I can be assured that the steady hum is spiritual music of its own prosaic sort. When I think about it, that is..
I know people who are addicted to the candles and incense and music and all the sweet feelings that a superficially sensual spirituality can inspire. I’ve been known to lapse into that trap where I think I must *feel* spiritual to *be* spiritual. It’s that trap which makes me a prime target for commercialized feel-good new-age spiritual hucksterism. It’s that trap which makes me question my interest in Buddhism because of its behind the curve candle shop curio trendiness.
It’s an attitude that makes me not look for the spirit in the depths of dishwater, dirty nappies, and dingy laundry.
One of my priest friends said some thing to me recently that I just had to write down. He said it’s his job as a priest to make mundane stuff holy — he takes normal bread and wine and makes it into a sacrament. But then he said that we laypeople have the same job to make mundane stuff holy as well.
The divine can be found in the details of a life lived in Love, but those details are rarely the stuff of veneration and worship. Would you put a diaper on an altar? Only if the diaper genie was full, I guess. :)