Why is a part of the new generations tends to stay away from religion organized and sometimes seek spiritual experiences through other paths?
This is the question answered on this occasion by the priest Raúl Humberto Lugo Rodríguezrector of the church of La Candelaria and responsible for the dimension of Faith and Social Commitment of the Social Pastoral of the Archdiocese of Yucatan.
—I think that life is taking its toll on us, because we turn the processes of spiritual initiation into just acquiring content; for example, the preparation of children and adolescents is learning things, it is not the experience of the mystery —admits the priest.
—There are movements that try to catch up, types of catechesis that insist more on experience than on simple learning, but we are still paying the debts of a type of approach to spirituality, which was rather learning by heart about things that you have to do and not do, without anything that encourages the person to be critical, to question things.
What is the greatest danger for religions?
-Then religion becomes commandments that fall on top of people and a good part of the new generations are no longer interested in that —he adds.
For me the greatest danger is that religions fall into irrelevance and, if we are not relevant, we are going to end up serving to celebrate the daughter’s 15th birthday or for you to get married, reducing religion to that.
—I think that the discussion about religion versus spirituality is very motivated by this type of scheme that the churches have not been able to change, we have not entered into that process of adaptationto offer spaces for spiritual experience and not just places where people go as children so that “those who know” tell them what to do or how to behave —he points out.
—In that sense, it seems to me that one of the most important initiatives in the adaptation of religion to today’s world is, indeed, the Pope Francis reform projectwhich places importance on those points that can resonate with the new generations, for example, caring for the environment, integration into a whole that is beyond us.
New worldview and its relationship with God
—The Pope’s beautiful letter on integral ecology, “praise yes‘”, what is much more accepted in other religions and contexts than in the Catholic Church itselfposes important challenges of how to rediscover our role within the created Universe and how this also modifies relationships with God and with others.
—That is, to conceive ourselves, not as the highest point of an evolutionary process, but as a species, among others, with a specific assignment, for its reason and its creative capacity to order, organize, conserve, promote, to be custodians more what patterns.
It may interest you: Pope Francis calls for a compassionate Church against “the religion of appearance”
—If this imprint that we are rediscovering had worked, we would not have this ecosystem debacle, climate change, deforestation. This was based on a model that the religious mind also had, thinking that the human being was above all other creatures and that therefore he was given the freedom to do what he wanted with other things. That is something that the new generations have very much in mind.
—It seems to me that the Pope is really pointing to some things that are important so that the Church gets in tune with this changewhich is also going to happen with the Church, without the Church or against the Church —he emphasizes.
-It is not something that we can stop, it is part of the awareness of humanity and we have to find new ideas in all this revolt, as Saint Paul recommended, where is that which is good and truewhich is the source of life and full life, even if it does not come from our own tradition.
The pope talking about Jesus and Buddha
At this point in the conversation, the interviewer makes the following comment: The Pope once spoke as if equating Buddha with Jesus.
“Yes, and make sure you hear the echoes of what he said among those who think that things don’t have to change,” says the Catholic priest. There are people that they think we are some kind of storage for an ancient, immovable truth and unchangeable.
—You should read “Sapiens”, by the Jewish professor Yuval Noah Harari, a very attractive reading book, a review of the emergence of humanity and how everything came about, money, wars, a critical look at human processes. We cannot simply appeal to the past, as if the answers were only anchored in ways of living that will no longer return.
—On the other hand, what does seem important to me is that religions have a kind of treasure trove of intergenerational wisdom that they would have to learn to share so that new generations can feed on them.
Churches have a treasure to offer
—By this I mean, for example, at least in our own tradition, to what the Pope does not stop insisting, that only the return to Jesus can save the Churchthat is, only the return to what is fundamental to the project we opted for.
Organized religions, particularly the Catholic Church, which continues to be the majority in the country, have a treasure to offer and that treasure must be made accessible to new generations.
—And this, only acknowledging the richness that is hidden within the mystery of the life of Jesusof his way of acting, of the way he reacted, his way of defending women, his option for the homeless and the poor, his full mercy, his openness —he points out.
The revolutionary position of Jesus before Judaism
—I’m not so worried about empty temples or the abandonment of religions. I am concerned that Where there is no God, idols end up triumphing”, says Father Lugo Rodríguez.
The priest believes that organized religions, particularly the Catholic Church, which remains the majority in the country, have a treasure to offer and that treasure has to be made accessible to new generations.
—And I’m not just referring to a question of forms. Yes, we have to change languages and achieve a different approach to writing, so that it stops being used to discriminate, as is sometimes done on many occasions.
—This is not only a matter of languages, but also of moving from place to place. In this sense, it seems to me that the Master of Nazareth, Jesus, was absolutely ahead of his time, he glimpsed, for example in the parable of the Good Samaritanwhere was the key?
The key to the parable of the Good Samaritan
—In the parable, the representatives of organized religion, the priest and the Levite, pass in front of the brother lying on the road. The parable does not say why they did it. He is not demonizing religion. He is not saying that they were evil, the parable is very brief, he only says that they did not stop.
—Actually, the contribution of the parable is the third character, the Samaritan, who is the example of those who do not want anything with religion. The Samaritans had that characteristic, they did not go to the temple in Jerusalem, they were against the priestly caste, etc. And yet, he is the one who stops.
—The Samaritan does not stop there because he is against the others. Maybe he didn’t even know what the others had passed. He stops for a simple reason, her insides shake when she sees that man lying on the road and says “this is not right (…) I pass by here every day, it could happen to me”.
-Then stops to help him. He doesn’t ask who you are, it doesn’t tell you what party you belong to or what religion you are. He simply sees that he is in need, puts him on his horse, cures him with oil and wine, takes him to the inn, pays a part and says “if something is needed, I will pay when I return”.
-I think this parable hits the nail on the head in this discussion of spirituality and religion. The fundamental message of the parable is: what opens access to God is not necessarily religious practice, what opens access to God is the compassionate heart. Whoever has a compassionate heart, when he goes to the Bible, he will understand it; when he goes to church, he will do things right, but not vice versa.
Knowing a lot about the Bible and being a lot in the Church “is not a guarantee”
-He who knows a lot about the Bible and is a lot in the church, does not necessarily have a compassionate heart. That is why I say that the parable is exquisite, he is answering the question of who is my neighbor?
—God’s commandment is to love your neighbor. And the Pharisees said “You see, the commandment does not say that you love everyone, it says that you love your neighbor. Therefore, only those who are close. That is what God commands”, they said.
—Getting stuck in the letter of the law, interpreting it in its details, turns it into a weapon of death and not of life. Jesus says that instead of wondering who your neighbor is, see that the neighbor is anyone, the neighbor does not depend on the other, but on you. You are the one who approaches, you are the one who approaches.
—Jesus’ wager is that you have to become a neighbor, have compassion. These kinds of teachings from Jesus would be absolutely welcome by the new generations, but we, the organized religions, have to have our own conversion process.
Where there is no God, idols end up triumphing
—We have moved a long way from that message, we are bordering on the terrain of irrelevance. I am not so concerned about empty temples or the abandonment of religions.
—I am concerned that Where there is no God, idols end up triumphing, where there is no loving relationship with the source of life, which is the Father and a fraternal experience, then the strongest ends up ruling, the one who can prevail ends up triumphing. That does scare me a bit.
—I am getting older, I am going to be 65 years old, I realize that there is little time left, relatively speaking.
I see that the task that the Church has to undertake is very great because it has to make its announcement relevant again and for that you have to remove the pile of rubble, of cobwebsof things that have adhered over the centuries.
“We have to learn to look with new eyes,” says Father Raúl with conviction and a luminous gaze during the talk he gave to the Daily in the inner courtyard of the Candelaria church, in the heart of Mérida.
Among other things, Father Raúl Lugo warns of a risk in the institutionalization of religions.
He points out that when it ceases to be a human movement and becomes a structure, something of the essence is lost.
-Of course, we must not forget to consider the other side of the medal, no movement remains without a certain degree of institutionalization, because then it becomes a thing that is blown away.
By Luis Alberto de Jesus Luna Cetina
Treasures to share: A look at the lights and shadows of religions