Spiritual, religious and other shades in that wonderful rainbow

(First of two parts)

Last week, we talked about the different paths towards the Divine. The three drawbridges were: The Path of Belief, the Path of Disbelief and the Path of Independence. Let’s chat about the other three. (Yes. I like to pretend that I’m having coffee with readers. It’s more fun that way.)

The Path of Return

This path is becoming more popular, thanks in no small part to our dear Pope Francis. People who are on this path typically have religious backgrounds but have moved away from their faith. However, they have had a unique and significant experience that led them back to their faith. And they usually become marvellous defenders of the faith.

I met a nun in Cebu who was a returnee to the Catholic faith. She was born into a Catholic family, but moved away because her heart just didn’t agree with some of its tenets. She became a minister in another faith, got married, had a son, became a widow, became an author and had a grandson. Then, in her fifties, she was in Assisi as a tourist and because she had always loved St. Francis. While there, she had a moment of conversion and sought out the Sacrament of Reconciliation upon her return to the United States. It was her first confession after 30 years.

God must have sent the most cool priest to hear her confession because after giving her absolution, he flung open the doors and the confessional, exclaiming “Welcome back!!” and enveloped her in a bear hug. She is now a diocesan nun in Cebu, in her 60s. She loves God with a searing ferocity and calmly explains the faith to all who have questions and all who seeks answers.

The Path of Exploration

One who travels that path of exploration may discover a tradition that is suited to their understanding of God, their idea of community or even their own personality. As Fr. James Martin, SJ writes: “Explorers may also be grateful for what they have found and are not as likely to take their communities for granted. The most grateful pilgrim is the one who has finished the longest journey.” But take heed, because if “the path becomes the goal, rather than God” one may find themselves lost, unheard and continuously, well, adrift.

The Path of Confusion

The final path intersects all the other paths at various points. People on the path of confusion “run hot and cold with their childhood faith”. Those on this path have not made up their minds about their faith, and so they are constantly refining their ideas about a religious commitment. They may pray intermittently, go to services on key holidays or approach God in dark times. But finding and seeking God is regarded as a worry, an inconvenience and a problem.

The main benefit of this path is that it often helps people to refine their childhood faith. But confusion can lead to the steady dwindling of zeal and plain, garden-variety laziness.

So how? What now?

There are six paths presented, and there may be others out there. I write this because it is heresy in itself to think that only one is the sure path towards God. Ultimately, faith is a grace from God. No one path is better than the other, nor more secure, or more deserving of reciprocity from God’s love. Maybe this piece is a call, a “panawagan” to be inclusive, and to avoid being dismissive when meeting other pilgrims.

Wasn’t Dorothy Day, who started the Catholic Worker movement, once an activist and a troubled teen? Didn’t St. Ignatius have a criminal record for nighttime brawling (a.k.a Barumbado)? And wasn’t Thomas Merton on The Path of Exploration before he entered the Trappist Monastery or as he calls it: “The four walls of my new freedom.” And wasn’t it St. Augustine of Hippo who said, “Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.” (This quote deserves a path of its own!)

These paths are never linear or permanent, but rather dynamic and malleable. However, it takes a co-pilgrim to change the course of another pilgrim’s path. When someone’s path collides with yours, where will you take them?