Our understanding of spirituality constantly keeps evolving. There was a time when 'saints' were those who did plenty of physical mortification and sacrifices. I wonder if today someone cuts and whips and lashes oneself, be considered for canonization.
The parable of the good Samaritan too is a significant call to recognize spirituality in the times. The priest and Levite who passed by the injured Samaritan, were not bad people. They did not actually harm attack and injure him; they merely kept the law. Their spirituality consisted in following the law. If the prevalent Old Testament interpretation had emphasized more on the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law, perhaps we'd today have the parable of the 'Good priest' - the Samaritan would not have had the opportunity to help the injured! Jesus, in offering a more humane interpretation of serving God, adds the directive 'Go and do likewise' to the existing interpretation and understanding.
In this regard I don't see very many cloistered religious being recognized as saints and canonized as before. Not that they are less spiritual today but the understanding of spirituality today is more as 'engagement with the world' than 'fuga mundi'. However this will be a very narrow interpretation of spirituality, for in the same passage of the parable, we read...
The parable of the good Samaritan too is a significant call to recognize spirituality in the times. The priest and Levite who passed by the injured Samaritan, were not bad people. They did not actually harm attack and injure him; they merely kept the law. Their spirituality consisted in following the law. If the prevalent Old Testament interpretation had emphasized more on the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law, perhaps we'd today have the parable of the 'Good priest' - the Samaritan would not have had the opportunity to help the injured! Jesus, in offering a more humane interpretation of serving God, adds the directive 'Go and do likewise' to the existing interpretation and understanding.
In this regard I don't see very many cloistered religious being recognized as saints and canonized as before. Not that they are less spiritual today but the understanding of spirituality today is more as 'engagement with the world' than 'fuga mundi'. However this will be a very narrow interpretation of spirituality, for in the same passage of the parable, we read...
You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself... do this and you will live.Love and do!
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