Sometimes the Scripture is approached as if Jesus was an authoritarian parent, giving us demanding lists of do’s and don’ts. As I was listening to the readings at daily Mass on Wednesday, and to the priest’s beautiful homily that followed, I could see how someone might only hear the do’s and don’ts. Don’t blow trumpets when you give alms, do give alms in secret; don’t pray on the street corners, do pray in your inner room; don’t neglect your appearance when you fast, do anoint your head with oil. *** My first instinct towards this way of receiving the scripture was reactionary and negative, like the whole point would be missed and the gospel misunderstood.
Moral & Spiritual Development
Yet as I reflected further, in regards to moral development and the maturation of the soul, solid parental rules are the best place to start (although authoritative parenting is considered the best, not authoritarian, but that’s another blog post…). When we are just beginning to learn morals as young children, according to Kohlberg’s Moral Development Theory, we learn what is right and wrong in a black and white way, pending consequence and punishment. Early moral motivation is also very ego-centric, according to natural developmental stages. It’s necessary for children to develop a healthy ego. So perhaps in regards to interpreting scripture and learning Christian morals, hearing Christ’s word through a rule-based filter isn’t necessarily a bad thing – it’s just a starting place.
However, it is just a starting place: a beginning point that should act as the basis of eventual higher spiritual and moral development. As children advance through Kohlberg’s moral stages, they learn to base right/wrong action based on broader social principles, on the “Golden Rule” of reciprocation, and eventually on the basis of a “social contract.” We start to move beyond our own needs and ego to consider other’s well being.
The last stage of moral development, which Kohlberg said most people don’t ever reach, is one where right/wrong action is based on universal principles and intrinsic motivation; individuals in this stage are committed to upholding the universal principals even when they suffer unjust punishment by laws that violate these universal principles. Furthermore, Kohlberg says that children don’t “skip” stages; you have to grow through each stage sequentially into the next one.
While there are more recent theories about moral development and significant criticisms of Kohlberg’s research, I think this is a helpful sketch for understanding how people advance in spiritual growth. ** Our soul matures and is capable of greater love and deeper relationship according to how we accept God and humble ourselves to learn from Him. In the beginning, we need the solid black and white parameters to give us a solid base. But after that solid base is established, Christ calls us further. He invites us to embrace the Love and Reason that are behind/above/beyond those rules. For example, last week we heard this very call as Christ says rather than just not commit adultery, let us go above and beyond the mere avoidance of adulterous action to pursue a clean heart and pure thoughts (last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday).
Doodle by Rachel Elisa Gardner
Transparency, Not Hypocrisy
What could those higher levels of spiritual realization look like? In this Wednesday’s gospel, Jesus used the word “hypocrite.” The priest explained how part of the etymology for the word hypocrite is rooted in Greek theatre, and refers to someone who is impersonating someone else, or wearing a mask, merely “acting.” Christ is teaching his disciples how to take off their masks, how to live transparently, free before men and before God. This is the healthiest and the fullest way to live. A Catholic psychologist friend of mine once said that the best therapy is honesty before God. When are honest, we are who we are, nothing more or less. It’s not that our first ego is a bad thing or even a false thing, if we learn to let it be transformed. But when we hold on to those first rules and our first ego and refuse to grow, when we hide behind the mask of our showy moral actions for our own personal glory – then we have become hypocrites, we have invested in a false ego – and we reject our true selves whom Christ calls us to become.
Thus, while we first receive Christ’s teachings as a moral foundation, we are called to eventually follow Him higher, on the real path towards inner freedom. When we go into our “inner rooms” to pray, we are divested from ulterior motives or false pretense not because we are above them, but because we can see through them, to the reality of God. Though in our early years we need to develop a strong and healthy ego, we are eventually called to grow beyond the limits of our ego – not by denying self-interest or indulging in false humility, but by seeing through it. We see through – so we give alms in secret, we pray in our “inner rooms,” and our left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing – our choices and our lives are not motivated any longer by punishment or what other’s think, but by God alone.
With God as our only and primary motivation, our actions can be free, and our love, unhindered. Our spiritual life becomes deeply relational. No masks, no impersonations, just the transparent life of a person who loves God and is guided by His love. Yet in order to grow into such a place of transparency and deep relationship, we have to start at the ground level of learning about sin and grace through healthy guilt and just consequences by following Christ’s word.
On Wednesday when I went up to receive communion after the priest’s homily, I was completely struck but the transparency and sincerity of his face. His old, warm Irish voice, saying “the Body of Christ,” and his kind, caring eyes – he was totally present to me in that moment, not mumbling off a routine or hurrying the line of people along- just present. As he was present, so the Spirit was present, and I saw a glimpse of God, shining transparently through his face.
** Disclaimer: This is mostly where I see the comparison ending. Kohlberg’s model is really about individual’s moral choices before others, before laws, and in regards to society as a whole. It mostly has a horizontal dimension, with the only vertical dimension being this idea of universal ethics. However when we talk about morality in the Christian sense, we must talk about the relationship between individuals, society, and God, so there is a definite vertical element, a vertical relationship with the Person of God.
***Gospel MT 6:1-6, 16-18
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Take care not to perform righteous deeds
in order that people may see them;
otherwise, you will have no recompense from your heavenly Father.
When you give alms, do not blow a trumpet before you,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets
to win the praise of others.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you give alms,
do not let your left hand know what your right is doing,
so that your almsgiving may be secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.“When you pray, do not be like the hypocrites,
who love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on street corners
so that others may see them.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you pray, go to your inner room, close the door,
and pray to your Father in secret.
And your Father who sees in secret will repay you.“When you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites.
They neglect their appearance,
so that they may appear to others to be fasting.
Amen, I say to you, they have received their reward.
But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,
so that you may not appear to others to be fasting,
except to your Father who is hidden.
And your Father who sees what is hidden will repay you.”
