Sacrament, Fidelity and Love

Sister Joan Chittister is a Benedictine nun who writes prolifically and co-heads Tikkun, the spiritual hub with Rabbi Michael Lerner. After listening to her a new notion opened for me of the nature of sacrament and the confusion that may drive our current political orientation.

She points out that it can be extremely difficult to make the distinction that listening and learning from other faiths (if one is, say, Catholic, or any other defined religion) is not obviously right. The idea is that for many devout people, it seems as though any exposure to or interest in the doctrines of other faiths would be an act of infidelity. This made me think about this term: infidelity. In my world it is usually related to the faithfulness one brings to a sexual partnership. But the word "infidel" is also a variation of infidelity--and it could be reasoned that a Catholic who read the Torah or studies the Talmud is an infidel.

Her position is rather more interesting. There are not, she says, Gods. Instead, there is God--and we are all moving toward that possibility. When we learn others' doctrines it can act to deepen our own faith, to illuminate our own hearts. It can be, for us, a sacrament; that is, something which brings forth the sacred.

This is how I see my own immersion and quest for the sacred. It isn't doctrine that I am looking to embrace, and conversion to anything is no option. But the doctrines and their articulations often deepen my experience of grace, and allow me, in my un-religious existence, to witness the sacrament of love. In that way, I am reaching for a divine way of being--and perhaps, that reaching is the ultimate act of fidelity. Contrastingly, when I am lost and in despair, separate from God and from grace, perhaps that is when I lapse into infidelity. I am unfaithful to my own spirit.