Religion, unlike any other system on the planet, sets out to teach us how to live, how to make choices and come to decisions that are, in the end, eternally good ones. However much religion may have dabbled in other systems along the way, it is not about the governance or economic security or intercultural relationships or the business of national growth. It is the only institution on the planet that makes happiness primary and takes happiness seriously. Religion, in fact, puts happiness first and foremost, beyond everything else on its agenda. Religion purports to be what Aristotle insisted was the very essence of life—the meaning and purpose of life.
The fact is that religion shapes attitudes. It directs us to elements of life that we should be developing, or it closes some of them off to us. It can set out to develop us as moral agents and spiritual adults, or it can suppress the religious imagination to the point of religious servitude.
Cultivating within ourselves the ability to distinguish one response from another has something to do with becoming both psychologically whole and philosophically astute.
What religion teaches us about happiness and how we can achieve it will, in the end, shape our very notions of life and growth. More than that, perhaps, it has the capacity to lead us through the darkness of pain and enable us to recognize pleasures that offer more than dulling boredom or inadequate and immature spiritual development.
The role and place of religion in life have both a personal and social impact. Religion's definition of happiness and the way to achieve it is no small concern for the world. It tells us a great deal about ourselves and even more about the God we believe in but cannot see except, perhaps, in the shadows we cast for one another because of the religions we say we follow.
— from Happiness by Joan Chittister (Eerdmans)
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario