Double Standards and Deeper Spirituality

 

When I was a child I used to go to church with my family and learn all about the Holy Spirit. Then I’d go right back to school on Monday and live my usual petty, self-involved and mean-spirited life.  There was no problem with this – that’s what everyone seemed to do and I’d just as well get on with it.

When I grew a little older I found myself applying a few rather unpleasant descriptors to this double standard of Jesus on Sundays only. I used to think it was hypocrisy, and of the foulest kind. This allowed me to feel above it all, and less hypocritical myself.

As I went through my life I began to alter my views. I began to think of this Sunday Holiness as what Marx had once called “the lie in the soul” – a lie so deep that we actually believe it. The problem then was indoctrination, I thought, and the solution was to fight against the social indoctrination I perceived as so pernicious. And so I fought.

These days I see things differently. What seems clear now is that this double standard is what every human being faces. It’s not enough to decry it or complain about it. The reason is that we live in a world that is hinged on dualism.  We are spiritual beings who are here having a human experience. This means that we cannot be fully unified with the spiritual world simply because we’re here, on earth. The whole point is to be in dualism, and to deal with that as best we can from our limited ability to grasp unity.

The double standard of Sundays which was for so long so distressing to me, is really not something to be angry about. It is instead to be seen as a dramatic re-enaction. Each Sunday or Sabbath or Holy Day we remind ourselves not simply that we have to pay attention to what is eternal on that day – we remind ourselves that because we are human we find it very difficult to stay in the place of holiness for long. We can manage it, if we’re lucky, about one day a week.

Once we accept this we can start to work towards a deeper spirituality.